May 2nd, 2012



Mobile and Curation vs. Creation

Phin’s latest must-read, “Mobile is the 99%” rightly points out that mobile and touch-devices specifically cater to the experience of the 99% — the people who consume, curate and comment across the web.

Couple that with the news today that a full 1/3 of the visitors to fab.com are on mobile devices and that Instagram has passed 50 million users and you can’t help but see the future of consumption-based businesses over the next 5-10 years.

The impromptu Mechanical Turk survey I put together last week made this even clearer — this idea that people mostly use their mobile devices for short bursts of consumption. The apps that have done the best on mobile so far – reddit, games, photo-related apps, Twitter, all are designed around passive consumption.

In this way perhaps the future of mobile is like the early days of television – just sit back and watch and you’ll be entertained. This idea of curation vs. creation is perplexing because I can’t decide if they are necessarily at odds, though I can’t help but wonder if, because it is hard to be an awesome creator on mobile, does it mean then that we about to enter into a period of hyper-consumption ushered in by our mobile devices? TBD.

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  • http://www.sneakerheadVC.com/ phineasb

    a friend asked me about the ratio (1-9-90) on pinterest and on instagram. I think the better mobile services will shift the 9-90 by increasing the 9 and decreasing the 90, but may also eliminate the 1. does adding a photo on instagram put you into the 1% – i don't think it does. The best experiences will help you consume first, but will also teach you how easy it is to take action, to add your touch to the experience and slowly but surely move you into the role of curator/commenter/contributor.

  • http://amandapeyton.com amanda peyton

    This is super interesting. Calls for perhaps a re-thinking of the core assumptions – simultaneously catering to the consumption experience while also ushering the average user into a more participatory role.

  • http://amandapeyton.com amanda peyton

    This is super interesting. Calls for perhaps a re-thinking of the core assumptions – simultaneously catering to the consumption experience while also ushering the average user into a more participatory role.