Once the Stars of SXSW, How Have These Technologies Fared Since?

As a music festival entering its 35th season, SXSW has seen the debuts of some of the biggest stars of our time: Katy Perry, John Mayer, The White Stripes and Amy Winehouse all got their major breaks in downtown Austin, Texas. But SXSW was destined from the start to be about more than music. Technology joined the mix in 1994 with the debut of a miraculous thing called the CD-ROM. In the three decades since, SXSW has put more gadgetry on stage than bands. But how many of those aspirants turned into stars? Adweek wandered back through the annals of SXSW and chose five technologies that were revolutionary at the time. Here’s how they turned out. Friendster SXSW debut: 2004 The promise: Friendster went live in 2003, but its seminal moment arrived when founder Jonathan Abrams, having just turned down Google’s $30 million offer to buy him out, delivered the SXSW Interactive Keynote. He described Friendster, which let users interlink profile pages and share content, as “a better way of meeting people online,” promising to revolutionize how people socialized on the web. The reality: When Friendster’s servers struggled with capacity, users defected to other social networking sites. Essentially, MySpace ate Friendster’s lunch—and then Facebook ate MySpace’s. Friendster shut down in 2015, but the networking revolution it started is still very much with us. Siri SXSW debut: 2010 The promise: Thirty-two tech companies made their pitches at SXSW’s Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator in 2010. The winner in the Innovative Web category was an iOS app called Siri, which delivered a hands-free iPhone experience by allowing users to make calls and send messages simply by talking. Siri would essentially make the Star Trek communicator come to life through the iPhone. The reality: Siri delivered. After Apple snapped up Siri for a reported $200 million and built it into the iPhone 4S, Siri began a takeover of daily life that, by 2018, counted half a billion users. Thanks to Siri, the virtual assistant is now an ordinary feature of the American home—though Amazon’s Alexa is now in a quarter of them, too. Groupon SXSW debut: 2011 The promise: When Groupon scooped up the People’s Choice Award at SXSW Interactive, Time magazine called it “the people’s app.” And it's little wonder why. By offering members steep discounts at local merchants (provided enough people took the deal), Groupon, a portmanteau of “group” and “coupon,” promised to be a bargain hunter’s dream. The reality: Groupon went public in 2011 and notched a $16.6 billion valuation on opening day. But growth stalled when problems with its business model became apparent. Groupon scrapped its group activation minimum, but its margin-eroding commissions scared off many retailers. Groupon is not dead, but with Q3 revenues down 30% year over year to $214 million, it’s not the shopping revolution it once looked like. Social location apps SXSW debut: 2012 The promise: What a cool idea: a mobile app that tracks your location and notifies you when other users are nearby. In 2012, social location apps were literally all over SXSW. A partial list included Banjo, Glancee, Intro, Kismet and the darling of the show, Highlight, the latter of which would send a push notification when another user strolled within 50 yards. These apps promised to combine the fun of Facebook with the old-fashioned coffee klatch. The reality: It took awhile for many of us to catch on that GPS-enabled apps can also track your movements to some very personal places, turning everything from medical procedures to extramarital affairs into data points sold to marketers. Privacy issues aside, smartphone users have also awakened to just how easy it is for your app “friends” to use your current location to break into your house, follow your kids—or far worse. A 2019 survey by The Manifest found that close to a third of consumers don’t want anyone knowing where they are. Local Motors SXSW debut: 2015 The promise: Las Vegas upstart Local Motors won best of show at the SXSW Innovation Awards with a far-out proposition. Why keep building cars the way Henry Ford did when you can get a 3D printer to pop one out for you? Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic to create a car on demand, the Strati—a homely but lovable prototype—could bring the cost of a new car down to a few thousand bucks. Imagine. The reality: Local Motors went on to produce the Olli, a miniature shuttle bus that operates on pre-mapped routes with a “fully functional level 3+ autonomous system.” (Read: no driver.) The company uses 3D printing to manufacture Olli’s body, which requires less energy than traditional metal stamping and welding. But with exceptions like legacy parts and prototyping, big auto manufacturers have yet to climb on board with 3D printing, which remains a time-consuming process.