One of the biggest trends of the past year is the growth of social TV platforms around the globe. Not surprisingly TV is a mass medium that’s become a staple of communications in most nations. Now Lost Remote has learned exclusively that social TV startup and second screen app yap.tv is announcing the global launch of their app in twenty countries and five languages.
We learned about the global growth of social TV through the Olympics and the many startups that are emerging in Australia, Turkey, Germany and more. Now yap.tv is partnering with Rovi and TMS to make the growth of their platform around the world possible. Users spanning at least three continents will be able to use yap.TV.
On the business side, they’re also continuing to white label their platform while they grow their consumer-facing product around the globe. This is a smart, expensive and technically tricky move, but with competition heating up it’s definitely a good way to distinguish themselves and grow social TV. We spoke with CMO and Cofounder Shawn Patrick about the launch.
Lost Remote: How long did it take to ink these partnerships?
Shawn Patrick: We partnered with both Rovi and TMS to get the best worldwide data set possible. We were the first to partner with a guide data company, TMS back in 2010 to create the first social TV guide, and have added Rovi last year and have since been working to map worldwide TV show guide data to Facebook and Twitter. We are also working locally with data providers to fill in missing countries. More countries are on the way!
LR: Which countries and why?
Patrick: TV is a worldwide phenomenon, and consumption of TV related content comes to us from every country around the globe (save 2, in Africa), so we realized there was an opportunity to be the first worldwide TV guide where people from around the world could socialize locally around content, or share that experience with TV fans globally. The first major push includes 20 countries across Europe, LatAm, Canada, and more. We have more on the way, and are on the warpath to extend the service to every TV fan worldwide.
LR: How is social TV different in some of these markets?
Patrick: There is more in common than there are differences. The reality is, is that this is water cooler conversation. People love “their” content interests, love to talk about it, love to share it, but especially like to do that in their own language! 🙂 yap.TV is going to great lengths to make this a local experience, that can be global in scope.
LR: Any updates to the app? How will this help you get ahead of competitors?
Patrick: We have wired every TV show worldwide to the yap.TV guide, which means you can get your own Facebook TV feed, powered by your Facebook TV likes, Twitter feeds, media, and of course plan your TV shows using our visual guide. When you log in with Facebook, we a) import your TV likes b) create a Favorites schedule around your likes c) import all of your friends TV likes so you can compare what you have in common d) create a main TV feed across all your shows e) create specific show TV feeds f) power the media viewer with all relevant media from FB e) enable you to see Facebook friends online and strike up a chat with them between platforms.
LR: Still going to be white labeling?
Patrick: yap.TV is fast becoming the world’s first social TV guide for consumers, but also the best platform for distributors and or emerging OTT/IPTV interests worldwide. We are in many discussions at the moment around the globe, more to tell here soon.