The livestream shopping craze continues.
Los Angeles-based Whatnot, an ecommerce app for collectibles and card games, has raised a $20 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz's Connie Chan.
Whatnot's platform — like other livestream apps on the market — allows sellers to demo products and make sales online. The company specializes in collectibles like Pokemon cards and Funko Pops, and uses real-time video to "capture the excitement of the in-person collector experience," Whatnot said in a press release.
How many streaming services is the average customer willing to pay for? It's a question that's top of mind today, as Paramount Plus debuts. The new service from parent company ViacomCBS is the latest entrant into the streaming wars, which has seen five premier platforms launch over the last 16 months (six if you count short-lived Quibi).
Although Paramount Plus is relatively late to the game, it is coming in with guns ablaze, offering a huge library of shows and films. While Netflix is firmly entrenched as the leader of the pack and Disney has settled in comfortably behind, the next slot remains up for grabs.
Yet all the choice that has accompanied the great unbundling of cable can be a dizzying challenge for consumers looking to get their content fix. The table below consolidates the biggest players in this melee; and while the list of 10 is more than enough to satiate any appetite for years to come, it doesn't even include the dozens of niche services that are also angling for a toehold in the scorching hot battle for viewers' attention.
Culver City-based Maestro, a platform used by pop star Billie Eilish and other entertainers to stream their performances, has landed $15 million in a Series B round.
It was backed by industry heavyweights from Sony Music Entertainment to Twitch's co-founder Kevin Lin, who are eying digital concerts and live streamed shopping as future revenue hot spots.