Last month, Food Network personality Giada De Laurentiis made an elaborate salad from her new cookbook in front of 14,500 viewers of talkshoplive. She's one of many celebrities the livestream ecommerce site has featured; Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton and actor Matthew McConaughey have also used the site recently to pitch their memoirs, music and cosmetic lines.
A cross between Instagram live and QVC, the online streaming network has also attracted some big brand names — from Best Buy to Fred Segal.
The company closed a $3 million seed round on Tuesday led by Spero Ventures, a Redwood City firm backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
<p>Founded in 2018 by siblings Bryan and Tina Moore, the platform sets up real-time product demos and handles transactions and shipping for over 3,500 small businesses and a slew of big brands. Customers can live chat with sellers and order items with a one-click purchase button displayed on the video interface.</p><p>"Storefronts across America are closing," said Bryan, the company's CEO and a former social media director at 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television) and CBS. "We've seen small businesses impacted by COVID make more money and pay less overhead by having their digital storefront on talkshoplive."</p><p>His company joins a handful of venture-backed livestream startups gaining steam in the market. L.A.-based <a href="https://dot.la/startups-in-los-angeles-2649633594/scopely-3-3-billion" target="_blank">Popshop Live was recently valued at $100 million </a>after closing a dramatic round. </p><p>Bryan and his Hollywood connections set talkshoplive apart. Garth Brooks' first livestream on the platform in 2019 helped the singer sell 420,000 vinyl records to customers watching across different websites. </p><p>Then there's the long roster of celebrities who promote their own products from books to makeup. Alicia Keys, Julie Andrews, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Tim McGraw — to name a few. </p><p>Unlike competitors, talkshoplive doesn't require users to download an app. The network posts each livestream on its own website and lets partner businesses embed the videos directly into their sites. </p><p>"I come from the world of social media," Bryan said "Every time you ask them to click through these links, you lose about 50% of your traffic. I thought, 'how do we make the best experience for customers and also convert more sales?'" </p><p>Talkshoplive takes a bit over 10% of every sale made through their livestreams. The CEO could not disclose figures on active users or total sales generated through the site. </p>
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The legendary broadcaster Larry King died Saturday in Los Angeles at 87 after being hospitalized for COVID-19. He may best be remembered as the longtime host of CNN who interviewed the most notable personalities of the 20th century, including Vladimir Putin and Frank Sinatra, but he also worked tirelessly to build a bridge for the next generation.
<p>I spoke with King when the pandemic first hit the U.S. last January. He had fallen and needed to cancel his appearance at CES, the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, where he was scheduled to speak with TikTok influencer Josh Richards about a blockchain app to combat climate change. It was about as Gen Z as it could get.</p>
<p>"The young will inherit the world," he said by phone as I stood backstage with his 21-year-old son, Chance King. Rather than cancel our in-person interview, he was only too happy to talk from home. Effusive in his love and admiration for his child, he said "My day is gone, but Chance is tomorrow."</p>
<p>With Chance as executive producer, King was making his first foray into podcasting. His show, "<a href="https://4forty4media.com/larry-king-podcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Millionth Question</a>," would feature celebrities discussing pressing issues of the day. In May, it was picked up by 4Forty4 Media for $5 million, according to <a href="https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/larry-king-podcast-5-million-celebrity-interview-1234614219/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Variety</a>. <br/><br/>Despite having had a near-fatal stroke which put him into a coma in March 2019, the veteran journalist showed no signs of slowing down. He told <a href="https://people.com/tv/larry-king-opens-up-about-his-near-fatal-stroke/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">People</a> that it was Chance that kept him going. <br/></p><p>"My dad has interviewed thousands of world leaders, athletes and celebrities," Chance told me. "We're doing this podcast because so many kids do not know who he is. With podcasts revolutionizing journalism, we want to touch as many lives as possible. "</p>
<p>King started in radio in 1957 during the era of black-and-white TV with cable and consumer internet still decades away. Over the course of his storied career which included 30 years with "CNN's Larry King Live," he witnessed the evolution of technology.</p>
<p>"The whole thing excites me," he said. "We weren't talking about Bitcoin even two years ago and now it's part of the culture. Everything is moving so fast. I think it's safe to predict that Bitcoin will become a major part of our economic engine." </p>
<p>But for all his optimism, King had grave concerns about where humanity was heading. "Climate change is the biggest issue facing the world today," he said, expressing hope that Gen Z's passion around preserving the planet would spur innovation that would lead to a more promising future.</p>
<p>Even with 2.4 million Twitter followers, King had no plans to do more on social media. "I'm 86 years old," he said with a laugh. "I'm lucky to be walking!"</p>
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In 2012, Evan Britton founded a website premised upon what the web arguably does best: help people obsess over celebrities.
Britton launched his first site in 1999 as a senior in college and has since made his living monetizing web clicks.
When he created Famous Birthdays as a sort of Wikipedia of celebrities nine years ago, TikTok wasn't even born and Snap had barely launched. The term "influencers" had yet to seep into the mainstream. But as social media created a new form of celebrity, the site has morphed into a pillar of the teen-centric world of online personalities and creators.
<p>
This month the company said it will surpass 35 million unique monthly visitors across its app and website. Third-party data providers, which use various methods to estimate web traffic, peg that figure anywhere between 4-6 million (Comscore) and 29 million (Similar Web). Many of those users are teens who use the site to browse celebrity profiles, contribute to popularity rankings and see who's trending.
</p><p>
"It's a pulse of the Gen Z community," said Talia Kocar, VP of Content at Mammoth Media, a Gen Z-focused mobile entertainment studio.
</p><p>
And as that community has expanded and entrenched its online presence, Famous Birthdays has ridden the wave. Britton's profitable website makes money from billions of programmatic ads that are generated from places like Google and Amazon and it has become a useful resource for the growing industry of monetizing online celebrity.
</p><p>
In April it will launch its third international off-shoot in French, joining Spanish and Portuguese, as the company anticipates the spread of influencer fever beyond America.
</p><p>
"Famous Birthdays is essentially the Wikipedia of influencers," said Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential, a leading influencer marketing firm. "It has become a very valuable tool within the influencer industry to do quick research on creators and it's also very popular with young fans. They have found a unique niche in the fact that influencers are the new celebrities for Gen Z."
</p><p>
Britton hadn't originally intended on serving that niche. He'd started <a href="https://www.famousbirthdays.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Famous Birthdays</a> with A-listers in mind and a user-first focus on growth. The plan was to add new profiles to the database based on users' search patterns.
</p><p>
"The internal search data guides our roadmap," he said. About 90% of user searches on Famous Birthdays yield a hit. The other 10% help to indicate what else users want.
</p><p>
"We built technology around analyzing those missed searches," Britton said, adding that Famous Birthdays' search engine now receives over 1 million inquiries a day. "It lets us know before anyone else what's happening."
</p><p>
Early on, it became apparent that users wanted something more than A-listers.
</p><p>
They wanted social media celebrities. So Britton and his now team of 30, including freelancers, took to reaching out to up-and-comers that the data suggested were on the rise.
</p><p>
In late 2018, for instance, Famous Birthdays contacted Paige Mackenzie, an Arkansas-based teen who at the time had about 600,000 followers on still-nascent TikTok.
</p><p>
"I was like 'oh my god'; I had a fangirl moment," Mackenzie said. "I was a normal girl with a couple of followers, and they want to know about me? That was the coolest thing."</p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><script id="infogram_0_bde6b6e3-9f0b-4097-92ae-015bb30b0f6f" src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed.js?rFs" title="Famous Birthdays Growth" type="text/javascript"> </script><div style="padding:8px 0;font-family:Arial!important;font-size:13px!important;line-height:15px!important;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #dadada;margin:0 30px">
<a href="https://infogram.com/bde6b6e3-9f0b-4097-92ae-015bb30b0f6f" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank">Famous Birthdays Growth</a><br/>
<a href="https://infogram.com" rel="nofollow" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank">Infogram</a>
</div></div><p>Mackenzie has since grown her TikTok following to 7.5 million. She typically regales her fans with comedic videos she describes as "relatable," like when "your brother annoys your mom right when you're about to ask something important."</p><p>
When Mackenzie was added to the platform, Famous Birthdays had about 20 million users. That has since exploded beyond Britton's imagination.</p><p><span></span>"The platform has evolved quite a bit over the years – much like how Gen Z's (and my) definition of a celebrity has," said Kocar, who added that Mammoth "constantly references" Famous Birthdays to inform its content decisions.</p>
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@willywonkatiktok/video/6849877838120701189" data-video-id="6849877838120701189" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@willywonkatiktok" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@willywonkatiktok">@willywonkatiktok</a> <p>Thanks for making this happen :) Go boost me if ya want <a title="willywonka" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/willywonka">#willywonka</a> <a title="famousbirthdays" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/famousbirthdays">#famousbirthdays</a></p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Greg and Zach" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6795947928369335045">♬ original sound - Greg and Zach</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
<p>"TikTok has been a wave that's really grown our platform," Britton said, noting that stars on the social-video stalwart are his site's most popular searches. "There's been a huge momentum for the creator economy and we've been on that wave because we were seated as the platform beneath all of that."</p><p>That momentum has led Britton to recalibrate his expectations.</p><p>"Six months ago, I would have thought our ceiling was maybe 50 million users, but I think we're gonna be there by the end of next year, based on how things are going," he said.</p><p>The company's <a href="https://es.famousbirthdays.com/" target="_blank">Spanish-language version</a> launched in July 2019 and now comprises about 15% of Famous Birthdays' total traffic, Britton said. The <a href="https://pt.famousbirthdays.com/" target="_blank">Portuguese version</a> launched in October 2020 and the French version will launch in April 2021.</p><p><span></span>Britton hopes to replicate his platform's success in those new markets. In the U.S., arriving on Famous Birthdays has come to be seen by creators as a veritable badge of honor.</p><p>When Duke Depp was invited to bring his online persona Willy Wonka to Famous Birthdays in July, he bragged about it to his nearly 18 million followers.</p><p>"Check it out my dear children, I finally made it on Famous Birthdays," he said. The post has since been liked over 412,000 times and received over 4,000 comments.</p><p>In September, Grandad Frank told his nearly 5 million TikTok followers that "Something crazy happened!!!!" He'd made it onto Famous Birthdays.<br></p>
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@billyvsco/video/6864718524619738373" data-video-id="6864718524619738373" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@billyvsco" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@billyvsco">@billyvsco</a> <p><a title="greenscreen" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/greenscreen">#greenscreen</a> thank you guys! Number 1 forty-7 year old. Y’all are awesome! <a title="waitforthegreats" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/waitforthegreats">#WaitForTheGreats</a> <a title="boost" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/boost">#boost</a> <a title="famousbirthdays" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/famousbirthdays">#famousbirthdays</a> <a title="foru" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/foru">#foru</a></p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ borderline by tame impala - audioz !" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/borderline-by-tame-impala-6815764995805121285">♬ borderline by tame impala - audioz !</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
<p>Famous Birthdays currently hosts around 210,000 profiles, along with some 15,000 pages for shows, movies, bands and web groups. The team receives over 1,000 user-submitted edits and updates per day, Britton said, which they manually review and verify.<br></p><p>Using inputs like search volume and user engagement, Famous Birthdays also provides several popularity rankings.</p><p>The company has never raised outside capital and doesn't plan to start.</p><p>"Our vision is to build the Wikipedia for the Digital Generation," said Britton. "Given the scale we already have, we're confident that we'll be able to do it without raising VC."</p>
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