The COVID-19 pandemic has brought not only a considerable loss of human life but also an avalanche of economic hardships upon the world. The pandemic, subsequent lockdown, and strict social distancing measures have only worsened the prospects for industries across every sector. The media industry is one of those affected most by this unprecedented lockdown.
Media consumption (especially the ones which require social gathering) has plummeted throughout the lockdown period. Precisely, there has been more of a realignment in the consumption models than just a dip. Even after this, there are segments within the industry that experienced exponential growth, and those are, namely, the OTTs, video gaming, television, and digital platforms. On the flip side, the outdoor consumption models such as live events, concerts, films, and theatres have to countenance a difficult time owing to the stringent lockdown and social distancing measures.
The Silver Lining
Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator for experimental projects, have come with a solution for artists, who have been missing out on revenues due to the curfew on outdoor events. They named the solution – Fundo (No, it has nothing to do with the slang we use in Mumbai). It is a platform that allows artists to host paid and ticketed virtual events. Having cleared all tests, Google has now declared the platform open for everyone.
One Platform Solution!
The platform is designed and developed for creators who thrive on live and interactive sessions with their audience. These online events will be through the face-to-face live mirror-like windows all from the comfort of your home and on a phone or computer.
Google understood virtual events could be complex, especially when it comes to handling the tickets, processing payments, and regular communication. Thus, they developed an end-to-end platform in ‘Fundo’. The event hosts and audience can manage everything within the same Fundo platform, with no additional applications or software installation required.
What’s in it for the Fans and Creators?
Fundo offers customized experiences for the creators and the audience alike. Fundo supports the creators and offers them a platform as a new monetization route. The creators can schedule an event at a particular time or request a suitable time from their audience. On the other hand, fans can check out all the events happening on their Fundo home page.
They can select an event, answer a few questions, book the ticket and Fundo will send a link, which they can access on the event date and time. Just like any other event, Fundo provides absolute security by checking all the tickets before providing access, so no tailgating or uninvited guests. At present, the platform only allows for 30 users to be on the screen at a time.
The past few months have seen many of our activities go virtual, and Fundo couldn’t have arrived at a less opportune time. Area 120 insists they didn’t develop Fundo sighting COVID-19 pandemic as the reason but to make online experiences more fun and meaningful. They have also ensured that the virtual event hosting is not just limited to YouTubers, even authors, gym and yoga instructors, business consultants, and many others are using Fundo as a new medium to connect to their clients.
