Exploding Topics - ET: March 23rd 2021

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Hey,

Here’s this week’s list of rapidly trending topics, insights and analysis.

Topic #1

Cocktail Smoker

Searches for “cocktail smoker” are up 4.7x over the last 5 years.

What is it?

A cocktail smoker is a device for injecting smoke into cocktail drinks.

Specifically, the device burns wood chips, which pipes smoke through to a glass box. This gives the drink inside a strong smoky flavor.

The first iterations of this product were designed for pro mixologists. But a variety of no-frills cocktail smokers have recently launched on Amazon. Including a best-seller that generates an estimated $97.4K in monthly gross revenue.

What's next:
Cocktail smokers are part of the Physical Product Long Tail meta trend. We’re seeing a growing number of long tail DTC products hit the market. Other examples of this trend include custom keycaps, galaxy projectors, portable ovens, mom jeans, and blue light glasses.

Topic #2

Buy Me a Coffee

Buy Me a Coffee is a monetization platform for content creators.

As a competitor to Patreon, content creators can use Buy Me a Coffee to set up perk-based subscription memberships, sell digital products, or simply ask audiences for tips.

The YC graduate reports that over 200K creators currently use the platform. And that they’ve processed transactions from “millions” of supporters to date.

What's next:
Buy Me a Coffee is part of the “creators monetizing themselves” meta trend.

50 million people now consider themselves full-time or part-time creators.

Which is why a growing number of startups are launching creator-focused monetization platforms. In fact, Clubhouse has announced that their first foray into monetization will be a creator crowdfunding model.

Other examples of this trend include SuperPeer, OnlyFans, Gumroad, Substack, and Streamlabs.

Topic #3

Virtual Event Platform

A virtual event platform is like Zoom for conferences.

In other words, it’s a platform for streaming live talks, roundtable discussions, company news, and performances to a large audience.

Unlike social media streaming solutions (like Twitch and Facebook Live), virtual event platforms typically have conference-focused features, like user permissions, Q&A sessions, and extra layers of security.

According to the PCMA, 70% of scheduled conferences and offline events moved online in 2020. Which has led to booming interest in software designed for running online conferences and events.

What's next:
The virtual events space is currently worth $77.9B. And Grand View Research estimates that this space will grow at a 23.2% CAGR between now and 2027.

Examples of startups riding this wave include:

Livestorm: Browser-based video meeting platform. Revenue has increased 8x since 2019. Which led to them raising a $30M Series B in November.

Panopto: Virtual event platform geared towards university and enterprise clients. The company reports that professors have recorded 100 million minutes of lectures on their platform (516% more than the previous year). Panopto has raised $50.9M from Sterling Partners and others.

Restream: Video streaming platform for simultaneous streaming to multiple social networks. After an announced partnership with LinkedIn, Restream is also starting to branch out into virtual events. Raised a $50M Series A in August.

Topic #4

Truvani

Searches for this startup have increased by 2.3x since we first covered it back in July.

So we thought we’d take another look at this exploding topic.

Truvani is a supplement brand co-founded by influencers Vani Hari and Derek Halpern.

Hari and Halpern got early traction by tapping into their sizable social media audiences.

(This is essentially a lightweight version of what Kylie Jenner used to launch Kylie Cosmetics, which brings in an estimated $360M per year.)

Also, the startup tends to focus on products in trending supplement categories. So instead of whey protein and multivitamins, Truvai launched with only a handful of products in fast-growing segments, like pea protein and marine collagen. Today, three years after launching, the company still only has 30 SKUs.

What's next:
Truvani is part of the Influencer Brand meta trend. More and more influencers are replacing influencer marketing deals with their own products. Other examples of this meta trend include Huda, Dragun Beauty and Candy Kittens.

“This is going to be a game changer”

In this week’s Exploding Topics Pro report we shared a meta trend that’s poised to disrupt several different industries over the next 18-36 months.

(Including biotech and CPG.)

In fact, startups in this emerging space are already seeing early traction, like this San Diego-based company:

Or this Australian startup with 318% search growth:

The interesting part is that this under-the-radar industry hasn't even started in earnest. Most startups in the space are seed or pre-seed. And many haven’t come to market yet.

If you want to learn about this meta trend — and how to take advantage — try Exploding Topics Pro today.

Try Exploding Topics Pro

We hope you enjoyed this week's Exploding Topics Tuesday. See you next week.

Talk Soon,
Brian and Josh

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Exploding Topics - ET: March 23rd 2021

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