Fountain - Podcasting 2.0
Understanding Value Proposition and Competitors
SUMMARY
Objective
This Report
The aim of this particular research is to understand the value proposition of Fountain’s Podcasting 2.0 mobile app. We analyse user needs and how the current product offering serves those needs. We compare Fountain to other podcasting apps (namely Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict).
General
We want to keep our reports understandable for everyone. We hope ‘Maps of Lighting’ can provide particular value to:
UX Designers and Researchers
Product Builders
Investors
Future Bitcoin Founders
tl;dr
Fountain is like a fresh breeze in the podcasting space. Looking at the most used podcasting apps (Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Podcast Addict) and doing a comparative analysis showed clearly that, while technically sound, there is an utter lack of innovation in the average podcasting app.
Fountain adds a social layer to podcasting which enables listeners to actively engage with the content. This happens through comments, payments and clips. The most natural way to share something you learned on a podcast is obviously an ‘audio clipping’, which Fountain uniquely offers.
If the Fountain app can get some of the more basic performance elements on par with their competitors we see those added unique functionalities as great differentiators.
Strategical observations
Podcasting activity is growing at an annual rate of around 37% (src). A great tailwind for players in the space. The competition has arguably unfair advantages (e.g. with Apple Podcasts being pre-installed).
But through integrated payments using Lightning and Bitcoin Fountain achieves two strategic benefits that are important to highlight:
Native monetisation option, which allows the app to not rely on advertisement
Motivated podcasters that actively promote using Fountain in order to support the show
Introduction to Fountain
Fountain (src) is a mobile podcasting application available for both iOS and Android. Apart from searching and listening to podcasts it allows users to share clips. Clips are short segments of a podcast the user can cut inside the app. This allows for sharing of particularly interesting/funny parts of long form conversations. Fountain also enables integrated payments. Using the Lighting Network users can pay the content publisher (podcaster) directly in-app.
Get the full report as PDF
In the full report we cover next:
who is the user?
which user needs does Fountain solve?
how does Fountain stack up against the competition?