vPaaS ‘Unlikely’ to Drive Meet Group Revenue, Argues Analysis

White Diamond Research, publishing in Seeking Alpha, has argued that providing video products as a service (vPaaS) is unlikely to benefit The Meet Group (MEET) in the long term.

The social entertainment firm, parent to brands including Skout, Tagged and MeetMe, brought in vPaaS to enable it to work with third party social networks in ways other than by making acquisitions.

CEO Geoff Cook explained in a Q3 statement that the end of 2019 would be dedicated to testing the new functionality. The Meet Group has pushed back video integration for Growlr in order to prioritise vPaaS rollout. 

The Seeking Alpha analysis reads: “Live streaming isn’t complicated technology, it’s what Facebook and YouTube and some other social media sites have. Most of it is stupid content, like girls dancing in a club or eating snacks.

“The whole excitement about MEET’s video streaming is being able to have the network effect, i.e. Youtube has a billion videos and viewers. The network effect is what makes it valuable, not the code that drives the technology. 

“However, MEET has low user count and thus no network effect. It’s not about the IP (intellectual property), and MEET doesn’t have any IP in regards to its technology.”

The piece goes on to outline The Meet Group’s partnership with Match Group, which is in the process of introducing streaming to brands including POF.

It notes that if the product changes prove successful for the market leader, it may look to develop its own tech stack and avoid sharing any revenues.

At the time of writing, The Meet Group is trading at $5.10, giving the group a market cap of $365 million.

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