Web64’s founder, Olav Hjertaker, has a clear idea of what he and his team want to accomplish: making the Google Analytics for society and the Spotify for content, to help people make more informed decisions. Web64 is one of the startups of the MME programme, addressing the challenge “Facilitating transition to a data-driven media industry 4.0”, and Olav tells us how the journey is going.
Tell us about your deeptech solution. Which media challenge does it tackle and why is this important?
Our goal is to understand the world through data, so Web64 collects everything published publicly online in a country, measuring shares in social media networks to find what content is trending, and using AI to extract metadata and find connections between different types of content.
With this dataset, we provide tools for journalists, media analysts, fact-checkers, researchers, and political advisers to gain insights into what content is consumed, who is publishing it, where it is being shared, and how this changes over time. By monitoring the public opinion on topics such as immigration we can track the rise of the public sentiment on these topics over time, which has proved interesting for researchers who have published several articles based on our dataset.
What is unique about your solution? What sets it apart from the competition?
We provide analytics on a per-country level, allowing you to see in real-time what news stories and topics are engaging the public, how the media landscape is changing over time, and get detailed statistics for hundreds of sites in the country.
Can you shed some light on Web64’s journey so far? What have been its biggest milestones? What challenges are you trying to overcome?
As a bootstrapped company it was essential to launch the MVP early and get paying customers to fund the development of more advanced products. This forced us to release early and by doing so we got early feedback from users that shaped the development of the products. It was initially developed as a tool for journalists but talking to the people who used the products we discovered new opportunities in other sectors.
The biggest milestones are seeing that our dataset provides valuable insights for researchers and fact-checking organizations and that our tools are frequently being mentioned in the media.
You have been part of MME for a few months now. Can you please elaborate on your progress and how have you evolved during the programme?
Web64 joined MME at a critical time where a lot of things were happening with a re-branding and the launch of new products and services so the feedback and mentorship from MME during this process have come in very useful.
What is next for Web64?
This is an exciting time for Web64, as we are launching a new media monitoring product and a mobile app, widening our product offering and unlocking opportunities in new markets.
What advice would you give to a founder trying to venture in the Media sector?
In today’s world, everyone is a publisher and most companies are publishing content such as articles, videos, podcasts, or social media posts.
This opens up new opportunities outside of the traditional media industry for products and services that were previously only relevant to the media industry.
What would you say to a startup considering applying to MediaMotorEurope?
In addition to excellent mentorship and workshops, MediaMotorEurope also provides a great way to network with other media companies throughout Europe.
It has been great to connect with the other European media startups and we’re looking forward to collaborating with some of them on future projects.
Find out more about Web64 on their website.
