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5 Companies That Made Media Consumption Smarter This Year

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Our media consumption habits have changed dramatically with the rise in mobile device usage. For the first time ever, people are spending more time consuming media on smartphones and tablets than on computers. While time spent on PCs has declined in 2013, average daily media consumption on mobile devices has increased from one hour and 33 minutes in 2012 to over two hours in 2013.

As a result of wildly increasing demand, media consumption is becoming more multi-dimensional, multi-platform and multi-channel.  In such a complex and fragmented ecosystem, sophisticated solutions are needed to meet our ever-evolving media consumption habits. Below are five companies that have made media consumption smarter in 2013:

1. Thinglink - Images

Thinglink is an image engagement platform that lets publishers and brands create and discover rich, interactive images to be shared across the web and on social networks. Images can be tagged to include embedded links, videos, images and annotations for richer image consumption. Thinglink also offers social features including the option to fully embed interactive images in a Twitter feed. To date, 130,000 publishers are using the platform including Nike, Adidas , Vogue, Xerox , Home Depot , Washington Post and Mercedes-Benz . With multiple engagement points, Thinglink images offer a highly interactive experience, which increases click rates on average from 0.4 percent to 16 percent.

2. Soundwave - Music

Soundwave is a music discovery app that tracks your listening habits along with those of friends and social media followers to help you discover new music. The app tracks listening habits on the phone’s native player as well as streaming services like Spotify and Rdio. Soundwave plans to offer an external API enabling everyone from music labels, radio stations and bands to integrate with the app to offer real-time charts based on what people are listening to. Not only does Soundwave has potential to impact the music industry by providing unique insight into listening habits and has been endorsed by Stephen Fry and Steve Wozniak.

3. Kaltura - Video

Kaltura is the first open source video platform, which allows publishers and content owners to publish, manage and monetize video content. The company released several cutting edge products this year, including a native mobile app and a Netflix-like video portal that allows content owners to publish and monetize across multiple screens via subscription or advertising revenue. Kaltura, which has been integrated by hundreds of thousands of clients including Groupon, HBO and Bank of America, was recently named by EContent Magazine as one of the 100 companies most important to the digital content industry.

4. Circa - News

Circa delivers daily bite-sized news updates and notifications based on what a reader deems interesting, in an effort to make it easier for readers to stay updated on the stories that matter most to them without being inundated with miscellaneous news. Circa positions itself as a mobile newswire, which plans to reinvent how we consume breaking news. True to this vision, Circa recently appointed Reuters' Social Media Editor, Anthony De Rosa, as Editor in Chief and hopes to soon feature original reporting by the Circa team.

5. eFamily - Social 

eFamily is a family-focused social network which provides a closed forum designed specifically for parents and family members to share precious moments. Each family receives a private website and mobile app where they can share photos, videos, compile a family blog and even build a family tree. Unlike other social networks, eFamily provides a safe, secure and private way to share family moments with those who matter most. eFamily is currently bringing this unique, closed social network to over 30,000 families.