附近上门

It has the feel of a science fiction plot. A young man heads online to look up deals on things he likes.

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Slowly, the tables turn. Now, it鈥檚 the computer that starts telling him what he wants. Buy these pants. Play this song. Eat this pizza. Date this girl. Read news with this political spin鈥�.

Ok, I lied. This isn鈥檛 sci-fi at all. It鈥檚 the current reality. And it鈥檚 the kind of thing venture capitalists seem keen on funding.

An analysis of 附近上门 data shows that global venture funding for personalization and recommendation platforms has surged in recent quarters. Investors are pouring billions into the space, creating a string of newly minted unicorns relying on algorithms to customize music streams, news feeds, and much more.

Exits are also riding high for software-driven tastemakers. Recent ones include Spotify鈥檚 smash IPO, along with China-based news aggregator Qutoutiao, which is poised to go public at a multi-billion-dollar valuation.

附近上门 News takes a look at where the money is going, how it could accelerate, and the changing nature of how we find new things to like.

Getting Personal

Before we go further, let鈥檚 define the personalization category. Essentially, we鈥檙e looking at business models that involve using software to match humans with things they might want to consume. This could be , news, handbags, , , and lots more.1

Personalization isn鈥檛 generally considered a discreet sector. To use a cooking metaphor, it鈥檚 sort of like chicken. It鈥檚 not a cuisine so much as an ingredient you can dress up in almost any culinary style. Likewise, you can add software-driven personalization and recommendations to a wide variety of businesses focused on ecommerce, digital media, food delivery, and so on.

It鈥檚 apparently a useful ingredient for driving up valuations. In the table below, we lay out some of the recent and most significant funding rounds for companies in a range of sectors that are deploying software-driven personalization and recommendation models.

Company	Country	Business	Last Round	Total Known Funding
	China	News aggregator	$2B	$3.1B
	France	Music streaming	$185M	$532M
	India	Restaurant recommendations	$200M	$444M
	Germany	Personalized shopping	$300M	$300M
	U.S.	Software to track consumer intent	$270M	$270M
	U.S.	Personalized health improvement	$75M	$252M
	China	News and entertainment aggregator	$200M	$200M
	China	Computer vision for content marketing	$145M	$170M
	China	News aggregator	$112M	$178M
	U.S.	Apparel recommendations	$55M	$112M
	China	News aggregator	$50M	$50M
	U.S.	Machine-learning personalization	$32M	$77.3M

The list represents more a sampling than a comprehensive dataset, as a significant number of companies incorporate some form of software-driven personalization. We also mostly left out the enormous and heavily funded set of startups that rely on a combination of software and actual humans to deliver recommendations.

As you can see from the selected list above, those securing the largest rounds are a globally diverse bunch. Having a computer tell you what you want is a market niche that transcends national boundaries.

News And Entertainment

Lately, the biggest chunk of funding is going to China-based news and entertainment aggregators.

Six-year-old Toutiao is climbing the unicorn ranks at a remarkable pace. It鈥檚 parent company, Beijing-based Bytedance, has raised over $3 billion to date and is r. With active users in the hundreds of millions, its success stems from the use of machine learning to figure out people鈥檚 interests and offer up content they鈥檒l click on.

At least three other China-based news and entertainment aggregators have raised $50 million or more in fresh funding since last year, including public market-bound Qutoutiao, loosely translated as 鈥渇un headlines.鈥� The company describes its value add as providing technology-based 鈥渃ontent personalization鈥� to help users navigate the exponential growth in online offerings.

And then there鈥檚 iQiyi, the company sometimes called the Netflix of China. It scored one the year鈥檚 largest IPOs, and it was recently trading at around a $21 billion valuation.

Mature Markets For Personalization

For the U.S. market, meanwhile, the companies most closely associated with software-driven personalization have been public for quite some time.

Netflix, now valued at around $160 billion, went public 16 years ago. Google acquired YouTube back in 2006. And Amazon.com has been serving up algorithm-driven suggestions of what to buy for two decades.

Articles on the date back to at least 2002. By now, Americans are pretty used to apps attempting to make our shopping and binge-watching selections. While occasionally creepy, it can also be convenient.

So what鈥檚 next on the personalization horizon? Looking at funded startups, it鈥檚 apparent there鈥檚 an ongoing drive among retailers other than Amazon to take back some market share by offering a more customized shopping experience.

[bctt tweet=”Having a computer tell you what you want is a market niche that transcends national boundaries.” username=”jglasner”]

One startup working in the area is New York-based , which has raised $63 million since last summer to scale a machine learning-based platform used by retailers like Stitch Fix and Urban Outfitters to match shoppers with things to buy. Another is , which has raised over $110 million to work with prominent apparel brands and retailers to match consumers with styles that fit and flatter.

There鈥檚 a lot at stake. Research firm Boston Consulting Group that personalization will push a revenue shift of some $800 billion to the 15 percent of companies that get it right.

That鈥檚 a big number, and it underscores a rapidly changing shift in consumer behavior. Call it the age of the tasteful machine.

Of course, it鈥檚 still possible to cultivate personal style and taste on your own. However, startup entrepreneurs, tech giants, and venture capitalists seem to share a unified vision of software making a much bigger contribution to that effort.

As a result, what was once science fiction is now just becoming the way we shop.

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