Commentary

Gates-Backed Startup Personalizes Individual Recommendations, Apps To TV

Advertisers talk about customization, but few deliver on the promise. Likewise, a startup backed by Bill Gates, figured out how to truly customize newsletters and app content to the individual that feeds into connected devices such as TVs.

“I don't know any other newsletter that delivers millions of newsletters, each one unique, because I’m seeing different recommendations than you,” said Likewise CEO Ian Morris.

Morris said Gates is passionate about the company's vision to provide each consumer with their own personal entertainment companion.

Through custom recommendations, Likewise grew its newsletter subscriptions 300% in the past 12 months, driven by the launch and integration of Pix, the company's AI-powered personal entertainment companion.

Morris said the company will continue to build out out automation and connected content discovery across devices. If someone recommends a movie while out to lunch with friends, he simply takes out his mobile phone and sends a text to Pix as a reminder to watch the movie. The app adds it to a watch list, and serve up the next time he turns on Apple TV. No searches are required, he said, but the option is available.

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“Our vision is to make this a seamless experience to find and share entertainment,” he said.

Likewise supports connections to television through several TV apps, such as Apple TV, Google TV, and Amazon Firestick.

Brand safety also is a consideration to protect where ads serve up.

Advertising based on a CPM ad model for the newsletter and content are built on the consumer's likes and dislikes. AI models and a virtual assistant through its app support recommendations across mobile, television, PCs, and other devices.

Morris, along with Microsoft alumni Larry Cohen, and Michael Dix, founded the company.

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