Though while you can argue that the tool is becoming less and less important (after all it is easy to build a site to display data), i think the current trend puts a healthy pressure on companies using SaaS as a delivery method to really master the art of 1-converting raw data into useful actionable information for their end users (for booking sites, there is no point of having thousands of hotels in your db if you can’t correctly recommend the right ones to your end users), 2-data mining the raw data to roadmap new features of their platform (the case of google analytics… but while google analytics provide great transparency into your end users behaviours, there is still quite a step to figure out how to use this data…).

As Gordon puts it at the end of the audio, valuation is less about the tool value and more about the services value and I agree with this that companies understand who to create a service from raw data will continue leading.

Apps are becoming commodities. Relevant information is what makes people smarter/better, and there lies the value.

It’s true in the consumer world, and it’s becoming true in the business/corporate world.

Your larger point about multimedia content is a good one too. We’re all primarily print guys, so please bear with us as we figure out the best ways to incorporate all this other stuff.