Is Audioboom the closest thing to Europe’s dream of securing a spot on the global social media stage?

The global tech and social media stage is such an unfamiliar territory for the Europeans. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, iTunes—all these behemoths are predominantly American.

Now, many think that one European brand had the makings of a future social media giant, one that is unique and significant enough to be part of this exclusive circle.

UK firm Audioboom (LSE:BOOM), which has been in the industry for years now but only gained momentum in 2014, is now showing an astonishing climb to the top spot.

Audioboom is no pastiche of Facebook or Twitter. It’s not about creating networks on the Web or gaining virtual friends. The company focuses on delivering spoken-word content, something that has never been done before. Yes, there’s SoundCloud and iTunes, but both of them deliver “music” content. Audioboom ditches all forms of music on its platform—it’s all about interviews, podcast programs, talking books, or any audio content that is spoken and delivered verbally.

The success of Audioboom is rather unprecedented. Who would have thought that global brands such as CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, or The New York Times would be interested in partnering with a brand that does not like music? But this is what makes Audioboom unique. Add to this the overwhelming presence of its CEO Robert Proctor, who, when asked about Audioboom’s capacity to become one of the giants in the near future, always answers with certainty and confidence, something that is hard to ignore.

But the problem is beyond earning a secure spot in this ecosystem of giants. According to Tech.Eu, the European tech scene has been trailing far behind its US counterparts for a decade now. In other words, Americans are more aggressive when it comes to expanding its reach and influence, a thing they efficiently do through mergers and acquisitions.

Last year, over 350 European tech companies were acquired by foreign firms, 122 of which were sealed by the Americans. (Source)

The data from the region’s leading tech magazine also shows one clear fact: that most companies are swayed easily by grandeur and money that come with this kind of offer. M&A means money, and for some companies, another way to start anew and seek for another potential acquisition in the future.

This is what makes Audioboom different from other European companies. Instead of shutting down operations when it almost hit rock bottom several years back, the company stood up. It chose to rebrand, realign its internal operations, and did its best to cope with the changing landscape of social media. It crawled its way up to becoming a major audio partner of the biggest media outfits in the world. It is coveted by companies that wish to obtain what its pool of content partners are getting now.

The so-called “European dream” is an unspoken one—we all know that. But everyone knows that there’s at least a company out there that dreams of becoming as big as Instagram or Twitter.

Yet what’s more important now is that a UK company can already make this unspoken dream be spoken, and eventually, an incontestable reality.

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