Keen On… Yossi Vardi: Why the Next Major Paradigm Shift is Social TV

So, I asked the legendary Israeli investor Yossi Vardi, is the boom in social finished?
“Social didn’t run out of steam since the birth of civilization,” Yossi shot back. We were, appropriately enough, in the very cradle of civilization, in Athens, at Stream, the annual unconference that Yossi and Sir Martin Sorrell jointly host each year. And Yossi, who of course was the original investor in ICQ, was as bullish on social as he’s ever been, predicting to me that social television would be the next major “paradigm shift” over the next three or four years.

Having already achieved three exits from investments with Answers.com, Wibiya and the eBay acquisition The Gifts Project, Yossi is having a super year. Thus, in spite of his hilariously bad Jewish mother jokes and his habit of lying like a Greek goddess on the grass, it is never wise to completely disregard Yossi. So is he right – is social TV the next big thing?

One technical note. If Yossi looks a bit blurry to you in this interview, you don’t need glasses. I had a camera malfunction in Athens and thus Yossi – or at least his well-defined face – is lacking a bit of focus. Apologies on this. Next year, I’ll learn how to adjust the focus on my expensive camera.