News that Cloudprinter has received another slice of support, albeit of an interim nature before a major fund raising exercise comes to fruition early next year, demonstrates that there is life in web to print and life in print itself. Who would invest in a business if they thought that fundamentally the sea in which they are swimming is about to dry up? Business models and a whole way of working might be about to change, but the outcome of printed words and images on pieces of paper remains. The difference is that Cloudprinter believes that major international businesses will prefer not to have 1 million brochures printed in one country and shipped to 19 others, but to have printing of 50,000 brochures take place in 20 countries, perhaps 20 brochures adapted to the local culture, because this is possible.
Perhaps the investors too are mindful that AI opens the possibilities of localisation being done automatically, of purchasing AI conversing with production AI to manage that distribute and print model. Already this is popular. Book publishers are using towards print on demand and even zero inventory models. As with the developments in print down the years, what happens in books will eventually be adopted across the sectors.
Cloudprinter differs from others in the online print space in two ways. It does not own its own production capability (though that cannot be ruled out for some locations) and secondly its customer is not the small business that has fed the likes of Vista, Instantprint and others, but the large corporate with large budgets. It is perhaps more of a challenge to print management businesses than the existing online trade print companies and those that cater to the start up and artisan customers. Cloudprinter is aiming to fulfil a desire for its customers to control and manage unwieldy print budgets. The smart money is betting that it will be able to do this.
Investors seek Cloudprinter’s silver lining
News that Cloudprinter has received another slice of support, albeit of an interim nature before a major fund raising exercise comes to fruition early next year, demonstrates that there is life in web to print and life in print itself. Who would invest in a business if they thought that fundamentally the sea in which they are swimming is about to dry up? Business models and a whole way of working might be about to change, but the outcome of printed words and images on pieces of paper remains. The difference is that Cloudprinter believes that major international businesses will prefer not to have 1 million brochures printed in one country and shipped to 19 others, but to have printing of 50,000 brochures take place in 20 countries, perhaps 20 brochures adapted to the local culture, because this is possible.
Perhaps the investors too are mindful that AI opens the possibilities of localisation being done automatically, of purchasing AI conversing with production AI to manage that distribute and print model. Already this is popular. Book publishers are using towards print on demand and even zero inventory models. As with the developments in print down the years, what happens in books will eventually be adopted across the sectors.
Cloudprinter differs from others in the online print space in two ways. It does not own its own production capability (though that cannot be ruled out for some locations) and secondly its customer is not the small business that has fed the likes of Vista, Instantprint and others, but the large corporate with large budgets. It is perhaps more of a challenge to print management businesses than the existing online trade print companies and those that cater to the start up and artisan customers. Cloudprinter is aiming to fulfil a desire for its customers to control and manage unwieldy print budgets. The smart money is betting that it will be able to do this.
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Prayers for the future of the print industry