Why Would U2’s Bono Promote Meerkat? What’s In It For Him?

U2 just wrapped up their iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour in North America with final shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City. In their first show in Silicon Valley, before Bono began singing “Desire,” he asked an audience member to come up on stage and share the event all over the world via Meerkat, the hot new startup with a live video streaming app. The audience embraced this seemingly spontaneous moment. But I think that U2’s lead singer Bono had put a lot of strategic planning into orchestrating the whole thing.

The Irish singer has long been a fan of startups and has been investing in ideas, from Yelp to Dropbox, for years. Bono isn’t just an entertainer; he’s a venture capitalist. After being introduced to the Silicon Valley investment scene by Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Bono started working with the private equity firm Elevation Partners to make large investments in media, entertainment and technology companies. Elevation Partners was one of the early investors in Facebook, a move that made them millions. Today, Bono and Roger McNamee, a founding partner of Elevation, continue to make investments in technology companies.

So, why is Bono interested in Meerkat? As an entertainer, and as an investor, Bono sees the game changing nature of live video streaming technology, the massive opportunities, and wants to play in the space. Broadcasters, content creators and consumers will all be impacted. Many questions around live video streaming are yet unanswered. Will it go freemium? Or paid? Or monetized by heavy ads? These are all questions that Bono wants to play a part in answering. As for Meerkat, the boost Bono provided has put them in a strong position to become a major player in the space.