Video-sharing Network
From P2P Foundation
Platforms that allow for the sharing of user-generated content, such as You Tube
Contents |
Discussion
Monetization and Revenue-Sharing Strategies
"to get the ad-friendly clips that they crave, video sites are realizing that they have to be willing to give something back in return.
Video-sharing sites like Revver, Break and Metacafe have come up with various ways to pay for engaging video submissions that appeal to viewers and that marketers can feel comfortable with. Revver attaches ads to videos it has vetted and then shares the revenue with the video maker. Break pays $400 for videos that are posted on the site's homepage and pays $2,000 for original short films. And Metacafe pays $5 for every thousand views that a video gets if it generates at least 20,000 views and is rated well by viewers.
Video contests have become another popular means of generating ad revenue from user-generated video. In the most widely publicized example, Yahoo! Video and Pepsico's Doritos brand tortilla chips held a contest last fall for the best amateur-made Doritos commercial. The winner received a cash prize and had his ad aired during the Super Bowl.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is adopting a variation of the contest concept for its newly relaunched Crackle video site (see "Sony Revamps Online Video Site"). Crackle will essentially be a permanent contest site, awarding the best submissions in animation, short films and standup comedy on a monthly or quarterly basis with cash prizes and the chance to meet with Sony Pictures executives to pitch their concepts." (http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/27/internet-video-advertising-biz-media-cx_lh_0828video.html?)
Directory
Main Video-sharing companies
List from http://www.unmediated.org/2007/02/online_video_in.html :
"* YouTube - Like other Sequoia Capital investments Yahoo and Google, YouTube outperformed its competitors and has become a clear winner in video sharing. And Google didn't skip this opportunity in the online video space, as it took advantage of YouTube's legal hassles and snapped up the market leader for the relatively small sum(!) of $1.65B. Even though Google already had its own video sharing site, Google Video, this acquisition showed Google's ambitions in the online video space.
- Yahoo Video remains well behind Google Video and YouTube. Also Yahoo Video does not support as many video formats as the others do. For example, you cannot upload your videos directly from your mobile, because this format is not supported yet. Yahoo is trying to increase Yahoo Video usage by making it a part of their other well established properties. For instance, you can see Yahoo Video stories on their homepage.
- SoapBox is Microsoft's answer to the latest developments in the video sharing industry. It is in invitation only beta status for now, but will probably go live very soon. It is expected to be a crucial part of Microsoft's new Live.com initiative, although the site is currently under the MSN domain.
- Grouper was snapped up by Sony for $60M and is expected to be integrated with Sony's future digital cameras.
- PhotoBucket - a crucial component of most social networking sites and the number one photo sharing site, did not miss the big opportunity in online video space and has a video component too.
- Webshots - like PhotoBucket, photo sharing site Webshots (a CNET property) has also caught the online video wave.
- Ning - Netscape founder Marc Andreesen's latest venture recently turned its focus onto video features and in some sense became a player in the online video sharing space as well.
- iFilm was acquired by Viacom, the owner of MTV Networks, in October 2005. The site claims to get more than 10 million visitors per month.
- MetaCafe - Israel based company is estimated to be the second biggest player in this space after YouTube. The company does not limit itself to its home country and has big international ambitions. It was recently rumoured to be acquired by Yahoo for $200M. The company is backed by top tier VC companies like Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners. MetaCafe does not have a time limitation like YouTube, and offers a rich desktop client for easy uploading. Their unique revenue sharing program was a great innovation in this space.
- DailyMotion - The number one video sharing site in France is also a key player in the global arena. Allows 150MB of video upload and has a larger default video size.
- GoFish - Publicly traded company is worth $126M as of this writing. Its popularity is well below others though.
- Dave.tv - The site wants you to program your own channel with your favourite movies, music and clips, then broadcast it from your web page, blog or MySpace. This is a well thought through viral marketing tactic, but the site's traffic seems low at this time.
Some of the upcomers in video sharing are: Vimeo, VideoJug, Kewego, China's Yoqoo, Revver,Veoh, iBloks, VidiLife, Blip.TV, VodPod, Fliqz." (http://www.unmediated.org/2007/02/online_video_in.html)
P2P for Video-sharing
List from http://www.unmediated.org/2007/02/online_video_in.html :
"Peer to peer is taking an important place in video sharing. Video sharing requires large bandwidth, which is why the burn rate of these sites is very high and only the VC backed ones survive. P2P is an answer to this problem, by spreading the bandwidth weight to clients using this system. There have been some recent large investments in companies working in this field.
- BitTorrent - Creators of the popular open source P2P file sharing protocol do not own the protocol itself, but own one of the most popular clients and a search site. They recently got $20M funding from top tier firms like Accel Partners and acquired another popular bittorrent client µTorrent.
- Azureus - Creators of the Java based popular open source bittorrent client, Azureus is now entering the web space with Zudeo. They recently closed a $12M Series B investment from RedPoint Ventures and BV Capital.
- Kontiki is a VeriSign company."
List may be updated at P2P for Video-sharing
Video Streaming
List from http://www.unmediated.org/2007/02/online_video_in.html :
"So who do you think serves you all these videos? Video hosting is not an easy job!
- Akamai is known as the world leader and serves big customers including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. The company is traded on NASDAQ and has a market cap of $9B.
- Limelight is the site that powers YouTube, MySpace, iFilm and many others. They are growing fast and their last investment round was $130M, led by Goldman Sachs.
- VitalStream was bought by Internap in 2006 for $217M.
Others include Savvis and RawFlow." (http://www.unmediated.org/2007/02/online_video_in.html)
List may be updated at Video Streaming
Video Creation & Editing
"You have videos, but how do you edit them? Are you willing to stick with desktop apps and pay hundreds of dollars in license fees? The Web is the answer again. The following sites are generally known to be good companions to video sharing sites.
- JumpCut - this video editing site was acquired by Yahoo right after it got to its public beta status. It is expected to be embedded into Yahoo Video. This will bring a clear editing advantage to Yahoo over the others. Yahoo is currently far behind Google in the video space overall, so they should hurry up and integrate JumpCut!
- EyeSpot - was invested in by Michael Robertson of mp3.com and Yahoo's JumpCut acquisition increases our expectations for this company to get bought by Google. The mix system would also be handy for MySpace's core user group, musicians who shoot their clip and then remix it to publish on their MySpace page. So News Corp is another potential acquirer.
- Lycos Mix - no, Lycos is not dead. Lycos Mix, along with Lycos Cinema, is designed to take Lycos to the next level in the online video space.
- Dabble - It's not exactly video editing, but playlist making with other videos fetched from video sharing sites.
- Mojiti - China based company was covered recently by Read/WriteWeb. It allows you to add notations to your videos. Mojiti is also a video sharing site targeting the Chinese market.
Other players include, but not limited to, MovieMasher, MotionBox, Canopus and Avid."
List may be updated at Video Creation & Editing
Other Directories
Video-sharing for Activists
Towards a worldwide video syndicate:
“A Call to Join and Contribute to the Establishment of a Video-Sharing Syndicate/Network
Project Description: For some time now the idea of utilising peer2peer structures to assemble a user-built distribution platform has been circulating. Recently, in the run-up to the G8 meeting in Evian, a concrete proposal has been made to establish a system for the sharing of video. Long-term we believe that we can assemble a sustainable and scalable platform for audio-visual materials of a critical and independent nature. This is an appeal to groups/individuals to get involved, dedicate some resources, support and expand the project generally. Works to be distributed over the system will vary from somewhat edited footage suitable for use as a stock archive to finished documentaries/films. Each file will be accompanied by metadata in an xml .info file and produced as an searchable RSS feed for people to integrate into their own sites and published on its own website (where there will also be a manifesto, how-to's. contact info for participating groups etc.) Amongst the metadata fields will be a specification for the nature of the license under which the materials may be used (e.g. Creative Commons share-alike)" (http://v2v.indymedia.de/)
An example of a video-broadcasting experiment, by IndyMedia, an Internet-based independent media network, related to the alterglobalisation movement
"GENEVA03 is a temporary broadcasting studio during the g8-summit transmitting video and audio streams live from the cultural center l'usine in geneva from may 29 to june 3. The livecast will be streamed on the internet and picked up and redistributed by local and international broadcasters as well as projected in the streets and theatres of Geneva. In order to cover the protests between Geneva, Lausanne and Anmasse in real time, media activists will work from the "everyone-is-an-expert" mobile studio van, which - with a self-adjusting bi-directional satellite dish - will provide a mobile internet connection and transmit live-footage from the roaming protests. The GENEVA03 project is a joint effort of a growing number of video activists and independent filmmakers together with dozens of indymedia reporters, to organize and broadcast independent news coverage from the G8 events. We are currently programming a stream, that, besides the live coverage of the mass-protests, will include movies, concerts, talk-shows, vj sessions, subvertisements and other radically innovative formats." (http://v2v.indymedia.de/)
