Category Archives: Multimedia

New Online Social Network Offers Revolutionary WEshares(tm) to its Members

What do you get out of online social networks? Probably nothing more than just that: Online social networking. A multi-billion dollar corporation is allowing you to communicate with others while using all your information to make huge profits. Not only are you helping them make loads of money from advertising, but you are guaranteeing that a few people make a lot of money off your efforts.

ExpatOdyssey.com is a new online social network that goes against this business model. We also want to make a few bucks, but we want you to share in the success. We want to share something sustainable, unique, and revolutionary. ExpatOdyssey wants to give you more than a few pointless prizes or vouchers. Let us help you help yourself!

You’re probably wondering how this works because it sounds a little too good to be true. Simple. You become a member and use ExpatOdyssey to do what you usually do on online social networks. However, this is the point at which ExpatOdyssey.com is completely different. You are also an actual owner. The moment you sign up, you are awarded WEshares(tm). You are contributing to the website by being a member, so you deserve a reward. Every time you upload photographs, invite friends, create forums, or any one of the innumerable things you can do on ExpatOdyssey, you accumulate WEshares(tm). Like shares in a company, they represent what percentage of ExpatOdyssey.com you own.

Carlo Jacobs, Founder of ExpatOdyssey.com comments: “When the Occupy Wall Street movement began, my wife and I decided that the time was finally right for a venture that included and benefitted everyone, the 99% who have been left behind. We decided not to accept venture capitalists to create ExpatOdyssey.com or any large investors and struggled along with some meagre savings. A few friends heard about our novel idea and invested some money so that ExpatOdyssey.com could be shared with everyone out there. From that point onwards, we knew that our decision for all members to have the opportunity to get or earn Free WEshares(tm), or invest, was the right one.”

In fact, ExpatOdyssey.com has made investment so accessible to everyone that if they want, members can invest from as little as $5 with WEshares currently priced at only 0.1cents per WEshare. We are all passionate about changing the current status quo, or at least doing our part to make a significant difference and giving everyone the chance to own a piece of the future. Businesses usually offer shares when the price is already unattainable. Instead ExpatOdyssey.com is giving everyone the chance to get a piece of the pie at the beginning when it matters most! What’s more is that because our members are owners, we listen to our members’ suggestions, what they want and need and as a result, over time, ExpatOdyssey.com will end up being the world’s best online social network.

Via EPR Network

Effekt-Etage To launch BMW Individual iPad App

Seemingly real paint samples that react to movements of the iPad, leather that you can actually touch as well as see, and individualised image content in many app areas. A new benchmark for innovation, interactivity and customer communication.

BMW Individual, the most exclusive way to drive a BMW, is now available as an interactive experience on the iPad. Thanks to an innovative user interface, this unprecedented virtual product catalogue enables a breathtaking experience of BMW Individual, the BMW premium range.

The app commissioned by BMW M GmbH and developed by Effekt-Etage had a simple aim: to fully exploit the interactive potential offered by the iPad medium in an innovative way, thus creating a new benchmark. The app developed by Effekt-Etage is set to establish a new trend in the category of interactive product magazines.

Its various chapters relate interesting facts about the BMW Individual philosophy, paint finishes, fine leather upholstery and other equipment options. In addition, users can create a virtual vehicle according to their preferences and view the finished result in a Visualiser.

The app is the first to achieve a near-realistic representation of paint finish samples in a virtual environment. In part this is due to Effekt-Etage’s high-quality 3D renderings, which perfectly communicate the BMW Individual paint finishes’ special appeal. In addition, the virtual paint finishes react to movements of the iPad, so the user has the actual impression of moving a real-life paint sample in relation to a light source. This virtual reality effect has also been implemented for the leather samples, allowing the user to leaf through them and touch them.

The interactive capability of this app means that almost every product image can be interacted with, creating a virtual environment that allows users to experience the look and feel of the various equipment details for themselves.

Another outstanding feature is the way the app combines the product information and vehicle configuration processes.

The conventional approach involves the user finding information about products and features such as paint finishes, equipment etc. in a physical catalogue, or on the web. They then begin a separate step of vehicle configuration in a Configurator, beginning with a default vehicle. The BMW Individual app goes one step further by combining these previously separate steps. While reading the various chapters, users are already able to bookmark paintwork finishes, leather colours or other features they like. They can effectively configure their vehicle while gathering information, performing both activities within a single process. As a result, the vehicle initially shown in the Configurator already reflects the user’s individual preferences.

Users can of course save “their” dream car, share it with friends and acquaintances on Facebook, file it in their personal photo album, or send it off in an e-mail.

The BMW Individual iPad app comes in English and German, is optimised for the iPad and iPad2, and is available free of charge in the App Store.

Via EPR Network

BlooSee Brings Web 2.0 to Ocean Lovers

BlooSee.com, a new, free Internet service, brings Web 2.0 to ocean lovers by allowing people from all over the world to map and share information about the ocean.BlooSee It’s a bit like wikipedia, but uses Google Earth/Maps imagery and a very intuitive interface. Also, BlooSee is a social network and it’s linked to other networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

BlooSee.com assigns a URL to each ocean or coastal location—which allows users to share information via social networks. “If I want to blog, Tweet, or Facebook about a movie or a book, I can link to a website. But what if I want to blog, Tweet, or Facebook about a seal pod, a snorkeling spot, or a dangerous rip current? Or what if I want to have conversations about the ocean using social networks? Now I can do all of the above with BlooSee”, said Manuel Maqueda, VP of Community and Strategy of BlooSee.

On BlooSee user contributions are called “infopoints,” which are bits of information shown on precise geographical coordinates over satellite images of the world’s oceans and coasts.Right now users can create 110 different types of infopoints on BlooSee. Some infopoints are navigation-related (e.g., lighthouses, harbors, and Coastguard stations) while others are related to water sports (e.g., surfing and snorkeling spots, or underwater caves). Sixteen types ofinfopoints are dedicated to dangers such as rip currents, uncharted underwater rocks, or pirate attacks. Other Infopoints are dedicated to marine art and history, such as museums, monuments, and historical sites.

The ocean is the largest ecosystem on the planet, and BlooSee is also a place where users can find protected natural areas, sea turtle nesting beaches, whale watching spots, and more.In addition, BlooSee is a place to share and find practical information, such as fuel docks, chandlers, restaurants, bait shops, surfing schools, and restaurants. According to Manuel Maqueda, “In a sense, BlooSee is ‘the Yelp of the sea,’ because it allows sea lovers to find and rate the businesses and services they need.”

The BlooSee social network is synched with Twitter and Facebook, allowing Twitter followers and Facebook friends to experience the users’ activity on BlooSee. BlooSee users retain total control over how they want their BlooSee activity to be broadcast.

According to Manuel Maqueda, “BlooSee is like having Wikipedia, Google Maps, Facebook, and Yelp all in one place, focused on the enjoyment, knowledge, and conservation of the ocean.”

BlooSee is in public beta and open to all users for free.

Via EPR Network

iShoes And iBags Apps Expand Availability Of Fashion-Related Content In Popular Apple App Store

Mobile App Studio, developer of premium mobile applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, announced today the release of the iShoes and iBags fashion apps on the Apple App Store. Following the successful launch of Apple’s iPhone mobile platform last year, there are now over 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches in use today. Users of these devices can download applications to their phones that fit their interests and needs. 

“There are over 35,000 apps available now on the Apple App Store, but one thing we’ve noticed is that very few of these apps are targeting women,” said Carleen Ghio, co-founder of the Mobile App Studio. “As the iPhone market continues to expand, we wanted to ensure that fashion and shopping-related apps aimed at the female market are available on the Apple App Store to interest new users.” 

The iShoes and iBags applications give users the ability to entertain themselves by casually browsing shoes and handbags f r o m their phones, leading to the discovery of new products and brands that interest them. They can also narrow their search to their favorite brands or a specific type of shoe or handbag when they have specific shopping needs. Users can add any products they see to their Favorites list, and then email this list to themselves or their friends. 

The email option is key because it gives users the option to review their selected products later f r o m their home computer, as browsing retailer websites and making purchases via mobile devices is not as easy as it is f r o m a normal web browser. The focus on a single fashion product in each application, combined with simple navigation and browsing options, also makes the apps well suited for small mobile devices. There is even an offline mode available that allows users to download a set of shoes or handbags in advance and then browse them when on an airplane or out of range. 

iShoes and iBags bring over 50,000 shoes and 20,000 handbags to the iPhone. The applications search hundreds of brands sold by over 100 retailers via ShopStyle.com. The products on display are constantly updated, allowing users to keep up with the latest styles available each season.  iShoes and iBags are available as a free download on the Apple App Store. 

About Mobile App Studio

Located in Crawfordville, FL, Mobile App Studio was founded in 2009 by Ryan Pream and Carleen Ghio. The Mobile App Studio develops premium lifestyle apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and other mobile devices. 

Via EPR Network

Wix.Com – An Online Web Design Platform That Lets Non-Tech Savvy Musicians Create Dynamic Flash Website

How are up-and-coming bands marketing themselves more effectively than signed artists–and putting the final nail in the record company coffin in the process?

The answer: new online web design platforms like Wix.com that let non-tech savvy musicians create dynamic flash website and MySpace pages (for free) that not only rival, but exceed the quality of professionally made websites.

As I’m sure you know, record companies have been taking it on the chin the past few years with music sales drying up. But their saving grace has been their powerful marketing arms, which for top artists has always been the best way to achieve market penetration. No longer.

Web 2.0 has leveled the playing field. Musicians can send e-flyers with embedded music about upcoming gigs, create customizable widgets for their MySpace page, and create band Flash websites that match the artistic value of their music.

The result: young and up-and-coming bands are now marketing themselves more effectively than big name artists. That’s why in just a few months nearly 200,000 musicians have already signed up with Wix.com web design platform.

About Wix

www.wix.com is a free, DIY and easy-to use Web design platform. Wix is the only web publishing platform that allows users to create stunning and completely original Flash websites. Founded in September 2006 and launched in open beta in April 2008, Wix was born out of the founders’ frustration with creating dynamic looking Websites that didn’t involve coding or programming. Wix has received $8.5 million funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners. and is headquartered in New York and offices in Tel Aviv. www.wix.com.

Via EPR Network

2008’s Most Popular Web 2.0 Sites

Today we are living in web 2.0 times more than ever before. PR, press coverage, buzz, evangelism, lobbying, who knows who, who blogs who, who talks about who, mainstream media and beyond – all of those words found in the dictionary of almost every new web site that coins itself as web 2.0, but as the global economy crisis is raising upon us promising to leave us working in a very depressed business environment with little to no liquidation events at all for the next years the real question is: who the real winners in today’s web 2.0 space are based on real people using their web properties since 2005 the web 2.0 term was coined for first time. Since then we have witnessed hundreds of millions of US dollars poured into different web 2.0 sites, applications and technologies and perhaps now is the time to find out which of those web sites have worked things out. We took the time necessary to discover today’s most popular web 2.0 sites based on real traffic and site usage and Not on buzz or size of funding. Sites are ranked based on the estimated traffic figures. After spending years in assessing web 2.0 sites applying tens of different from economical and technological to media criteria in an effort to evaluate them we came up to the conclusion that there is only one criterion worth our attention and it is the real people that use a given site, the traffic, the site usage, etc., based on which the web site can successfully be monetized. Of course, there are a few exceptions from the general rule like sites with extremely valuable technologies and no traffic at all, but as we said, they are exceptions. Ad networks, web networks, hosted networks and group of sites that use consolidated traffic numbers as their own or such ones that rely on the traffic of other sites to boost their own figures (ex.: various ad networks, Quantcast, WordPress etc.) are not taken into consideration and the sites from within those respective networks and groups have been ranked separately. International traffic is of course taken into consideration. Add ons, social network apps and widgets usage is not taken into consideration. Sub-domains as well as international TLDs part of the principal business of the main domain/web site are included. Media sites including such covering the web 2.0 space have also been included. Old buys from the dot com era are not considered and ranked accordingly.

Disclaimer: some data based on which the sites below are ranked may not be complete or correct due to lack of public data available for the traffic of respective sites. Please also note that the data taken into consideration for the ranking may have meanwhile changed and might possibly be no longer the same at the time you are reading the list. Data has been gathered during the months of July, August, September and December 2008.

Today’s most popular Web 2.0 sites based on the traffic they get as measured during the months of July, August and September 2008.

Priority is given to direct traffic measurement methods wherever applicable. Panel data as well as toolbar traffic figures are not taken into cosndieration. Traffic details as taken from Quantcast, Google Analytics*, Nielsen Site Audit, Nielsen NetRatings, comScore Media Metrix, internal server log files*, Compete and Alexa. Press release, public relation and buzz traffic and usage figures as they have appeared in the mainstream and specialized media are given with lower priority unless supported by direct traffic measurement methods.

*wherever applicable

Web Property / Unique visitors per month

  1. WordPress.com ~ 100M
  2. YouTube.com ~ 73M
  3. MySpace.com ~ 72M
  4. Wikipedia.org ~ 69M
  5. Hi5.com ~ 54M
  6. Facebook.com ~ 43M
  7. BlogSpot.com ~ 43M
  8. PhotoBucket.com ~ 34M
  9. MetaCafe.com ~ 30M
  10. Blogger.com ~ 27M
  11. Flickr.com ~ 23M
  12. Scribd.com ~ 23M
  13. Digg.com ~ 21M
  14. Typepad.com ~ 17M
  15. Imeem.com ~ 17M
  16. Snap.com ~ 15.7M
  17. Fotolog.com ~ 15.6M
  18. RockYou.com ~ 15M
  19. Veoh.com ~ 12M
  20. Wikihow.com ~ 12M
  21. Topix.com ~ 11.5M
  22. Blinkx.com ~ 11M
  23. HuffingtonPost.com ~ 11M
  24. Technorati.com ~ 10.6M
  25. Wikia.com ~ 10.8M
  26. Zimbio.com ~ 10.3M
  27. SpyFu.com ~ 10.1M
  28. Heavy.com ~ 9.3M
  29. Yelp.com ~ 8.9M
  30. Slide.com ~ 8.5M
  31. SimplyHired.com ~ 8.5M
  32. Squidoo.com ~ 8.1M
  33. LinkedIn.com ~ 7.5M
  34. HubPages.com ~ 7.2M
  35. Hulu.com ~ 7.1M
  36. AssociatedContent.com ~ 7M
  37. Indeed.com ~ 5.4M
  38. LiveJournal.com ~ 5.2M
  39. Bebo.com ~ 5.1M
  40. Habbo.com ~ 4.9M
  41. Fixya.com ~ 4.5M
  42. RapidShare.com ~ 4.5M
  43. AnswerBag.com ~ 4.4M
  44. Metafilter.com ~ 4.3M
  45. Crackle (Grouper) ~ 4M
  46. Ning.com ~ 3.8M
  47. Breitbart.com ~ 3.8M
  48. BookingBuddy.com ~ 3.7M
  49. Kayak.com ~ 3.6M
  50. Blurtit.com ~ 3.2M
  51. Kaboodle.com ~ 3M
  52. Meebo.com ~ 2.9M
  53. Friendster.com ~ 2.7M
  54. WowWiki.com ~ 2.8M
  55. Truveo.com ~ 2.7M
  56. Trulia.com ~ 2.7M
  57. Twitter.com ~ 2.5M
  58. BoingBoing.net ~ 2.4M
  59. Techcrunch.com ~ 2.2M
  60. Zillow.com ~ 2.2M
  61. MyNewPlace.com ~ 2.2M
  62. Mahalo.com ~ 2.1M
  63. Vox.com ~ 2M
  64. Last.fm ~ 2M
  65. Glam.com ~ 1.9M
  66. Multiply.com ~ 1.9M
  67. Popsugar.com ~ 1.6M
  68. Addthis.com ~ 1.5M
  69. Pandora.com ~ 1.4M
  70. Brightcove.com ~ 1.4M
  71. LinkedWords.com ~ 1.3M
  72. Devshed.com ~ 1.3M
  73. AppleInsider.com ~ 1.3M
  74. Newsvine.com ~ 1.3M
  75. Fark.com ~ 1.2M
  76. BleacherReport.com ~ 1.2M
  77. Mashable.com ~ 1.2M
  78. Zwinky.com ~ 1.2M
  79. Quantcast.com ~ 1.2M
  80. StumbleUpon.com ~ 1.1M
  81. SecondLife.com ~ 1.1M
  82. Magnify.net ~ 1.1M
  83. Uncyclopedia.org ~ 1M
  84. Weblo.com ~ 1M
  85. Del.icio.us ~ 1M
  86. Reddit.com < 1M
  87. Pbwiki.com < 1M
  88. AggregateKnowledge.com < 1M
  89. Eventful.com < 1M
  90. Dizzler.com < 1M
  91. Synthasite.com < 1M
  92. Vimeo.com < 1M
  93. Zibb.com <1M

Web 2.0 sites having less than 1M unique visitors per month even though popular in one way or another are not subject of this list and are not taken into consideration. We know for at least 100 other considered really good web 2.0 sites, apps and technologies of today, but since they are getting less than 1M uniuqes per month they were not able to make our list. However, sites being almost there (850K-950K/mo) and believed to be in position to reach the 1M monthly mark in the next months are also included at the bottom of the list. Those sites are marked with “<“, which means close to 1M, but not yet there. No hard feelings :).

If we’ve omitted one site or another that you know is getting at least 1M uniques per month and you are not seeing it above, drop us a note at info[at]web2innovations.com and we’ll have it included. Please note that the site proposed should be having steady traffic for at least 3 months prior submission to the list above. Sites like, for example: Powerset and Cuil, may not qualify for inclusion due to their temporary traffic leaps caused by buzz they have gotten, a criterion we try to offset. For other corrections and omissions please write at same email address. Requests for corrections of the traffic figures the sites are ranked on can only be justified by providing us with the accurate traffic numbers from reliable direct measurement sources (Quantified at Quantcast, Google Analytics, Nielsen Site Audit, Nielsen NetRatings, comScore Media Metrix, internal server log files, other third party traffic measurement services that use the direct method. No panel data, no Alexa, no Compete etc. will be taken into consideration).

* Note that ranks given to sites at w2i reflect only our own vision for and understanding of the site usage, traffic and unique visitors of the sites being ranked and does not necessarily involve other industry experts’, professionals’, journalists’ and bloggers’ opinions. You acknowledge that any ranking available on web2innovations.com (The Site) is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or a recommendation that you, or anyone you advise, should buy, acquire or invest in any of the companies being analyzed and ranked on the Site, or undertake any investment strategy, based on rankings seen on the Site. Moreover, if a company is described or mentioned in our Site, you acknowledge that such description or mention does not constitute a recommendation by web2innovations.com that you engage or otherwise use such web site.

The full list

New Clicktoboat Mobile Website Features Nationwide Fishing Spots, Family Hot-Spots, Boat Ramps, Marinas, Fishing Charters, Suppliers, Rentals And Fishing Spots By Fish Species With Customizable Proximity Search Capability

In time for summer fishing & boating season, ClickToBoat Mobile has launched a new and improved mobile website geared for wireless devices. The ClickToBoat Mobile website provides everything for the ultimate fishing and boating enthusiast on-the-go. With the ClickToBoat Mobile website users can find fishing spots, family hot-spots, marinas and more location based services which are cross-platform with the ClickToBoat.com online Community.

This September, ClickToBoat Mobile will unveil fishing reports, events and more on the go. Accessible by entering http://www.clicktoboat.com or http://mobile.clicktoboat.com on any internet enabled wireless device, the Mobile 2.0 website brings a richer, more advanced wireless experience to fishing and boating enthusiasts by integrating the latest standards and content technologies into the mobile environment.

The new ClickToBoat.com Mobile website provides users with a personalized experience, delivering proximity based fishing and boating information they crave while giving them the ability to conduct cross-platform interactions with the ClickToBoat.com Community. The site’s personalization features offer sponsors highly-targeted advertising opportunities to reach fishing and boating enthusiast market.

“We are very excited to launch the Mobile website in time for this year’s fishing & boating season. The popularity of fishing and boating combined with increased user-functionality, mobility, and personalization makes this the perfect for every fishing and boating enthusiast on-the-go,” said Harry Sangha, President, ClickToBoat.com. “Mobile experience is about ease of use and get information as quickly as possible, with the least amount of clicks. ClickToBoat.com Mobile website offers users a unique alternative with a fully personalized user experience on any internet enabled wireless device.”

ClickToBoat.com Mobile website features nationwide:

Fishing Spots – Family hot-spots – Marinas – Boat ramps – Rentals – Suppliers Fishing spots by fish species – Customizable proximity search capability for fishing & boating services Ratings & Reviews – Customized local weather forecasts for fishing & boating

About ClickToBoat, Inc:Launched in early 2007, ClickToBoat.com designs and develops expert marine directions, navigation and business geographic software for online, wireless and proprietary electronic navigational devices. The creator and owner of an innovative digital waterway route network, ClickToBoat.com is a patented resource and the only online navigation and trip planning tool that allows boaters to access directions, maps & charts, travel guides and safety information, as well as share information and routes with other boaters. Offering a breadth of tools for recreational boating enthusiasts, ClickToBoat.com also provides informational resources for scuba divers, including details on dive sites and wrecks, as well as destination guides for vacations and trips. In addition the sites provides access to ClickToFishTM, a resource designed specifically for anglers, offering maps with fishing detail for thousands of lakes throughout the United States.

 

Via EPR Network

More Consumer Services press releases

Live Video Webcast System Provides Portable Video Stream And Content Distribution Network For Legendary Wine Auction

TodoCast™, the innovator of the world’s first affordable, portable, live video webcasting system, today announced the availability of the first ever live webcast for this year’s landmark Sonoma Valley Wine Country Weekend held this Labor Day Weekend in Sonoma Valley. Sponsored by a host of organizations, including WebSat, Inc a TodoCast Partner, the fall auction and event entertainment will be accessible to anyone in the world with access to a computer and internet connection, complements of WebSat and the revolutionary technology of the TodoCast System.

The live web-broadcast of the Sonoma Valley Wine Auction will be available to online viewers at no charge and enable online viewers to make donations through the TodoCast.tv platform, allowing additional contributions to be made to participating Sonoma Valley Charities.

“We were thrilled at the prospect of the event’s live webcast,” said stated Peter Whyte, President of WebSat, Inc. TodoCast truly provides a solution and an opportunity for a recurring revenue stream. The simplicity and broad applications of the TodoCast system allow us to not only widen our viewer audience, but increase profitability without incurring tremendous costs,” Whyte concluded.

As a TodoCast Partner, WebSat is able to provide a complete service to event organizers and professional videographers, including on-site equipment, satellite and Internet bandwidth, as well as the technology for high quality live video, enabling people to experience the excitement of watching events as they happen. For the Sonoma Valley Wine Auction, viewers simply need a broadband connection to access the event website located at http://www.todocast.tv/sonomavalleywine. Upon signing in via a secure session, viewers can watch the event and contribute to the Sonoma Valley Charities via credit card donations.

“The turnkey capabilities and ease of use, not to mention the additional viewing opportunities that TodoCast provides our partners and their clientele is outstanding,” stated TodoCast Director of Global Video Services, Brian Roland. “For the Sonoma event, live video content is encoded to Flash using the TodoCast encoder, a standard component of the TodoCast Kit. In addition, TodoCast will provide the satellite feed for the event as well as content distribution services which enable WebSat, Inc to pull off the event live via satellite for the first time,” concluded Roland.

Featuring a .96 meter one touch auto-deploy satellite antenna, the TodoCast kit, which comes complete with all electronics premounted in a Gator G-Shock Rack Case, offers a high-quality live video webcast. The event will be streamed in standard definition at 600Kbps Flash, allowing the largest possible audience to view the content at home on either a MAC or PC. TodoCast services are available in Standard Definition as we as High-Definition with data rates from 400Kbps to over 4Mbps.

TodoCast provides a seamless solution for event organizers to reach an entirely new audience that would otherwise be inaccessible. The quality broadcast, fast deployment and complete mobility offers TodoCast customers and partners the ability to leverage countless opportunities both in exposure and revenues.

As the first portable solution for pay-per-view and live video content, the TodoCast Kit, offers a turnkey satellite webcasting system. Mounted to most vehicles, TodoCast provides videographers the freedom of mobility with guaranteed quality broadcasting bandwidth. Professional videographers can access the TodoCast CDN Streaming Media Hosting, to upload and promote live events capable of generating revenue from any location.

The Sonoma Valley Wine Country Weekend features more than 200 world-class wineries and chefs, a show-stopping Taste of Sonoma, and a Wine Auction. For more information on the event, please visit http://www.sonomawinecountryweekend.com/auction/home.asp. For information on TodoCast and how its turnkey live video streaming satellite system revolutionizes videography and streaming media content for videographers and event planners everywhere, please visit http://www.TodoCast.tv.

About WebSat, Inc
Leveraging more than 40 years of experience in the satellite industry, specializing in equipment manufacture, content distribution and the operation of satellite-based networks, WebSat offers fully equipped trucks with retractable satellite dishes enabling live event webcasting from any location. Headquartered in Sonoma, California, WebSat services Northern California with live webcasting for corporate, political and sporting events, concerts, church, civic and charity events, weddings, auctions, rallies and breaking news stories. For more information, please contact Peter Whyte 415-999-2394 pwhyte@websat.tv, or Pat Matthews 707-996-1805 pmatthews@websat.tv.

About TodoCast
TodoCast is a complete turnkey solution for live video streaming over satellite, packaged into a user friendly and revenue generating kit for professional videographers. The TodoCast Kit offers live satellite-to-web video streaming in a portable and turnkey solution, complete with electronics, antenna and portable case. In addition to the TodoCast Kit, the company provides a Content Distribution Network(CDN) and pay-per-view and advertising engine that enables TodoCast partners to promote and stream live events while generating revenue through paid viewers or advertising revenue. For more information, visit www.todocast.tv.

Via EPR Network

More Entertainment News

 

Broadband satellite provider adds turnkey satellite-to-web kit to product portfolio, expanding upon current satellite service offerings

TodoCast™, the innovator of the world’s first affordable, portable, live satellite-to-web video streaming system, today announced their partnership with Satlogic Networks, LLC (Satlogic) a provider of broadband satellite services.

By leveraging the TodoCast Kit, Satlogic is able to expand their satellite service offerings to include turnkey live video streaming satellite services. The TodoCast system offers complete mobility, quality broadcast and fast deployment. The major benefit to service providers like Satlogic is the ability to lease the hardware and live video via satellite services to videographers and event planners on a daily rental basis. By offering leased options, Satlogic provides the advantage of offering videographers and event planners, the benefits of the Todocast technology, without the capital expenditure of the complete TodoCast Kit. The partnership between TodoCast and Satlogic provides videographers and event planners the ability to leverage TodoCast in a scalable and affordable method.

Since its launch in March of this year, TodoCast has generated tremendous interest among videographers and is quickly catching on with satellite service providers looking for a distinctive service offering. TodoCast provides videographers, producers and event planners the ability to deploy live mobile video streaming services for their clients, offering the ability to capture, display and distribute breaking news, corporate, private, sponsored or pay-per-view events.

“The TodoCast Kit offers service providers a convenient solution for satellite-to-live web streaming media services,” stated Brian Roland, TodoCast director of global video services. “With its .96 meter one touch auto-deploy satellite antenna, the kit comes complete with all electronics, encoder and phone kit, premounted in a Gator G-Shock Rack Case. The portability and ease of use of the TodoCast Kit is truly unmatched in the industry,” concluded Roland.

Satlogic, a leading provider of broadband satellite services selected TodoCast to increase their solution set and product offering for their customer base which spans military, telemedicine, first responder and government agencies.

“By offering the TodoCast Kit through our leased services, we are able to provide an efficient and affordable solution for live video streaming capabilities to event planners and videographers,” stated Jim McGehee, President of Satlogic Networks. “The simplicity and broad applications of the system allows Satlogic to lease the TodoCast service to videographers who prefer not to incur the capital costs associated with purchasing the entire TodoCast Kit. As a valued TodoCast Partner, we will not only widen our product offering, but be able to extend the technology that TodoCast provides to videographers and event planners in our region,” McGehee concluded.

As the first portable solution for pay-per-view and live video content, the TodoCast Kit, offers a turnkey satellite webcasting system, ideal for videographers, event planners, content distribution networks and producers. For more information on TodoCast or to inquire about the TodoCast Kit, please visit http://www.TodoCast.tv

About Satlogic Networks, LLC
Satlogic Networks LLC is a provider of satellite based Internet connectivity for business, government and military networks. Offering broadband satellite solutions to military, telemedicine, first responders and organizations seeking reliable satellite communications for corporate communications, operational business enhancements and business continuity, Satlogic is headquartered in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, please visit http://www.satlogicnetworks.com

About TodoCast
TodoCast™, headquartered in San Juan Capistrano, CA is a complete turnkey solution for live video streaming over satellite, packaged into a user friendly and revenue generating kit for professional videographers. The TodoCast Kit offers live satellite-to-web video streaming in a portable and turnkey solution, complete with electronics, antenna and portable case. In addition to the TodoCast Kit, the company provides a Content Distribution Network (CDN) and pay-per-view and advertising engine that enables TodoCast partners to promote and stream live events while generating revenue through paid viewers or advertising revenue. For more information, visit www.todocast.tv.

Via EPR Network

More Entertainment News

Best-TV.com – awarded ‘Best Start-Up’ by two leading NYC VCs and more than half of the audience at the NY Video 2.0 conference

BestTV, a market leader in online video management platforms and Internet TV Platforms, announced today that it was awarded the ‘Best Start-Up’ by two leading NY VCs and more than half of the audience members at the NY Video 2.0 Conference in May.

NY Video 2.0, a new community of online video start-ups, content producers, creative firms, advertisers and investors, held an American Idol style competition where five members were judged by a panel of three prominent New York-based Venture Capitalists (VCs) and audience members.

Chris Fralic, Partner of First Round Capital and one of the VCs in favor of BestTV, said: “The white-label video portal is an interesting play. I like the fact that you walk in with a 200-page SDK and hand it to the developers.”

Oded Felled, co-founder of BestTV, commented: “This award demonstrates market acceptance and validation of our product strategy. The launch and management of an Internet video site is a complex process requiring integration of many different technologies, adaptation to rapidly changing business models, and growing user expectations. BestTV developed a white-label Internet TV platform that enables system integrators, web design firms and others to rapidly and cost-effectively launch and manage Internet TV portals that easily adapt to the evolving Internet video market.”

To find out more about BestTV and its award-winning Internet TV platform please visit: http://www.best-tv.com

Via EPR Network

More Media News

 

Creative Bube Tube produces brand new on-line video for J.E.T. Solutions.

Tom Cruise thrilled viewers in Top Gun. Harrison Ford saved the day in Air Force One. Leonardo DiCaprio earned rave reviews in The Aviator. And Creative Bube Tube is making their mark, shooting the newest J.E.T. Solutions video.

Broadcasting your brand through online video is one of the best marketing tools in todays advertising and marketing world. Producing an online video can give you extra exposure to your company.

Creative Bube Tube, a commercial and video production company recently produced the video for Greg Marlo from J.E.T Solutions. Greg is in the aircraft sales, charter, and private aircraft management business. Greg is an Aviation Consultant; and covers all services in flight operations tailoring to his clients every need.

Creative Bube Tube’s President a Jenny Munford has been working with Jet Solutions for months, honing the perfect script for Jet Set’s first-ever video production. The video shoot took place in the Toronto Pearson International Airport.

“We are so excited that this is happening,” Munford said. “This video is going to be very cutting-edge and very fun to shoot. We’ll have our cameras set up in the hanger, and on the runway. Even in the planes! The shot list for this shoot is intense, but we’re ready for it.” Jet Solutions hired the team at Creative Bube Tube to also do some website design and create an effective marketing Campaign for J.E.T. Solutions.

The Luxurious Jets of Jet Solutions and their services are online now! For your viewing pleasure you can go to www.thejetsolutions.com to find out more, and view their brand new promotional video. You can always call Jet Solutions at 416-907-9046 to find out more information and to speak to Greg one on one.

Creative Bube Tube’s summer calendar continues to fill up at high speed. And with a client like Jet Solutions onboard for a substantial marketing campaign, one thing’s for sure: the team at Creative Bube Tube will continue to live life in the fast lane. Pun intended.

Via EPR Network

More Media news

Live Universe acquires yet another over funded start-up on the cheap

It appears that the buyer’s profile of Live Universe is to buy web 2.0 companies in trouble on the cheap, yet preferably over funded, with some traffic and good technology, if possible. After they have bought video site Revver (also relatively cheap, price perhaps was in the $1M range) in February 2008, they have also fetched up Pageflakes just the last month for what is believed to be yet another 1M dollar deal. Yesterday we have read over Web that Live Universe has this time bought yet another start-up falling into the same profile (over funded, failed and looking for a fire sale) MeeVee. They have put themselves up for sale via press release the last month.

MeeVee is all about personalized TV guides and the company was said is having over 1.1 million organic unique users in March up from 480,000 in August 2007. The Company uses its editorial voice and proprietary technology to scour a curated list of thousands of sources to connect consumers with customized video, blog and TV programming content that matches their interests. The Company has significant issued IP, community, media relationships, a TV listings personalization engine, streaming TV directory and a compelling product roadmap. The Company has 7 full time employees, all in product and engineering.

Let’s look into the Live Universe’s shopping pattern.

Total funding for Pageflakes was $4.1M – sold out for what is known to be in the $1M range. Total funding for Revver is known to be in the $12.7M range coming from Comcast, Turner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Richards and William Randolph Hearst III – sold also out for anything between $1M and $2M. MeeVee itself has also taken a whopping amount of money from the venture capitalists — $25M over the past years, we bet on it has also been sold out for anything in the $1M / $2M range. From the 3 companies above, MeeVee seems to have traffic, at least.

It is an interesting strategy to buy companies and spur growth, but we guess it is better you buy growing start-ups rather than falling stars that have spent enormous amount of capital yet did not work things out. It is yet to be seen if this strategy is going to be successful on the long term run for Live Universe. Let’s put it that way – a company that has raised $25M and did not manage to work things out is less likely to make it with less money. On the other hand buying distressed assets is something proven by the time. From Live Universe’s perspective it seems clever move that they have bought web assets that needed more than $42M to develop for $3M or something. As web 2.0 moves towards its peak and then its end (the same as what happened with the dot com boom) there would be lots of over funded and over hyped, but failed start-ups for sale on the table for Live Universe to choose from and buy cheaply.

So to conclude if your company has taken enormous amount of money, but has definitely failed to work things out and is looking for some liquidation of its assets Live Universe might be your choice to consider.

The buying company LiveUniverse is probably most popular with the fact it has been founded by one of the founders of MySpace – Brad Greenspan. With over 55M monthly unique visitors, LiveUniverse is one of the world’s largest online entertainment networks. They operate several successful and popular websites across three core verticals: Video, Social Networking & Music. LiveVideo is one of their sites, which about a year ago instigated a scandal on YouTube when it reportedly paid top YouTube users to come to its platform. LiveUniverse founder Brad Greenspan, who was involved with MySpace early on, is perhaps best known for his lawsuits protesting the company’s sale to News Corp.

Additionally in 2006, Greenspan also initiated a lawsuit and activism site against his former company, MySpace, calling attention to the fact they were censoring widget makers and software service providers using MySpace as a development platform.

More

http://www.liveuniverse.com/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/liveuniverse
http://meevee.com/
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080407/20080407006076.html
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/07/25-million-later-meevee-in-trouble/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/meevee
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/16/meevee-cuts-20-of-staff/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/20/meevee-takes-35-million-series-d/
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=17395
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Feb_27/ai_n16085490
http://www.techmeme.com/080407/p95#a080407p95
http://www.deftapartners.com/
http://www.labrador.com/
http://www.waldenvc.com/
http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmorgan/investbk/global/na/baef
https://web2innovations.com/money/2008/02/15/revver-the-video-revenue-sharing-site-finally-sells-out-but-the-price-is-not-hefty/
https://web2innovations.com/money/2008/04/15/pageflakes-is-acquired-by-brad-greenspan%e2%80%99s-live-universe/
https://web2innovations.com/money/2008/02/15/revver-the-video-revenue-sharing-site-finally-sells-out-but-the-price-is-not-hefty/
https://web2innovations.com/money/2008/04/08/meevee-put-itself-up-for-sale/
 

Sony acquired digital media identification company Gracenote for about $260M

Sony has today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Gracenote for about $260M plus other contingent consideration. Gracenote provides a range of music-related solutions including MusicID, which detects which song is currently being played by an application and loads track information for the user. MusicID leverages a database of over 6M CDs and 80M tracks and the technology has been in works since 1995 known previously with the name CDDB.

“Gracenote is a global leader in technology and services for digital media identification, enrichment, and recommendation, and these capabilities will be essential to the next wave of innovation in content, services, and consumer electronics,” said Tim Schaaff, SCA Senior Vice President, Software. “Sony sees tremendous growth potential in developing Gracenote as a separately run business unit, and by broadly embracing Gracenote’s platforms, Sony expects to significantly enhance and accelerate its own digital content, service, and device initiatives.”

“We are very pleased to join Sony as its strategic vision is very much in line with our own,” said Craig Palmer, Gracenote CEO. “Having a closer connection with the content and digital services community will accelerate adoption of Gracenote technologies, and the relationship will also give us the resources necessary to rapidly expand development of next generation products for the industry.”

Gracenote’s existing business will continue to operate separately. As a wholly owned Sony subsidiary, Gracenote will continue to develop new technologies in existing as well as new areas of operation. The senior management team will remain with the company. Sony and Gracenote anticipate that the transaction will close in late May, subject to certain regulatory and other approvals.

Many consumer music app services Apple iTunes, Yahoo! Music Jukebox, and Winamp use Gracenote for their music detection capabilities. Other consumer electronic brands are also associated with the company such as SonyEricsson, Philips Wireless Music Systems, Cadillac, Apple iPod, among others. 

More about Gracenote

Gracenote is a global leader in embedded technology, enriched content, and data services for digital entertainment solutions within the Internet, consumer electronics, mobile, and automotive markets. Formerly known as CDDB®, Gracenote delivers a substantially improved consumer experience in digital media devices and applications, plus media monitoring and other data services to the recording industry, making it an integral part of the digital media economy. Gracenote powers leading services including Apple iTunes, Yahoo! Music Jukebox, Winamp; home and automotive products from Alpine, Panasonic, Philips and Sony; and mobile music applications from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, KDDI (Japan), KTF (Korea), Musiwave (Europe), and others. Gracenote is headquartered in Emeryville, California.

Founders

Steve Scherf, Co-Founder & Chief Architect/Vice President of Service Development
Steve Scherf and business partner Ti Kan created the CDDB compact disc recognition service as a hobby in 1995 in order to get personal computers to display information about the CDs they were playing. To their surprise, the service became overwhelmingly popular, prompting them to found CDDB LLC in 1998. Later that year the company was acquired by Escient LLC, and the name was changed to Gracenote. After the acquisition, Scherf took on the role of Chief Architect for all Gracenote services. Scherf has since been the driving force behind nearly every fundamental Gracenote technology, cementing his position as one of the main pioneers of media recognition. Scherf personally designed and built the lion’s share of the current incarnation of the Gracenote service, a modular system that is extremely flexible, scalable and massively redundant, and is capable of easily incorporating new services as the need arises. He architected, designed, and developed the technology behind other Gracenote online products, such as Link, Discover, Music Enrichment, the MusicID® search engine, and others. In addition, Scherf has assimilated a number of third-party recognition technologies into the Gracenote suite, such as Mobile MusicID, re-implementing and improving them from the ground up. His pioneering work in media recognition also forms the basis of Gracenote’s embedded offerings. Prior to co-founding Gracenote, Scherf worked as Unix kernel developer for such companies as Altos Computer Systems, Acer America and Stratus Computer, delving into file systems, I/O performance, SCSI subsystems, networking and fault tolerance. Scherf graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1988 with a B.A. in Math and Biology.

Dale (Ty) Roberts, Co-Founder
Ty Roberts is widely recognized as one of the inventors of enhanced CD technology and is accredited with producing the industry’s first enhanced CDs. He joined Gracenote in November of 1998 after the company acquired ION, a multimedia and music technology company that he founded in 1993. Roberts serves as Gracenote’s chief technology strategist, providing technology direction and overseeing the creation of products and services that leverage the power of the Gracenote database to deliver information services. While at ION, Roberts produced the recording industry’s first enhanced audio CD titles, including David Bowie’s “Jump” and “Headcandy” from Brian Eno. He was the company’s lead technologist and innovator in adding multimedia content to traditional audio CDs. ION was also widely recognized as a leading provider of enhanced CD production tools utilized by recording and multimedia development companies. In September 1993, Bertelsmann Music Group created the first interactive record label after acquiring a 50 percent interest in ION. Prior to founding ION, Roberts was a founder and senior manager of LightSource, a software development company that produced multimedia and graphics editing software. Previously, he was a senior engineer at Pixar, where he created several award winning, Apple-based music applications including “Studio Session” and “Jam Session.” Roberts is Gracenote’s representative to the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), organization that is chartered with establishing standards for di gital music and music playing devices.

Ann Greenberg, Co-Founder
A pioneer in the online world, Ms. Greenberg is an inventor on seven U.S. patents, related to the delivery of content synchronized to audio recordings. She joined Gracenote in November of 1998 after the company acquired ION, a multimedia and music technology company that she founded in 1993. Greenberg served as Sr. Vice President of Marketing, Business and Strategic Development during her tenure at Gracenote until October 2001. No longer affiliated with Gracenote, Ms. Greenberg currently works as an independent consultant in the Bay Area. While at ION, Ms. Greenberg produced the recording industry’s first enhanced audio CD titles, including David Bowie’s “Jump” and “Headcandy” from Brian Eno. Greenberg designed the Jump’s groundbreaking interactive video, and produced the world’s first musician-hosted chat with David Bowie in 1994 – a format that has become standard practice in launching albums. Greenberg transitioned ION’s enhanced CD technology and business models into implementations that use the Web and are being utilized at Gracenote today. Prior to founding ION, Greenberg was the head of marketing for the Academy Award winning Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation, whose over 60 films include: Wall Street, True Stories, Talk Radio, Reversal of Fortune, Hoffa, Bad Lieutenant, The Crow and Judge Dredd. Ms. Greenberg studied Architecture and Cinema and earned a degree in Creative Arts & Cinema from California State University at San Francisco.

Scott A. Jones – Chairman of the Board and co-Founder
Scott Jones carefully sculpted the Gracenote company into existence by acquiring pivotal enabling technologies from CDDB, ION, Escient, Quintessential Player, and Cantametrix. He served as the company’s Chairman/CEO from 1998 to 2001 and is now Chairman of the Board. Jones raised significant capital, recruited a talented management team, contributed technology and intellectual property, and strategically guided Gracenote to pursue market segments that are the foundation of the Company’s success.

More about Sony Corporation of America

Sony Corporation of America, based in New York, NY, is a U.S. subsidiary of Sony Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo. Sony is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its motion picture, television, computer entertainment, music and online businesses make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony’s principal U.S. businesses include Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and a 50% interest in Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the largest recorded music companies in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $70.3 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007, and it employs 163,000 people worldwide. Sony’s consolidated sales in the U.S. for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007 were $18.9 billion. 

More

http://www.gracenote.com/
http://www.gracenote.com/company_info/press/042208/
https://doors.gracenote.com/developer/
http://www.sony.com
http://www.sony.com/SCA/index.shtml
http://www.streetinsider.com/Press%2BReleases/Sony%2BCorporation%2Bof%2BAmerica%2Bto%2BAcquire%2BGracenote/3566949.html
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/22/sony-buys-gracenote-for-260m/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/gracenote
http://www.techmeme.com/080422/p141#a080422p141
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_Music_Initiative

MeeVee put itself up for sale

An interesting approach is taken at MeeVee. They are trying to sell themselves through a press release. This morning we have seen a short press announcement put up on Yahoo through BusinessWire giving relatively short details about the company and soliciting interested parties to contact a person at his email as indicated in the pr.

MeeVee is all about personalized TV guides and the company was said is having over 1.1 million organic unique users in March up from 480,000 in August 2007. The Company uses its editorial voice and proprietary technology to scour a curated list of thousands of sources to connect consumers with customized video, blog and TV programming content that matches their interests. The Company has significant issued IP, community, media relationships, a TV listings personalization engine, streaming TV directory and a compelling product roadmap. The Company has 7 full time employees, all in product and engineering.

So, what’s so interesting in here one may ask. First off in the press release the company claims is engaged in multiple discussions with potential acquirers that provide the greatest long term upside and synergy, but are giving a public announcement where they solicit more such interested parties to discuss with them. It is either nobody is interested in the company to date and they are trying to attract such interest or the interested parties are setting their offers too low and MeeVee is trying to establish sort of bidding war in order to drive valuations up.  You don’t normally ask for interested parties to contact a company re a sale unless the current talks (if any) aren’t going well.

So far so good, but when you go into some more details about the company you realize there is something wrong with the whole situation around MeeVee.

The company is known to have taken $25M in total funding to date and having just 1.1M ungues per month off $25M in venture capital appears no longer that attractive as in it was in first reading. That sort of information is skipped in their original press release. Their last round of funding (Series D) was taken just late last year and was in the $3.5M range, which means they have spent most, if not all, of the money they have previously taken. As to what is only left in the company from their last round remains unclear. To top it off the company has gone through some significant layoffs.

Some of MeeVee’s unhappy investors include DEFTA Partners, Edmond de Rothschild Venture Capital, WaldenVC, Labrador Ventures, The Bay Area Equity Fund (Effective January 24, 2008 the private equity investment professionals of the Bay Area Equity Fund have left JPMorgan to form DBL Investors LLC) and FCPR Israel Discovery Fund.

Over the past years we have been witnessing not only one deal where a web site with over 1M unique visitor per month has commanded acquisition prices in the $20M range, but in the MeeVee’s case we do not think that is the case. Why? Well, MeeVeee has spent $25M so far, has laid off its employees and is on its way down. If you have spent $25M the expectations for your company are for much larger reach and audience than just 1.1M visitors per month, so in the case their 1M users per month can be considered quite a failure in the context of the resources being allocated to the company.  The picture is already quite different if you take for an example a web site that has reached the 1M uniques per month mark off say less than $1M of money invested in so far, did not lay off its employees and is not on its way down as a trend on the traffic graphs of sites like Quantcast and Compete.

Whatever the case is it is hard for us to believe that 1.1M uniques per month can command a price anything above the amount of money they have taken from an army of venture capitalists. So what is then the case here? It is perhaps that the VCs are looking for a way to effectively liquidate the company and recoup whatever is possible leaving the founders with literally empty hands.

More about MeeVee

Discovering what’s online and on TV.

MeeVee is the leader in helping people navigate the growing world of online and television entertainment. Each month, over a million tech savvy, affluent and educated online users visit MeeVee to help make their entertainment choices.  These people are passionate about entertainment, and visit MeeVee again and again to track their favorites and to discover and share new entertainment choices.

Why? Today’s consumers are overwhelmed by the millions of online videos and hundreds of digital TV channels now available. MeeVee is the first destination to bring together traditional TV listings and online video from hundreds of sources in one place. Using our patented technology, consumers can personalize MeeVee to search for new TV and online video based on their interests. At MeeVee, our mission is to help them discover more of what they want to see.

Located in Burlingame, CA, MeeVee initially launched in 2005 as a television listings provider.  Using innovative new technologies, MeeVee changed the way consumers find TV programming by enabling them to personalize their guides to surface new programming choices based on people, shows, hobbies and keywords of interest. Now MeeVee is applying that same technology to the growing world of online video, helping individuals to cut through the clutter and discover interesting videos.  Today, MeeVee employs more than thirty enthusiasts who are passionate about our mission of helping consumers discover and enjoy the media they want to see. 

Supported by leading advertisers, including CBS, Netflix, Radio Shack and more, MeeVee also syndicates and licenses our television search and personalization services to leading newspapers, major online content providers and cable operators around the country. Our partners include some of the largest integrated media companies, including Gannett, Hearst and Media News Group. Our list of syndication partners is growing daily and includes USA Today, The Chicago Sun Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the Seattle Times.  Our investors, who have supported some of Silicon Valley’s most successful ventures, include JP Morgan, Labrador Ventures, Walden Venture Capital, Defta Partners, and Rothschild Ventures.

TechCrunch has called MeeVee, “an easy-to-use application and…a nice model for building a personalized web experience.”  MeeVee is a 2007 “Always On” Media 100 winner.

Well, in some of the latest posts about MeeVee on Techcrunch are surely not as positive as the sentence above and MeeVee is as of today put in the dead pool watch list.
More

http://meevee.com/
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080407/20080407006076.html 
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/07/25-million-later-meevee-in-trouble/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/meevee
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/16/meevee-cuts-20-of-staff/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/20/meevee-takes-35-million-series-d/
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=17395
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Feb_27/ai_n16085490
http://www.techmeme.com/080407/p95#a080407p95
http://www.deftapartners.com/
http://www.labrador.com/
http://www.waldenvc.com/
http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmorgan/investbk/global/na/baef

Apparently not all companies find April Fools Jokes funny

This is certainly the case with Bill Gates’s privately held company Corbis Corporation. The company’s PR guys out there have certainly taken them far too serious and have last week threatened a tiny Norwegian micro stock photography agency called Crestock with legal action over an apparent April Fools joke made by the company in a recent press release.

Ok, what’s the story all about after all. Lets put it that way: Crestock has put up a press release announcing the acquisition of Corbis in a deal valued over $600M rebranding their logo and giving Corbis independency after the deal closes. Here is the original press release as it initially appeared on Web.  Today there is clarification on the web site

Bill Gates’ Corbis Corporation is one the worlds largest stock photography sites and being acquired by a small player in the sector was kind of distasteful for them to see and they have reacted almost immediately by threatening the tiny company with legal actions.

We think Corbis has gone too far and the “megalomanic” press release, as the Norway company describes it, is more suitable as label for the Corbis’s behavior.

On the other side there is something that bothers in the press release on first reading – its seriousness and a few high-profile investors and institutions claimed to have been involved into the acquisition. Compared to Corbis with its $250M revenues per year Crestock appears quite a start up like company and perhaps no one would have taken their announcement for real if it was not the claim there are some large-scale and high-profile organizations and investors being involved in to the foolish press release such as “Scandinavian group of investors”, the Norwegian government fund organization: Innovation Norway and the European Union’s Media II Programme, whose purpose is to encourage the development and distribution of European audiovisual works. 

We think this is what made the press release read and look beyond the common April Fools jokes and have Corbis’s lawyers and PR guys pissed off.

Over the past several years corporate April fools jokes became a trend among rivals. Around April 1 every year there are thousands of April fools press releases and announcements about potential deals, acquisitions and beyond, but perhaps none is ending up in the court, if any.

Not long after the press release was posted, Corbis Corporation was notified about the story. Dan Perlet, Director of Communications, promptly went to action, emailing Crestock Public Relations representatives:

“On behalf of Corbis Corporation, I strongly suggest that you remove the April Fools press release on your website that suggests Crestock has purchased Corbis. We ask that this release be removed from your website immediately, or we may be forced to consider legal action.”

“We in no way intended to mislead or otherwise conduct ourselves in an illegal or inappropriate manner,” Crestock CEO, Geir Are Jensen stated in a statement early today.

“Receiving emails like this spices things up in your everyday work routine” Jensen, Crestock CEO continued, “Of course we didn’t remove the obvious April Fools joke, but in case the second richest man in the world comes after us with his pack of lawyers after him. We’ll have to set aside a monthly sum to cover the expenses.”

More about Creystock

Crestock`s aim is to play a leading role in the micropayment stock photo business.

The photography trade is undergoing a revolution as digital cameras and internet distribution lower the prices to a minimum. There are a few succesful companies in this particular sector of the photo business. Our goal is to be among the most sucessful  – as soon as possible. And then move further.

We emphasize:

– A high level of image quality – in fact the highest in the business
– An inspiring, fast and utterly relevant search experience for buyers
– A strong and vibrant community, based on forums and the unique and personal member console
– A friendly and warm service, even though we are the northernmost photo bureau we know of

More about Corbis

Corbis is a creative resource for advertising, marketing and media professionals worldwide, helping to bring creative work to life with the highest quality photography, footage and rights services. Corbis offers a preeminent collection of more than 100 million creative, entertainment and historic images, a comprehensive footage library, the world’s deepest rights and clearances expertise and an award-winning media management solution, as well as empowering SnapVillage, an innovative microstock web site. Based in Seattle, Corbis serves more than 50 countries worldwide. Corbis is privately held by its Chairman Bill Gates, who founded the company in 1989.

Story picked from EPR Network

More

http://www.crestock.com/news/crestock-stock-photos-acquires-corbis-for-625-million-175.aspx
http://express-press-release.com/48/Corbis%20threatens%20Crestock%20with%20legal%20action%20over%20April%20Fools%20Joke.php
http://www.crestock.com/
http://www.crestock.com/blog/
http://www.corbis.com/
http://www.crestock.com/news/corbis-threatens-with-legal-actions-over-april-fools-joke-176.aspx
 

fix8 takes more money to fiddle around animated avatars

It was just a few months ago when fix8 took their first round of funding from Vickers Venture Group. The amount taken was then $3M. Vickers Venture Group is a Singapore-based private equity firm. This time the company says it has landed SK Telecom, which is a leading South Korean telecom, taking some $3M more to make it $5M in total funding. Fix8’s first part of the funding took place last year in October. 

SK Telecom has also awarded Fix8 a contract “to lead the development of SKT’s 3D avatar animation technology to enhance mobile and online communications.”

Fix8 is a web cam avatar community that lets you create animated avatars with your web cam by reading your expressions and gestures. When we took a look into their web site we have discovered tons of tools that you can play around with, including fix8’s wide selection of pre-made avatars and other accessories like voice manipulation, graphics and editing tools. Those clips can easily be embedded in your website or social networking profile, or use it for your instant messaging client like AOL, MSN, Skype or Yahoo Messenger.

Fix8 has recently teamed up with a couple of other companies like Pringo and Stickam. fix8 has also expanded its signature technology through a key partnership with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) offering Auditions(TV) to create a new world of Interactive TV where audiences can submit fix8 content for insertion into LIVE or taped programming. fix8 will further bridge the gap between communication devices with the launch of fix8 MOBILE.

Fix8 has also teamed up with Camfess, the premier site for online confessions. The ability to choose your own level of “incremental anonymity” and “confess” without anyone knowing who you are makes Camfess and Fix8 the “perfect fit.”

While we kept on researching around for more information we came across the following user review on the service. Gave it a try for fun. The idea is great but they have a way to go.

  1. It does not work if you have glasses on, and some people’s eyes do not work with them off.
  2. I did not play around long enough to have my body in the picture also, but from the image above it seems the avatar sits in front of the user. It needs to be placed around them so that when users turn their heads sideways, you can not see their head, but the side of the avatar’s head.
  3. It could not see my mouth moving unless I tilted my head backwards so as to get more light on my face (I have a fluorescent light above me so my room aint dark).

Fix8 is based in Sherman Oaks, CA and is a division of Mobinex, Inc.

More about fix8

Fix8 is a unique interactive communication application that allows people to customize their on-screen virtual appearance in real-time using avatar technology and creative accessories. Fix8 integrates human expression analysis and rendering capabilities, avatar/facial sculpting and animation technology, voice manipulation, and one click 3D face maker design capabilities in one package. Fix8 can create live streaming enhanced video to integrate into IM or other broadcast (such as TV) experiences, or record still images and fully-rendered videos.

While certain elements of the Fix8 product line can be found in the competitive landscape, the core technology to provide real-time animation in a consumer oriented application is unduplicated. Further, the specific feature set(s) offered in the Fix8 product line is unique and disruptive.

Fix8 differentiates itself from the competitive set by offering a unique easy to use application that incorporates avatar technology, 2D/3D facial accessories and flash animated accessories, voice masking and altering, and the ability to for a user to create their own individual set of avatars through use of photorealistic images all married with Fix8’s own IP that analyzes and renders human expressions so that the rich animated creations match the movements of the user in real-time for use in video and streaming.

Fix8 has coined the term user-generated reality to define the broad spectrum of creative self-expressive user-generated animation in real-time. Fix8 enhances the entertainment and enriches the communication experience of its clients’ customers by breathing new life into digital channels across multiple mediums.

The team

Linh Duy Tang, but you can call him “TANG”
President / CEO
 
Mr. Linh Tang is a senior executive (but he is really quite young at heart) with a demonstrated record of accomplishment in worldwide business operations. Tang’s vast experience in technology, operations and management make him the ideal fit to lead Fix8 on its mission to revolutionize virtual communication and expression. Tang is responsible for more than just Fix8’s vision and strategy; he is responsible for driving the “Innovation Bus” all the way to the user. A veteran of several startups with 15+ years in IT and consumer goods industries, Tang is – quite simply – THE MAN.
 
Chuning Ho, our very own voice of reason
Vice President of Operations
 
Ms. Chuning Ho brings over 17 years experience in application development, project deployment, executive management and business operations to the Fix8 team. As a founding member of the management team from initial start-up to present, Chuning knows where all the bodies are buried. Her main responsibilities include (but are not limited to) resources management, process standardization and communication strategy establishment and implementation. Chuning also manages to keep the entire team in check almost effortlessly. She is Fix8’s own secret weapon.
 
Scott Freeman, he sees dead people
Vice President of Finance
 
Mr. Scott Freeman brings extensive financial management experience to the Fix8 team. Scott did hard time with Deloitte & Touche, working in their entrepreneurial division, before he made his move to California Suncare, Inc. where he was instrumental in growing the company from $3M in revenue to $45M and assisted in its sale to a private equity firm for approximately $88M. Long story short, Scott knows how to make money and can see a deal well over a mile away. With a wife that is a successful interior designer, a daughter who is an artistic savant and a son who is a terror on the soccer field, Scott doesn’t have to work but he believes in Fix8 and, honestly, someone needs to keep Jake and Dinesh in check.
 
Dinesh Bhatia, proving that there are nice guys in sales
Vice President of Sales
 
Mr. Dinesh Bhatia brings direct experience in the wireless, television, Internet and software industries to the Fix8 team. Dinesh is a pretty smart guy; he graduated from Washington University with double degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College, London. Dinesh loves the disruptive creation and generation process of the software development community and is responsible for building strong partnerships to enhance the Fix8 user experience through added competitions and connectivity. In his spare time, he loves fiddling around with computers, gadgets, his saxophone and keyboards, photography, astronomy and spending time with his family. Dinesh also loves long walks on the beach – but this is not a personals ad – so let’s stop here.
 
Raphael Ko, it is rumored that he has brothers named Donatello, Leonardo and Michelangelo
Vice President of Engineering
 
Mr. Raphael Ko brings extensive experience in software development and information technologies management to the Fix8 team. Directly responsible for Fix8’s engineering activities, Raphael has drawn upon his 10+ years in software development as well as managing key projects in wireless applications, ERP, and IT services. Raphael’s love of photography and digital imagery fit right in with the Fix8 mission. Not much is known about Raphael’s past, in fact we can’t exactly put our finger on his start date either. One day he just suddenly appeared, fully formed and working (in all honesty) harder than the rest of us, so we let him stay. We still don’t know how he has the time to do what he does and still read all those issues of “Conan the Future Boy;” but some questions are best left unanswered.
 
Hao Zhou, Kevin Bacon stole the idea of six degrees from this guy
Vice President for Sales – China
 
Hao Zhou is a senior executive with an outstanding background in digital television and the new media industry. Shortly after learning how to crawl, Hao began his career as a system engineer, and quickly his work history grew to include sales and promotions of CATV, digital TV, broadband business, indoor and lift media and wireless value-add business. You know that guy who can do anything and has somehow managed to have successfully had every job available in the time it took you to pour your morning coffee? Yeah, well, Hao’s that guy. Hao’s ambition is what has brought him to the Fix8 team with one simple mission: Make Fix8 the next star shining over greater China. If anyone can do it, it’s certainly Hao. He’s our very own Hercules.

About Vickers Venture Partners.

The Vickers Financial Group is the venture capital arm of the Vickers Capital Group, an Asian investment house investing in alternative assets. Vickers Venture Partners is a leading venture capital firm focusing on early stage, high growth companies focused on Asian markets. The firm’s competency stems from the fact that its decision-makers have been part of and hence well-acquainted with the pulse of diverse domains.
 
The market

From what we were able to dig up it seems the space is extremely crowded. The competition include weblin.com, Meez.com, SecondLife, mypictr, gizmoz.com, miieditor, simpsonsmovie.com, gickr.com, Gravatar.com, imvu.com, Zwinky, digibody.com, Faketown, doppelme, SitePal, gaiaonline, imbee, myrl.com, Kaneva, blogoscoped.com, mojikan, frenzoo.com, clickbeurs.nl, Mr. Picassohead, whyrobbierocks.com, weeworld, and voki.com, among others.

More

http://www.sktelecom.com/
http://fix8.com/
http://www.vickersfinancial.com/
http://www.pehub.com/article/articledetail.php?articlepostid=11271
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/03/fix8-takes-2-million-series-a/
https://web2innovations.com/money/2008/02/17/fix8-has-taken-3m-for-animated-avatars-for-your-cam/
http://mashable.com/2007/10/15/fix8-funded/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/15/fix8-raises-3-million/
http://mashable.com/2007/09/12/avatars/
http://mashable.com/2007/06/26/fix8-stickam/
http://webmaster.stickam.com/2007/06/fix8_partners_with_stickam_to.html
http://www.camfess.com/contents.php?cid=16
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/31/fix8-brings-computer-generated-animation-to-the-webcam/

 

More instructional videos on the horizon

Creating educational and instructional videos, clips and episodes is something hot lately. The space is crowded and has just emerged from the popularization of the online video sector. MindBites is yet another player jumping the bandwagon. MindBites is a self-publishing platform and social marketplace for instructional content, which enables people to share their unique knowledge, skills and passions through audio and video lessons, earning money for themselves or for charity.

Creating a marketplace where user-generated content becomes a commerce-driven supply for those out there in need of instructional videos is something said to set MindBites apart from its competitors.

MindBites has just raised $1M in series A round of funding from True Ventures.

Jason Reneau is the company’s CEO and founder.

Competitors include Expert Village, VideoJug, Sclipo, Graspr, Instructables, SuTree, Howcast, among others.

More about MindBites

Who we are
Introducing MindBites, your place on the web to learn directly from other real people and share what you know with the world. A self-publishing platform and social marketplace for instructional content, MindBites enables people to share their unique knowledge, skills and passions through audio and video lessons, earning money for themselves or for charity. The result is a unique community of discovery with content that simply can’t be found anywhere else – from Teaching your Baby Sign Language, to Cooking Tandori Chicken, to Surviving a Knife Attack. By enabling people to learn, connect and share as never before, MindBites promises to revolutionize the way the world shares knowledge. MindBites – What do you know?

What We Believe
Our belief is that the world is at the dawn of a new era in the sharing of knowledge. Led by the ubiquity of the Internet and drastic improvements in the accessibility of digital media technology, we are experiencing the largest increase in the global sharing of knowledge since Gutenberg invented moveable type. The bottom line is that today we can be connected, from one mind to another, like never before in the history of the world (please speak in your best James Earl Jones voice). We are inspired to be living in such an exciting time and playing a part in these historic trends.

Our Team
Our team is an ever expanding group of unique, talented and fun (if not a little goofy) individuals. As a group, we have experience from such varied institutions as Whole Foods, Harvard Business School, Burnt Orange Productions, McKinsey and Company, FreeMarkets, and Kiva Systems, to name a few. We have worked in such areas as web development, e-commerce, professional education, TV and film production, design, sales, marketing and entrepreneurial ventures. Most importantly though, we’re a group that includes bad but aspiring chefs, gardeners, artists, bartenders, golfers and foosball players. We own old houses and have no idea how to fix them. We’d like to learn foreign languages, have dreamed of knowing martial arts, and are always trying to figure out how to use our latest technical gadget. Simply put, we love learning, and that’s why we’re here.

There are too many people who have already touched MindBites to mention, but to list a few: our development team is from Squeejee.com led by Wynn Netherland, Jeff Kramer designed and manages our infrastructure, and Matt Warchola built our smack player. Matt “MattDaddyC” Chapman is responsible for our funky web design, and John Rubio deserves credit for the original MindBites logo. Ellen Ambrose has been our author recruiter extraordinaire, and our production team has been a group effort from Brittanie Flegle, Keith Fraase, Matt James and Sarah Moore, among others. The bozo in the back of the boat manning the rudder (and sitting on top of the ice chest) is Jason Reneau. Happily swimming along behind the boat is Chelsea, our unofficial mascot. Shout out also to our ex-lead-developer-turned-doctor, Matt Sanders.

Our Technology
MindBites is built with Ruby on Rails and oodles of CSS goodness, with light sprinkles of Flash and AJAX thrown in for good measure. We serve our media in Flash and Quicktime (for the most part). MindBites simply wouldn’t have been possible without a bevy of fantastic open source software that makes our lives so much happier – thanks guys! We’ve built additional super-secret technology to keep the ship sailing smoothly even through troubled waters. We could tell you about it, but of course then we’d have to kill you…

On the production side, we have made a concerted effort to use consumer-level technology and tools. We film everything that we do or help out on with sub-$500 mini-DV camcorders, and we typically edit with Final Cut (although we dabble with a range of Windows and Mac software). Our most critical piece of technology though is our Braun coffeemaker, without which all MindBites productivity would screech to a halt.

More

http://www.mindbites.com/
http://blog.mindbites.com/
http://mashable.com/2008/03/20/mindbites/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mindbites
http://www.trueventures.com/
http://Squeejee.com

Gaming is hot in China; 9You raised $100M, talks IPO

After reporting on SpinVox’s massive $100M round of funding it seems there is more to come within the same money range – this time from mainland China.

9You, a Chinese online games operator, has received $100 million in equity investment from Temasek Holdings, among other investors. Well, any time someone talks $100M funding rounds the IPO plans are not that far away in the future. The company says is planning an IPO later this year. The investment was said is to the company to continue transforming its business into an entertainment virtual community. The investment came after 9You’s launch of GTown, a virtual world integrating 9You’s existing online games.

Founded in 2003, 9You is currently operating one of China’s most popular online casual games Audition. By February 2008, the company’s games combined have more than 1 million peak concurrent users. The company claims it has reached over 120M registered users in 2006.

It was hard for us to dig some more public information about the deal. Most of the information came from Redline China, which is operated by Pearl Research a San Francisco based business intelligence and consultancy firm.

More about 9You

Nineyou (www.9you.com) (Shanghai Everstar Online Entertainment Co .Ltd.) is the global’s biggest music online game operator, China’s biggest casual game operator, one of biggest interactive entertainment portal sites in China, which is the first to integrate online game services (MMORPG, massive and medium size casual games, mobile game, etc.), fashional digital entertainment contents, a variety of chatting and community services equipped with Avatar System, wireless value-added services and other premiere services to the Chinese language internet users all over the world. With its wide-coverage for all major types of user needs related with digital entertainment service, the 9you.com represents the latest service style and the newest trend for the digital entertainment provider business in China Market. A series of awards and ranking are obtained by 9you.com in 2005 which include Top 10 Online Game Operator in China, and Top 10 Online Game Developer in China, the Cool Company, Shanghai First-class Service Brand in Information Service Industry, etc.

The major investors in Nineyou are several leading international venture capital funds, including the Carlyle Group, which is the world’s largest private investment group, China Merchant Fortune Ventures, and Dragon Groove Inc. who has the background as international strategic investor.

As an integrated service platform for all types of interactive entertainment services, the major business objective of the 9you.com is to bring the best, fastest, all-covered and coolest digital entertainment services to its subscribers of a wide range of ages, including the hard-cored and the light users, male and female users. As of May 2006, the number of total registered users has reached 120 million and the number of the peak concurrent users has reached 800 thousand.

The 9you.com are providing more digital entertainment products in year 2006 and the number of products and types of services will be the No.1 in the whole China Online Game Service industry in the foreseeable future.

More about Temasek Holdings

Temasek Holdings is an Asia investment house headquartered in Singapore.

With a multinational staff of more than 300 people, we manage a portfolio of over S$160 billion, or more than US$100 billion, focused primarily in Asia. We are committed to fostering a sustainable future for our shareholder, staff, portfolio companies and
the community.

We are an active shareholder and investor in diverse industry sectors such as banking & financial services, real estate, transportation & logistics, infrastructure, telecommunications & media, bioscience & healthcare, education, consumer & lifestyle, engineering & technology, as well as energy & resources.

Our total shareholder return since our inception is more than 18% compounded annually. We have a corporate credit rating of AAA/Aaa by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s respectively.

In 2008, The Economist reported that Morgan Stanley had estimated the fund’s assets at US$159.2 billion

More

http://www.9you.com/
http://mashable.com/2008/03/21/9you-funding/
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-chinese-gaming-site-9you-receives-100-million-investment/
http://www.redlinechina.com/main/?q=node/740
http://www.temasekholdings.com.sg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temasek_Holdings

A new way to build your Google Maps

These days we came across a tiny French based company called Click2Map that is providing an interesting editor for creating mash-ups with Google Maps. You can there create fully customizable interactive professional online maps from existing data and the editor also offers database and template functionalities. They have just added a powerful template system coupled with a highly versatile database engine that allows professional users to store data and use it wherever they need to in fully customizable templates.

The Metz, France based Click2Map is a powerful online mapping application published by the Click2Map company. Click2Map puts all the power of Web 2.0 at the service of its users: its familiar point-and-click interface makes creating and sharing interactive online maps a snap. Everyone can now create rich and customized online maps without writing a single line of code!

Click2Map’s editor allows users to create markers and POIs using a familiar application environment and provides convenient access to existing markers. Advanced users appreciate the possibility to create an unlimited number of maps including unlimited numbers of markers and optional groups.

Importing groups and markers now takes another dimension with the possibility to use variables extensively: all the information stored in your personal database can now be inserted wherever needed in each and every marker thanks to Click2Map’s dynamic variable engine! No matter how many personal data categories and fields, Click2Map automatically generates the corresponding variables that you can instantly use: creating large quantities of personalized markers has never been easier!

Click2Map’s enhanced import/export system provides an efficient means to integrate existing data into online maps and to exchange information with third party applications. The recent addition of an exclusive statistic engine helps professionals track their maps’ consultations and the way they’re used by visitors: the popularity of each map and marker can now be tracked in real time.

By allowing companies to create fully customized online Google Maps based on their existing data, Click2Map provides them with unprecedented means of promoting their business online.

Click2Map SARL is a leading French provider of GeoWeb Solutions. Click2Map is its flagship product, an easy to use online application to create, manage and publish online professional maps without any knowledge of programming. Click2Map SARL also provides full technical support and customization of its Click2Map Editor and Maps Generator.

Story was picked up from EPR Network.

More

http://www.click2map.com/
http://blog.click2map.com/
http://wiki.click2map.com/
http://express-press-release.com/47/Click2Map%20Adds%20Template%20and%20Database%20Features%20to%20Google%20Maps.php

Jivox, yet another video ad network, has raised $2.7M

The funding was led by Opus Capital and also includes investments from individual investors including Jivox founder Diaz Nesamoney. The funds will be used to continue development of the Jivox online video advertising platform, as well as to expand the company’s sales and marketing efforts. No other names of private investors are publicly disclosed.

Jivox is a web-based video advertising service enabling businesses to better communicate their products and services to a micro-targeted audience in a more customized, relevant way than most traditional mass advertising methods, and internet banners and search engines. Jivox is headquartered in San Mateo, California with offices in Bangalore and Delhi in India.

Jivox in a way looks similar to SpotRunner with their pre-made ads for the TV and cable networks, but is being said to be way cheaper than them.

There’s absolutely no cost associated with creating your ads with Jivox AdSlate. Once you create the ad you like to air, then you set your daily, weekly or monthly ad budget. There are no minimums on the budget you set. Just purchase the amount of highly targeted ad inventory as your budget allows rather than the large block purchases required for most video advertising today. You can change your budget at any time.

Jivox AdSlate will optimize your advertising spend by negotiating the lowest cost possible to air your ads with Jivox Video Network Partner sites and maximize your exposure. Jivox will automatically match your ads with the audience that is most likely to respond favorably to your campaign. The cost of airing your ads is typically between $10-$40 range for each 1000 views (CPM).

“To date, video advertising has only been accessible to the large brand advertisers due to the high costs of production and placement on TV. The explosive growth in online video content is creating an opportunity for mid-sized and local businesses to harness the power of the internet to reach consumers. Jivox is enabling mass adoption of an advertising medium that is much more engaging and effective than search and display advertising due to its visual impact,” said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and CEO of Jivox. “We’re very pleased that Opus Capital and our other investors also see the enormous potential of opening up this market to smaller advertisers.”

“By making online video advertising a possibility for more advertisers, Jivox will accelerate broader adoption of the medium,” said Gill Cogan, general partner, Opus Capital. “As an early investor in Informatica and Celequest, we have had a strong long-term relationship with Diaz, and I’ve seen first-hand how he has been able to turn an idea into a product, and then evolve the product to stay one step ahead of the changing needs of the market. We are looking forward to supporting Diaz and the Jivox team as they build Jivox into a successful business.”

The market

Video advertising is promising to be huge opportunity online and the sector is extremely competitive with new players entering every couple of weeks. Venture capitals also do think the online video advertising holds the chances to be the next big thing on Internet to bring billions of revenues in and are pouring big money into start-ups with the hope they come up to the groundbreaking technology that might shake the sector and make them the huge ROI.   

No matter what standard for video ads the sector might adopt – pre-roll ads, mid-roll adspost-roll ads, watermark ads, viral ads or overlay ads, the undisputed leader remains Google’s YouTube with its huge number of eyeballs. That’s why the smaller players are focusing not on the reach but on different approaches and technologies to more effectively serve, track and measure these video ads. The video ads are in their infancy on Web and there is plenty of room for innovation and growth and all those small start-up companies hold their good chances for success.

Some companies, as we know them, include BlackArrow, BrightRoll, XillianTVPodaddies, VMIX and MeeVee. BrightRoll video ad network itself has raises $5 Million while VMIX, yet another video network company has also raised a whopping amount of money $16.5M to expand its business. Other video advertising players include Revver, VideoEgg’s TheEggNetwork, ScanScout, Adap.tv, AdBrite’s InVideo platform, BroadRamp and Blinkx.

eMarketer predicts online video advertising to nearly double in 2008 to $1.3 billion, but no one’s really nailed a scalable ad platform for video. However, Google’s been quietly testing their own system and there are a bunch of other startups tackling it as well.

More about Jivox

Jivox is an exciting new online video advertising service that gives businesses that want to advertise on the Internet a better, personalized way to communicate their products and services to a micro-targeted audience. If your Internet advertising is not as effective as it used to be, or you are looking for a new way to get your message to your customers via rich visuals and video, Jivox can help.

Jivox helps you create, target and deliver professional video advertising on the Internet – going way beyond the search engine or banner ads – without spending a lot of time and money on producing your ad. Our proprietary technology helps you pinpoint your ads to the exact geographic, behavioral or demographic audiences you need to reach on the web. Here’s how: 

1. Create your own video ad
The Jivox AdSlate self-service video ad maker enables you to use our vast library of stock images, video clips and music to create your own ad or you can take your existing materials (such as a digital picture of your storefront, product shots, head shots, logos, etc.) and insert important information like your contact information, website, special discounts and promotions. See sample ads created with Jivox AdSlate Minutes later, you can be delivering your new ad on our extensive video network. See how it works.

Or, if you have an existing commercial you are using on Cable T.V., you can easily upload and use that to advertise on the Jivox Video Network. Or, let us build your ad for you.

2. Identify your target audience
Jivox delivers tailored, branded advertising to viewers based on their interests, enabling you to maximize your direct response opportunities. The Jivox Video Network delivers your video advertisement to your audience using geographic, demographic, behavioral and contextual intelligence.

Jivox has developed sophisticated algorithms that determine the best web sites and video content in which to serve your ad.

3. Define your budget and timing for your advertising campaign
Even if you have a limited budget, you can start your video ad campaign now with the Jivox Video Network. You can identify specific times of day, days of the week and other important choices or even run Time-of-Day/Day-of-Week ads on an introductory budget. Unlike most other forms of TV and web advertising, with Jivox, you only pay for ads that were actually viewed on a web site. More on Pricing.

The exclusive Jivox Ad Campaign Reports gives you advanced intelligence to optimize your advertising. You can then review the results to make intelligent decisions about how to improve or expand your media choices.

Jivox was founded in 2007 by Diaz Nesamoney, the visionary entrepreneur behind
Informatica (Nasdaq: INFA) and Celequest (acquired in 2007 by Cognos). Jivox aims to
bring the power of online video advertising to the mass market.

Management team

Diaz Nesamoney, Founder & CEO
Diaz Nesamoney founder of Jivox has had two prior successful ventures.  Before founding Jivox, he founded Celequest, raised over $20M in venture capital, and served as its CEO until early 2007, when the company was acquired by Cognos Corporation.  Celequest introduced the market’s first BI appliance, a disruptive innovation that led to its acquisition by Cognos. He was previously co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer at Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA), which he took from a startup to a publicly traded company in 1999 with a market capitalization of over a billion dollars.  Informatica pioneered data integration software as a category and is now the market leader with over $400M in revenue. Diaz is a trustee of the American India Foundation, a leading international development organization charged with the mission of accelerating social and economic change in India. Diaz holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.

Naren Nachiappan, Managing Director, Jivox India
Naren Nachiappan comes to Jivox from Wind River (NASDAQ:WIND), where as Vice President and General Manager, he was a part of the executive team responsible for reigniting growth and adding over $100 million to the top line in three years. Naren was directly responsible for taking the Device Management business from a concept to a multimillion-dollar revenue rate in under 9 quarters. At Wind River, Naren established the company’s first product development team in Bangalore, India, with a zero percent attrition rate through his three-year tenure. Earlier in his career, as CEO of Proceler and as Senior VP at VenturCom (acquired by Citrix), he was responsible for pioneering several industry innovations such as “the first support for automated application acceleration using hybrid SoCs” which resulted in Proceler’s nomination for the 2001 MPR Analysts choice award, and the first flight-essential certified UNIX for avionics applications on the Boeing 777. Naren graduated cum laude from Harvard University and holds an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Parth Chandra, Chief Architect
Parth has over 14 years of experience in the software industry in the field of Data Integration and Business Intelligence. Parth has worked most recently at Insights On-Demand, where he was the Chief Architect. Before Insights, he worked at Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA) as a Sr. Software Architect where he was part of the founding team that was responsible for software design and development of their market leading Data Integration products. Prior to Informatica he held software engineering positions at Citicorp Software and Neuron Data where he designed and implemented large scale financial transaction systems and cross platform development environments. Parth holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore.

More about Opus Capital

Opus Capital Group is an alternative assets firm with more than $1 billion in committed capital under management. Since 1971, Opus Capital’s predecessor funds have invested in more than 350 companies spanning multiple industries.

More
 
http://www.jivox.com/
http://www.jivox.com/Jivox_funding_release_final.pdf
http://www.opuscapital.com/
http://mashable.com/2008/03/10/jivox/
http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2007/05/jivox_stealth_m.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-self-service-video-ad-provider-jivox-closes-27-million-seed-round/
http://venturebeat.com/2008/03/09/jivox-offers-simple-online-video-ads-for-small-businesses-raises-round/
http://www.redherring.com/Home/23889
https://web2innovations.com/money/2008/03/09/video-advertising-networks-are-hot-brightroll-gets-its-second-round-claims-it-already-served-over-1-billion-video-ads/