Friday, May 11, 2007

Joost rocketh

Got my invite to Joost (I meant Hulu ;)) this afternoon and I can only say that this will (make that still can) be a massive supernova success. Think completely accessible, free and remote VOD. With the integration of standard ads (pre-roll) to premium content from the likes of MTV and Comedy Central, there's little to no reason why content providers wouldn't openly participate (least none that I can think of). There are hiccups in the service - video play can get a bit staccato, you need to scroll through a lot of content - but the beta is really impressive. The ability to stream full shows via P2P, combined with an attractive, stupid simple interface will make this super viral once officially launched.

With two kids in the house, the wife and I use Comcast on Demand a ton in the house (Dora the Explorer on demand is a parent's best friend). With a few more premium shows (Thomas the Tank!, Bob the Builder, you know the good stuff), Joost will be a constant in my home/laptop, and I get the feeling in millions of others as well. And no, I'm not getting paid for this post :)

P.S. - Hulu essentially upended Joost on content and ease of use (browser access). So just replace all the Joost comments above with Hulu and I can retain a little dignity :)

Monday, May 07, 2007

MySpace acquires Photobucket

Techcrunch confirmed the rumor that MySpace acquired Photobucket for $250M in cash. We're obviously big fans of MySpace and have a good relationship with their team. Acquiring Photobucket provides them with the single largest photo hosting company in the world. Much like the acquisition of MySpace for $580M by News Corp years past (what's the minimum one of the top visited sites in the world would be valued at? $10B?), I think Photobucket's true value will surface over the next several years. 40MM registered users and 17MM unique visitors a month may not have translated to significant revenue today ($6MM in 2006 and a projected $30MM in 2007). But as the widget economy continues to develop, monetizing user photo content will become a significant revenue driver in the near future, especially if that photo content is tagged (better yet auto-tagged Danny ;)). If there's one thing ALL internet users have a ton of is photos (much more so than video content). What better way to know an online user than by their photo content? Interesting things happening here that I don't think many really understand.
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