Written on August 26, 2008 – 11:44 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
On December 17 we reported about a new video streaming service, called Qik. Scoble was their apostle, and The Next Web their platform to explain why homemade porn wasn’t welcome (it concerns the bible). In July Joop wrote about their open beta launch. Now it’s up to me to tell you Qik has received a “significant investment” from Netscape-pioneer Marc Andreessen and his favorite business partner Horowitz.
Andreessen has an impressive track record. He’s the co-founder and chairman of Ning (valued at $500 million) and an investor in several startups including big guys like Digg, Plazes, and Twitter. Horowitz and Andreessen were two of the most important men behind Netscape in the nineties.
Their advice and money will help Qik to firm up their position in the rapidly developing live video streaming market. Flixwagon, Floobs (interview), Kyte, Bambuser (review), and maybe Seesmic are all competitors who are addressing the same eager-to-share smartphone owners. With the Andreessen-Horowitz combo in their team and Scoble as their source of publicity, it’s definitely 2-0 for Qik versus the competition.
(By the way, did you know Qik also works on a jailbroken iPhone? Yeah, video!)
I hope you like that post!
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Written on January 13, 2008 – 4:35 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Although some people have just started to get used to the idea micro-blogging, a new revolution is already on its way. In everyday life, it’s still hard to explain why you would let a group of followers know what you’re doing. It even used to be in the tech industry, yet the advantages are evident now. Haven’t discovered them yet? Read some tips and make sure to hurry up, the next big thing is here.
First there was text, and Twitter was just Twitter: some sort of platform for your text messages. A new way of staying in touch with your professional and personal network. Then, all kinds of applications started to pop up. Developers connected photo blogging with micro-blogging, and services like Mobypicture have been offering easy ways to Twitter your photos.
Now, it seems like video will be the next thing on Twitter and other micro-blogging services. Several start-ups are focusing on live video streaming and ways of posting videos on Twitter.
Twiddeo is Twitter + Video. Login with your Twitter name and pass to start uploading videos. You can also send them by email or from your mobile phone. Twiddeo isn’t very popular yet, considering that the last video was uploaded 15 hours ago. Maybe it’s because they’re not offering live video streaming?
Something the previously discussed Qik, social network Next2Friends, Kyte and Seesmic do (or will) offer. People don’t have the time for editing a video, they just want to share a special or interesting moment.
They can do that by pressing only one button, and all of their followers can watch the new video. Sounds easy, right? And that’s exactly why more and more people with the right phone, will post those videos. Why describing your new car in 140 characters, if you can just walk around it with a camera in your hand?
Hopefully data traffic will get more affordable and Wifi coverage will be improved. If that happens, my guess is that all the text posts that describe a visual phenomenon will eventually be replaced by a streaming video.
[WebTipr: David Petherick, United Kingdom]
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