The Next Web

VideoPlaza: right place and time for a video ad overlay service

Written on July 13, 2008 – 6:17 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Swedish video advertisement overlay service VideoPlaza has received €420,000 seed investment from Nordic VC Creandum and angels Henrik Torstensson and Magnus Hultman. VideoPlaza has been doing well - partnering up with Sweden’s number-three pay-TV station Kanal 5’s website and two other clients - and operates in a booming market.

CEO Sorosh Tavakoli

The Swedes watch 115% more online videos over the last year, so VideoPlaza has enough content to monetize. The money will be used for international expansion.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal got two anonymous sources talking about YouTube’s failing advertisement strategy. The video giant generates 10 billion video views a day, but ‘only’ manages to make $200 million a year from advertising. Thus the Google-owned company might introduce pre and post-roll ads, said the sources to WSJ.

This YouTube story symbolizes the need for video sites to monetize their content. VideoPlaza - that offers overlay ads for Flash and Silverlight videos - will be one of many video ad start-ups that receive a financial boost. It’s time for them to fix those crappy business models.

By the way, VideoPlaza has an effective and friendly team page - good inspiration for yours.

I hope you like that post!

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!

business models, future of video, monetization, pre-roll ads, video ads, Video Interview, video service, videoplaza, youtube

2 Comments »

VIDDIX: possible video revolution on its way

Written on February 26, 2008 – 5:07 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Video service VIDDIX - launched in beta today - found a great way to enrich your online video experience. They allow you to add web content to video, since it consists of two panels. The video is playing at the left, while different web content - such as slides, pictures, YouTube videos, HTML and Flash embeds - shows up in the so-called iPanel at the right. So imagine you interviewed Boris about the Next Web conference, it would look something like this:

The guys from VIDDIX came up with their idea during their study Digital Communications. They graduated on VIDDIX and founded the company Invisios to bring their baby to the market. I hardly see any reasons why their project isn’t gonna be a huge hit. I mean, where YouTube and Slideshare end, VIDDIX is just about to get started. On top of that, the service will probably be really viral, since a lot of bloggers might be tempted to use VIDDIX for screencasts and presentations.

Although they might have to improve their embed function. Since the current one doesn’t bring over VIDDIX’s main advantage, namely the web content. I guess it has something to do with the thing in right bottom corner, yet I can’t figure out. Other from that, I foresee a bright future for VIDDIX.

presentation, slideshare, viddix, video service, youtube

12 Comments »