Amazon offering user Generated Video Hosting

 

 

Amazon has quietly entered the video hosting and monetization game with Your Video Widget.

Your Video Widget allows any registered Amazon Affiliate to upload a video and then select products that can be displayed as the video progresses (demo above). Video content can be anything from a product review through to a holiday video, but there are some restrictions; users can not include a URL in the video, or feature availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information for any product in the video itself, on top of the usual porn and piracy restrictions. Users can pick any products they would like to be displayed, with Amazon suggesting only that they work better if they have some context to the video, and that no two products can appear within 10 seconds of each other.

Like all Amazon Affiliate related advertising, the ads served are paid as a percentage of generated sales, and are not offered on a CPC or CPM basis.

Maximum file size is 100mb, length 10 minutes, and accepted formats are avi, flv, mov, mpg, wmv.

Amazon Video Widgets do not come with a central portal where you are able to view videos YouTube style, so this product wont compete in that space. For those looking at new ways of monetizing their videos, be it either because they are unable to sign up to YouTube’s program, or are not getting good results from YouTube, Amazon Video Widgets provide another path to video monetization.

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Amazon offering user Generated Video Hosting

 

 

Amazon has quietly entered the video hosting and monetization game with Your Video Widget.

Your Video Widget allows any registered Amazon Affiliate to upload a video and then select products that can be displayed as the video progresses (demo above). Video content can be anything from a product review through to a holiday video, but there are some restrictions; users can not include a URL in the video, or feature availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information for any product in the video itself, on top of the usual porn and piracy restrictions. Users can pick any products they would like to be displayed, with Amazon suggesting only that they work better if they have some context to the video, and that no two products can appear within 10 seconds of each other.

Like all Amazon Affiliate related advertising, the ads served are paid as a percentage of generated sales, and are not offered on a CPC or CPM basis.

Maximum file size is 100mb, length 10 minutes, and accepted formats are avi, flv, mov, mpg, wmv.

Amazon Video Widgets do not come with a central portal where you are able to view videos YouTube style, so this product wont compete in that space. For those looking at new ways of monetizing their videos, be it either because they are unable to sign up to YouTube’s program, or are not getting good results from YouTube, Amazon Video Widgets provide another path to video monetization.

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Is WonderHowTo too late for the how to video market?

 

 

In a sea of video how-to sites, WonderHowTo has recently launched, and has just closed a Series A round of investment funding led by General Catalyst Partners. WonderHowTo has also signed an ad sales deal with Scripps Network, a company looking to expand the reach of its online properties, including the recently launched FrontDoor.

The recent funding of how-to site 5min means there’s a growing interest in the market, WonderHowTo has few differentiating factors. The one I did pick up on was the emphasis on community, and the blatant site navigation that lends WonderHowTo to be utilized as a search engine as well. They also face serious competition from sites like VideoJug.

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Get paid to video hotel rooms

 

 

Hotel video guides are a vertical that has started to grow from nothing in the last nine months. There is already Trivop and TVTrip and new comer Tripr.TV is embracing the move towards compensating user contributions with a videoguide for hotels that pays 33% of their commissions for every booking made via a user contributed video. To quote Tripr.TV on how much that might be:

A normal booking averages around 400 Euros. The average commission Tripr.TV receives is between 7 and 10 percent. The filmmaker will receive 33.3 percent. As a calculation example this would mount up to 400 x 7% = €28,- x 33,3% = €9,32 per booking placed through your video. Payment follows 30 days after the end of the month.

It’s not huge money, but it’s certainly better than nothing and if you’re holidaying in the hotel anyway, you can put your video camera to use. There is a few requirements though to qualify: videos must have “Good camera work,” good lighting, video with sound, so original noises are audible, “Don’t just film people or details, rather show a complete and representative view,” and the video clips should be a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 90 seconds long.

It is unlikley that for the money offered by Tripr.com they will get decent high quality videos.  Only time will tell.

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WeShow.com launches video focused Social Network

 

 

WeShow.com, the human-powered guide to the online video universe, today launched My WeShow, a video focused social network that enhances Internet users' online video experience.

My WeShow is designed to combine the best of video entertainment with social interaction on the web, enabling users to find video, create personalized video communities, share opinions and content while also potentially making money.

My WeShow gives users the power to become an editor and aggregator of their own video portal, not only finding videos from more than 100 video sites, but immediately adding them to their own My WeShow portal under new titles and descriptions that they have written themselves.

Since its launch five months ago WeShow has seen steady growth and this latest enhancement is likely to help continue their growth.

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Google expands lead in online video market share

 

 

Americans viewed nearly 9.5 billion online videos in November, with Google Sites once again ranking as the top U.S. video property with 3 billion videos viewed (31.3 percent share of all videos viewed), 2.9 billion of which occurred at YouTube.com (30.6 percent).

Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 419 million videos viewed (4.4 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 328 million (3.5 percent) and Viacom Digital with 304 million (2.6 percent).

In total, 138 million Americans – approximately three in four U.S Internet users – viewed online video in November. Google Sites also captured the largest online video audience with 76.2 million unique viewers, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 46.3 million and Yahoo! Sites with 37.3 million.

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Popularity of YouTube and video sharing websites rises rapidly

 

 

The audience for YouTube and other video sharing websites has risen sharply in the past year, with almost half of online adults logging onto such sites, reports a study from Pew Internet & American Life Project.

In a national phone survey of 2,054 adults, 48 percent said they have visited a video sharing site, up from last year's 33 percent. Fifteen percent reported using a site like YouTube "yesterday", or the day before the respondent was contacted for the survey, compared to eight percent of users last year; this means the number of video site users has nearly doubled from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007.

Of the demographic groups, daily traffic among high school graduates, women and respondents aged 30 to 49 has increased the most:

-- The number of high school graduates using video sites increased 160 percent, jumping from five to 13 percent.
-- Women's use increased 120 percent, from five to 11 percent.
-- Use for those aged 30 to 49 increased 100 percent, from seven to 14 percent.

The study attributes this surge to popularity of video sharing sites among men and younger adults and broadband connection speeds. Now, nearly a third of young adults and a fifth of online men visit these sites, while 54 percent of adults now have high-speed internet connections at home, up from 45 percent last year.

It has also taken into account that there are now more YouTube-like sites than there were a year ago, so the rising popularity of amateur videos is partly responsible for the growth.

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MTV Networks signs distribution deals with major online video sites

 

 

Viacom has really decided to conquer the world of online video. After making the unexpected move by releasing Jackass 2.5 straight to the web and for free, MTV Networks has now signed deals with five online video sites: iMeem, Veoh, Dailymotion, GoFish and MeeVee - all well known names in the world of online video.

They will provide short clips and longer content from 10 cable and broadband networks such as MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central. The exact nature of these deals is not known, but it’s probably some kind of ad revenue split, with MTVN keeping the fat side for themselves.

Commenting on the iMeem deal, Greg Clayman, Executive Vice President, Digital Distribution and Business Development, MTVN, said that “iMeem offers a great platform for MTVN to promote and distribute our content to millions of fans through a deep and engaging social media experience. Using iMeem, fans can engage with our content in new and exciting ways, expressing who they are using video from the shows they love. We’re excited to make our content available to iMeem users.”

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Google may have worked out how to read text in images and video

 

 

A patent application lodged by Google in July 2007 but recently made public seeks to patent a method where by computers can read and understand text in images and video.

A full copy of the patent application “Recognizing Text In Images” can be viewed here.

Some choice lines from the patent:

“Digital images can include a wide variety of content…For example, digital images can illustrate landscapes, people, urban scenes, and other objects. Digital images often include text. Digital images can be captured, for example, using cameras or digital video recorders. Image text (i.e., text in an image) typically includes text of varying size, orientation, and typeface. Text in a digital image derived, for example, from an urban scene (e.g., a city street scene) often provides information about the displayed scene or location. A typical street scene includes, for example, text as part of street signs, building names, address numbers, and window signs.”

If Google has found a way to index text in static images and video this is a great leap forward in the progression of search technology.

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Watch video and chat online with your friends at SeeToo

 

SeeToo is a web-based application that allows individuals to invite their online buddies to watch videos together with them in real time.

SeeToo allows Internet users to share videos stored on their computers without the burden of uploading them to another site.

Whether the video is generated by your digital camera, camcorder or webcam SeeToo has made it very easy.

Using SeeToo is simple, you select a video, or any multimedia file, from your computer. SeeToo can easily handle file of any size: 500Mb, 2Gb and greater.

Send an automatically generated invitation to your buddy over the instant message network of your choice (e.g. AIM, ICQ, Live Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, etc.) or simply send the link to your buddy in an email.

Your buddies don't have to install anything to start watching videos with you, all they need is a browser and an Internet connection.

Once your buddy clicks on the link in the IM or email, the simultaneous viewing experience begins.

Backed by Yossi Vardi, a founding investor of ICQ’s Marabilis, SeeToo is very simple to use and uses some great technology. We would be surprised if the site didn't gain rapid traction.

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THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 8/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 7/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 7/10

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High quality YouTube video streams are coming soon

 

 

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, speaking at the NewTeeVee Live conference confirmed that high-quality YouTube video streams are coming soon. Although YouTube's goal, he said, is to make the site's vast library of content available to everyone, and that requires a fairly low-bitrate stream, the service is testing a player that detects the speed of the viewer's Net connection and serves up higher-quality video if they want it.

Steve Chen said that the quality had been "good enough" for the site up to now but that he expects that high-quality YouTube vids will be available to everyone within three months.

he also said that YouTube's internal archive, all video is stored at the native resolution in which it was sent in. However, he said, a large portion of YouTube videos are pretty poor quality to begin with -- 320 x 240. Streaming them in high-quality mode isn't going to help much.

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MediaMelon launches high quality video delivery network

 

 
MediaMelon has launched a Video Delivery Network that enables content owners to deliver high-resolution videos on the Internet.

MediaMelon is also the first service to offer video downloads to be accessed and played from a web browser.

Unlike site like YouTube, where the video content is not great, since it is streamed MediaMelon’s technology is based on video downloads, which means that the videos you see are guaranteed to be at their original quality.

MediaMelon has signed up several key content providers, including Nettwerk Music Group, which manages some of North America's biggest artists such as Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne, among others.

Videos from MediaMelon's network will be available on mediamelon.com and several partner sites. MediaMelon ensures that videos, TV shows and movies can be played at high quality and can be securely syndicated across various websites, either on an ad-supported or paid basis.

We agree with MediaMelon's view that traditional streaming videos are sufficient for short clips, but it is important to have a jitter-free high quality experience for longer video content.

MediaMelon's technology must be expesnive to operate and so they will need to gain rapid traction or finance to see them through to profitability.

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THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 7/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 7/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 7/10

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Amazon launches "Customer Video Reviews,"

 

 

Amazon.com has launched "Customer Video Reviews" enabling customers to use video to share their opinions and demonstrate the use of products on Amazon.com.

Customer Video Reviews are located within the Customer Reviews section of items in the Amazon.com catalog. For example, check out this video review in which Amazon.com reviewer "Anjana" shows the Fisher-Price T.M.X. Tickle Me Elmo toy in action.

"We are dedicated to offering our customers an information-rich shopping experience so they can know which products are right for them," said Colin Bodell, vice president, Amazon.com. "The chance to see product demonstrations as submitted by fellow customers is just the latest benefit to shopping on Amazon."

Amazon supports the upload of a .WMV, .MPEG, QuickTime or .AVI file to the Customer Reviews Section of any product detail page.

The new Flip Video camcorder from Pure Digital provides on-board software which allows users to upload a video to Amazon.com. A Customer Video Review shot with a Flip Video camcorder can be seen here.

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Mesmo's social video discovery site receives $900,000 Series A funding

 

 

Mesmo.tv an Oakland, Calif.-based social video website, has secured $900,000 Series A financing. Backers include Felices Ventures and Maples Investments.

Mesmo has set out to provide a way to discover and share online videos through friends.

With Mesmo you can:

• See what your friends are watching






• Share and save your favorite videos from any website






• Discover and search for TV shows, podcasts and videos from across the Internet






• Find people with similar video interests and tastes

Mesmo allows you to can share and save videos that you find on any website across the Internet (or you can keep them private so that only you can view them).

The big problem for Mesmo will be YouTube. YouTube still controls a huge amount of the video market and with the addition to YouTube of any further community features, Mesmo will struggle to compete.

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Magnify.net launches new platform for the aggregation of web video

 

 

Magnify.net has launched a new platform for the aggregation of web video.

Magnify.net lets sites quickly add a robust video solution to their existing site by providing search, discovery and sort video from the web’s most popular video services.

The new platform makes it easier for users to create branded online broadcast channels, discover and integrate Web video, and analyze visitor statistics and activities.

New features include:

• The “Magnify This” video grabber browser bookmarklet gives channel admins the ability to embed a video from any of the most popular video sites into a magnify channel with a single click. (supported sites are YouTube, Yahoo, Metacafe, Daily Motion, and Blip.tv)


• Multi-editorial rights are now available, enabling group collaboration for Magnify.net powered sites.


• Icon Customization gives admins the ability to replace the standard Magnify.net navigation icons with their own


• User-controllable thumbnails so than an alternate graphic can be created to represent each video.


• Home page mini player module allows channels to show a pre-selected video when visitors arrive, as well as enabling visitors to view other videos directly from the front page


• Cross channel playlists that allow for cross-promotion playlists.

Other new features include a “latest activity” module that tracks live activity on each site, enhanced statistics report that provides server level stats broken down into various components, and video counters.

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