In an interview with Silicon Alley Insider, Joost CEO Mike Volpi announced the long-rumored browser version of online video company Joost. As Kristen Nicole had noted back in March, Joost was a company with a lot of industry buzz, but not a lot of users, in part because of the requirement that viewers download the Joost client application. Volpi acknowledges problems with the application, telling SAI "we had a product that wasn't quite right."
When Joost first launched back in 2006, it was one of the first video apps to pursue licensing of content with exclusive deals with providers. In those two years, however, we've seen the launch of sites like Hulu, which have taken off due to ease of use. Users don't want to have to download a separate application to search for and view videos, and Joost is now in the position of chasing a trend rather than leading it.
Joost was part of The Industry Standard's special feature, Opinion: 10 'Net services that will succeed, and 10 that will probably fail, and has a prediction that Joost will release a browser-based viewer by November of this year.
Volpi indicates that the browser version is weeks away from launch, but this time, they won't be launching with a big party and a lot of fanfare. He acknowledges that the margins in online video aggregation are thin, and that Joost needs to make money. The plan is to leverage the large amount of indie content that Joost has compared to Hulu, which may be an uphill battle for Joost when it comes to getting users back.
More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:
- Special Feature: Where are they now? The Industry Standard tracks down 10 dot-coms from the Web bubble of the late 1990s
- Special Feature: 10 'Net services that will succeed (and 10 that will probably fail)
- Prediction: Apple's iTunes to displace Wal-Mart as largest music retailer in U.S.
- Analysis: Pricing bits and bytes in a world of free
- Analysis: Communications: Why do we accept less than 99.999%?
- Analysis: How MySpace Music could beat iTunes
- Analysis: 10 cool Facebook applications that you've probably never heard of -- but should
- Analysis: Why podcasting is failing
Comments
joost still has lots of great content and provided they continue to pursue different avenues (such as how they did with the ncaa tournament), an online browsing experience could perhaps serve to revive or boost a little energy into the operation. i wouldn't say they're out of the picture by any means.
ultrasur1, I was excited when I saw they were going to be getting Twin Peaks. Content like that I'll tune in for, but I'm just not sure of the audience. When Hulu launched, I watched to see which of my friends would head there. Sure enough, even the least tech-savvy people were sending me emails about Hulu. Joost has historically been all about the tech crowd.
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