Video site Seesmic’s CEO: We built it, they didn’t come

Venture Beat — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:07:33 -0400

In the past, Seesmic (sometimes known as “the Twitter of video“) had its share of detractors who wondered whether it could build a business around video conversations and comments. Now it looks like Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur has joined their ranks.

Le Meur’s remarks came in a video conversation thread on the Seesmic site titled, “Seesmic has changed.” Disappointed Seesmic fans said the San Francisco startup’s focus has drifted away from video, a shift symbolized by moving the video site from www.seesmic.com to video.seesmic.com. Le Meur responded with comments that seemed surprisingly candid in their description of how the company has evolved.

His first comment was brief: “Rest assured, this is really not what I hoped it would become.” Then in a later video, Le Meur elaborated, acknowledging that Seesmic now focuses on a tool that integrates all your social networks — first as a desktop application, and soon as a web-based service at the main Seesmic site. The traffic just hasn’t grown for the video site, Le Meur said, and while video will eventually become part of the Seesmic app, video alone would be “a sure path to failure.”

“I think it’s not a technology problem,” he said. “I think it’s a human problem, that there are very few people like you and me.”

Seesmic has raised a total of $12 million from Omidyar Network, Wellington Partners, and a long list of angel investors.