thePlatform and what to expect with online video
Well I’m pleased to report that thePlatform has closed a significant (and probably last) round of financing that totals $8 million. The details of the financing and a good company overview can be found here. In many ways, thePlatform is like so many other small technology companies that were founded in 1999. The company raised capital relatively easily to start out and began to grow (and spend) rapidly but without knowledge that the market was about to crash. Optimism quickly turned to ’survival mode’ and the company took drastic steps to stay in business to include downsizing and raising additional capital with onerous terms attached. I understand this all to well because I too started a company which we wound up selling to thePlatform as part of what I would call ’strategic necessity and creative financing’.
The good news is that I think we all knew that the basic business proposition provided by thePlatform was still sound. Businesses didn’t need to hear about how video could be streamed from a server to a client (player). What they needed was a business rules management engine that was purpose built to handle rich media. After all, what is one video clip anyway? A single piece of content? No! It’s often 2-3 formats encoded in 3 bit-rates with advertising inserted in the middle that needs to be changed, updated and reported on every day, every hour or whatever.
Looking back, I developed a huge amount of respect for thePlatform team and I know they are going to thrive. The management team is bright and the development staff has ridiculously high standards. Further, the product direction is managed to the smallest detail by a worldclass product/program management organization.
I’ve been in or around the digital media space since January 1995 when I joined RealNetworks. And I suppose in some ways I’d make the same comment about web-based rich media as I would about the proliferation of IP Television (IPTV). 2006 is going to be a HUGE break-out year. Granted, we’ve been saying that about both sectors for the last 5 years. But this year I really believe it. Here’s at least a few reasons why:
1) The major content holders (e.g. Hollywood) are starting to seriously dabble in a way that I haven’t seen before.
2) Technology works A LOT better. I actually sit and watch video content on my pc all the time now because the experience is that much better than it was several years ago. It’s fun. Before it wasn’t. No need to complicate it much beyond that.
3) IPTV works. Microsoft is behind it. My former middleware developed middleware for IPTV installations and now Siemens owns it. Telcos are deploying it. The raging battle between cable and telcos creates a huge tailwind for vendors looking to invest further in R& D to include middleware, security (conditional access), video on demand servers (VOD), and set-top boxes or other in-home media devices. Guess what? I’m switching my home telco service to Comcast tomorrow. I’m an example of the changing consumer behavior that’s driving the need for IPTV.
4) Other big constituents are in the game big time. Referring to Google. Yahoo. Newscorp. Viacom. Others.
5) Delivery costs are falling. This occurs for several reasons to include commoditization as well as grid and peer-based delivery solutions that work well. Kontiki has languished for years in relative obscurity but their customer list will at least double in 2006.
There are MANY other reasons why 2006 is going to be a big year for rich media but the combined announcements in this sector will basically eclipse all the other movements in other tech sectors. That’s my prediction and I’m sticking with it.
comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
-
Rainbows
-
Vanishing America
-
Friends from Monaco
-
Cadillac
-
Old stamps
