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YouTube Receives $3.5M Funding from Sequoia 80

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the still-waiting-on-my-check dept.
An anonymous reader writes "YouTube, the self-described "Flickr of video" has now received $3.5M in funding from Sequoia Capital, the same VC firm that funded Yahoo!, Google, and PayPal. Competitors of YouTube include Revver, launched just last month and founded by Ian Clarke of The Freenet Project fame. As of now, both services are free. With the online video space heating up in recent months, the question is who will discover the best business model." YouTube was first mentioned on Slashdot shortly after its launch three months ago.
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YouTube Receives $3.5M Funding from Sequoia More

YouTube Receives $3.5M Funding from Sequoia

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  • Google Video (Score:1, Interesting)

    by dirtsurfer ( 595452 )
    So, what's the difference between this and Google Video?
    Or should I RTFA? ;)

    • Re:Google Video (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I never heard about youtube before I listened to a talk by .... wait for it ... some Sequoia people on podtech.com. I tried to check them out but the site was down. Now I see it for the sneaky pre-advertising it was. "my kid was checking out youtube" my ass.

      And I can't see how this can compete against Google video -- it doesn't have the bandwidth, the name recognition, the search capability, or anything that google has going for it. Perhaps some 2nd tier company like Yahoo will buy it.
    • Google Video doesn't allow to embed video in your web page that is the main advantage of YouTube. Embedded content is the nice feature of the service just like flickr.

  • So who are Sequoia? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Audent ( 35893 ) <audent.ilovebiscuits@com> on Tuesday November 08, 2005 @01:31AM (#13976944) Homepage
    And who else have they funded...? Surely there are a couple of other companies, or are they simply very good at picking future winners on the largest scale possible?

  • Vobbo is Better! (Score:5, Informative)

    by CuteVlogger ( 925400 ) on Tuesday November 08, 2005 @01:37AM (#13976955) Homepage
    Vobbo [vobbo.com] is better! More file formats, but you can use your own domain, make rss feeds for any search term, and embed videos in other annoying trendy sites [myspace.com] :)
  • Let's see, we got:
    YouTube
    Flickr
    Sequia Capital
    VC
    Yahoo
    Google
    PayPal
    Revver

    The only ones I know are Google, PayPal and Yahoo what are the other ones? Anyone care to explain?
    Is it just me, or is there anyone else who is confused. Without knowing what those products/brands are it is impossible to understand the post.

  • business model? isn't it obvious? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by idlake ( 850372 ) on Tuesday November 08, 2005 @01:52AM (#13976992)
    Their business model is obviously to be acquired by Yahoo!, Google, or Microsoft.

  • Clippy helped! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    / You seem to try to fund your project. \
    | Mmh, it seems that your project doesn't |
    | give any money! Fuck off and ask those |
    \ hippie money spoiling firms! /
    \ ____
    \ / __ \
    \ O| |O|
    || | |
    || | |

  • The flickr of video? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by hubbah ( 635375 )
    Why can't flickr be the flickr of video?

    A large part of succeeding in this space will be about technology - there are storage and bandwidth issues aplenty. But if your users need to find someone who thinks prancing around the room with their polka-dot boxers on their head is funny or artistic or... original, they'll need community. And flickr has succeeded in building a community around images, where many others have failed. It's no small feat.

    - Hubbah
  • This is an offtopic, but.. I really dont know.

    It seems that lots of money, since Venture Capital is high risk capital, but at the same time, high return of invesmet, if the bussines model takes off..

    So far, as a stakeholder, shouldnt Ive concerned about having the same VC at 2 competing brands: Take Yahoo and Google.

    With money being a very powerfull weapon for corporative control, should Sequoia cannot be using inside information and just plain playing with the market?

    Is this ethical? Doesnt this presents a
    • Hi. I'm a Venture Capitalist. I talk to you for a bit and decide you're worth my investment.

      You now have a bunch of money from me, but you have either a debt obligation to me or have given me convertible stock options. I also play a role in your Board of Directors.

      You have about 6 years to give me a return on investment before I pull the plug. In the meantime I will work towards your benefit because I want my money back.

      After I pull out by converting and selling stock or calling in my debt, you sho
      • but you have either a debt obligation to me
        VCs invest capital in ventures in return for a portion of the business, banks lend money.
        • Please don't share your opinion when you don't know what you are talking about. VCs use convertible debentures, preferred shares, and convertible preferreds regularly. VCs love to use instruments that give them liquidation preference (debt) as well as upside (equity) as long as they can get both without paying a premium for it.

  • Why couldn't they call it MyTube? (Score:3, Funny)

    by dougTheRug ( 649069 ) on Tuesday November 08, 2005 @02:26AM (#13977089) Homepage
    I *hate* software that's not called "My whatever".

  • Wow! (Score:1, Funny)

    by aywwts4 ( 610966 )
    They have just craploads of... Crap!

    Surely this is the business model of the future!
    • Sure. If by "future", you mean "right now".

      I mean -- the overproduced crap that the RIAA and MPAA spew out right now is, by definition, crap. I'd at least like to see crap that's original, and made by someone who makes it because they like to, not because advertisers tell them to, or because they'll be really Rich And Famous.

    • Re:Wow! (Score:1)

      by torpor ( 458 )
      yeah .. i mean .. its like soooo exciting watching someone's video of laundry being trampled on by repugnant little mutant dogs. over and over.

      sheesh .. these sites have everything except .. a reason for such fame. what they need to do is find rogue sites of independent artists [ampfea.org] and somehow lure them into producing something .. actually interesting .. something actually worth watching ..

      but, then again. we have been seeing a lot of 'media studies' majors over the last 5 to 10 years .. these people, even t

  • [Failure instance: Traceback: nevow.stan.NodeNotFound: The pattern named 'content' wasn't found in the template. /home/dotz/lib/python2.4/site-packages/twisted/int ernet/defer.py:316:_continue /home/dotz/lib/python2.4/site-packages/twisted/int ernet/defer.py:277:unpause /home/dotz/lib/python2.4/site-packages/twisted/int ernet/defer.py:358:_runCallbacks /home/dotz/lib/python2.4/site-packages/nevow/flat/ twist.py:26:cb --- --- /home/dotz/lib/python2.4/site-packages/nevow/flat/ twist.py:17:drive /home/dotz/lib

  • How do we make money? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Time Doctor ( 79352 ) <zjs@zacharyjackslater.com> on Tuesday November 08, 2005 @02:58AM (#13977172) Homepage Journal
    Here at YouTube, we get a lot of satisfied customers, and some of them ask us how we stay in business and give away free bandwidth.

    The answer is simple, volume.
    • Volume of what though? 100000000000 * 0 is still 0.

      How *do* they make money?

      • This joke was a reference to an old saturday night live episode wherein Phil Hartman explains that the customers at "Change Bank", a bank where all they do is give you change for other denominations of money makes money via "volume". Of course now that I've explained the joke it is no longer funny, you insensitive clod.
        • What ees this "saturday night live"? Who is Phil Hartman? Why wasn't he funnier?

          Anyway, still no-one answered the question... If you're going to put $3.5 million you're going to want it back at some point, so how are they going to make money?

          • Ideally by building this into a thriving business, then selling the stock (or other investment vehicle) they got in exchange for their capital.

            • "Ideally by building this into a thriving business"

              But what's it going to thrive on? A business NEEDS a revenue source, be it only selling advertising space or selling IP to google/yahoo/megacorp. I can't see that from their public facing persona, but then maybe I'm just being dense.

              • Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were asking how the VC's make money.

                As for how this service makes money, I dunno. Frankly I think the whole "media by amateurs for anyone with enough time to find it" idea is dumb. I have no desire to see other's photos (when did we stop being bored to death by slideshows?) or their poorly produced, grainy, and generally uninteresting videos.

                So, again, I don't know how the service will make money. My guess is it won't.

                • Frankly I think the whole "media by amateurs for anyone with enough time to find it" idea is dumb. I have no desire to see other's photos (when did we stop being bored to death by slideshows?) or their poorly produced, grainy, and generally uninteresting videos.

                  lol, but I really enjoyed the 3 minute video of the view out of the window of some train in holland! ;)

        • It wasn't Phil Hartman. It was Jim Downey. Phil was a customer in one, though.

          First Citiwide Change Bank sketch I [jt.org], sketch II [jt.org]. The second ends with the relevant quote.

  • Here using Gentoo Linux distros, I manage to view this site as the most Linux-friendly, easy to categorize than most other video sites.

    One that caught my attention is the ability to teach oneself in how to dance. Now that is something...

    Glow Girl [youtube.com] seems to have it licked doing what I thought was a pretty good rave dance...
  • From here [c.ilio.us]:

    flickr of (adj)

    Generally used to indicate your company/business/idea is cool and ahead of the curve, yet you have no clue why anyone would use it, or how to differentiate it from the ten other Flicker-of's.

    Examples:

    • We're the Flickr of video
    • We're in stealth mode now, but all I can say is, it's like Flickr but for video
    • We're seeing a market void for a Flickr of video
  • if you want to create your own Flickr of video, you should try LULOP2 open source [sf.net]. Here is a list of available features [lulop.org]. Deveforum here [lulop.org]. LULOP2 is the software that powers LULOP.com [lulop.com]. So, not just Flickr of video, but a professional-grade platform for online video asset management which can be bent to many purposes.
  • Techcrunch is way ahead of us on this Flickr-of meme:

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/11/06/the-flickrs-o f-video/ [techcrunch.com]

  • Missing the most important thing about Revver (Score:4, Informative)

    by Sanity ( 1431 ) on Tuesday November 08, 2005 @06:16AM (#13977636) Homepage Journal
    The important difference between Revver and the other sites is that Revver allows the creators of videos to earn money. They do this by giving video creators a 50:50 cut of the advertising revenue generated from the ads attached to that user's video. This approach is unique among the various "Flickr of Video" sites, and is pretty unique across other forms of media too.

    This is very important, particularly if you consider the growing frustration of video creators as these websites make money from their creativity without rewarding them (see http://ebaumsworldsucks.com [ebaumsworldsucks.com] for a good example of this frustration).

  • Trepia [slashdot.org] - the 'iChat on crack' geograpically-based instant messenger - was co-started by the same [jawed.com] guy [jawed.com] as YouTube [youtube.com].

    Trepia never really got going. Partly due to a small userbase (compared with every other IM), windows-only client (it *just* worked under WINE), and pretty poor location detection (you had to tell it where you are).

    Looks like Meetro [meetro.com] are taking over that spot, although I note they don't have non-windows clients either.
  • When Adcritic, which has similar growth to Youtube, went under the popular conclusion was that the cost of bandwidth was too high and that nowadays with cheaper bandwidth, this business model works. Adcritic had videos of ads - the argument was that they wouldnt get sued cos advertisers are happy if people watch ads. But they did - cos the middle men who arrange royalty payments to actors in ads felt threatened and put a spanner in the works. When an ad is being aired all the royalty payments are sorted, b
  • The big problem with all of these video sites, which you don't seem to see with the photo ones, is that all they ever do is steal videos from each other and slap their own website url on the video. ebaumsworld, big-boys, collegehumor, etc etc.. I can't remember the others, but there's TONS. Now there's google video and these other guys. I've seen a mass amount of copyrighted video being hosted by all of them also. ebaumsworld and somethingawful had a forum invasion war just this last month because ebaum
  • Vimeo (a side project from the minds behind collegehumor.com etc) is another video sharing site that often gets mentioned amongst these sites. Most recently it was mentioned in the nytimes article about the same subject. I've had really amusing experiences with the software, both in it's ease of sharing videos and discovering others. Flickr integration too! You can't argue with that.
  • Wait until YouBoob launches! It won't raise any VC, but it will make a lot more money.

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