Posts Tagged ‘ustream’
There has been a lot of talk lately about the emergence of Hulu as the next big thing in online video, with some pointing out that though Hulu is small its ultimate business model may be more viable.
More viable because it has licenced content, it is doing deals, it is easier to monetize the video and so on. All valid points but what people don’t talk about is that Youtube and Hulu fulfil very distinct audience needs.
Hulu is more a lean back experience, and experience that I mostly will do by myself, watching an episode of Battlestar Gallactica before I crash.
Youtube actually is much more social. I have seen my nephew hanging out with his friends, each taking turns driving youtube with their wireless keboard in front of a big LCD display. They were at it for what seemed like hours. I myself did it the other night with a few friends and it was a blast, digging up wicked bollywood videos, crazy japanese dancehall footage, the list goes on – we laughed, we cringed, we cried (OK we didn’t cry).
Youtube it seems is trying to leverage this type of behaviour with Realtime.
Youtube says with Realtime you can
- See a list of friends currently online and what they are watching
- See a history of friends’ recent activities
- Receive real-time notifications when friends perform an activity on the site (such as comment, favorite, etc.
Creating that social layer is a direction that makes sense for Youtube the question is what impact will that have on its monetization strategy?
In fact, Youtube has many questions that need to be answered.
What should Live video streaming strategy should Youtube have? It is clearly on thier radar, with recent a partnership with Ustream, a live video streaming service.
What should youtube do about Long form video considering it is viewed by many as a place for short form content?
What implications do any these decsions have on their bandwidth costs with must be through the roof?
Is the Youtube design just too clunky? Consider Hulu has a super slick interface.
What about search? Youtube’s search isn’t the greatest, odd considering it is owned by Google.
Indeed, Youtube has many, many outstanding issues. Hulu by contrast seems more focused. It will be intresting to see how all of this shakes out, considering in the world of online video Youtube is the sleeping elephant in the room – and you don’t want to be next to it when it rolls over.
The mobile video streaming sector is becoming crowded with Ustream launching its mobile streaming service. Flixwagon, Qik and Livecastr are some of the entries that have jumped into this still nascent market.
Right now for Ustream the supported devices include Apple’s iphone and a whole line of Nokia phones.
