Q&A I did for Voxant’s blog… Voxant runs The News Room, think of it as a B2B aggregator and distributor of video content.
- If you have video content, you want to be in their network as publishers, blogs and countless of vertical destinations turn to them for video content.
- If you are a publishers or a blog and looking to add video content from WatchMojo.com and millions of other sources (all right, not sure about the “million” part), give them a call and tell then Ash referred you.
Anyway, Voxant is one of the dozens and dozens and dozens of partners we work with, they asked me some questions on the company and industry. Enjoy:
From their blog.
This month, our featured provider is WatchMojo, a self-described web video magazine. WatchMojo covers pretty much everything. They do fashion, health, travel, movies, music and more.
We talked with the president of WatchMojo, Ashkan Karbasfrooshan and asked him some questions about his company, the blogosphere and the internet in general.
Q) Who are you? Tell us a little bit about your background.
A) I am the Founder and CEO of Mojo Supreme. Our core property is WatchMojo.com: one of the largest producers of original video content. We syndicate our videos across numerous high-traffic destinations, with The Newsroom being one of our many valued partners. Before that I was the VP of Sales at Askmen, a lifestyle magazine that is now a part of News Corp. Before that I worked at Mamma, a meta-search engine.
When News Corp. bought us I was the odd man out. I was a reluctant entrepreneur but when I was looking for something to do, online video was starting to take off.
Broadband users were growing and video consumption was increasing rapidly, with falling bandwidth fees, you were seeing more and more distribution points online… I figured media companies would be reluctant to shift their content online (Disney for example today announced a move to put some archives on their sites, that’s not quite the same thing as putting their top programming everywhere… because they fear cannibalization of offline sales) so I launched WatchMojo.com to create premium made-for-web video content.
Before that, I also wrote a couple of books and did a lot of talk radio… so I’ve always been a storyteller at heart.
Q) What does your web site do?
A) WatchMojo.com is a leading producer of informational and entertaining original video content distributed across the Web, wireless devices and out of home digital networks, with 3,000 1 to 3 minute videos.
We’re one of the largest video content provider to the largest file sharing social networks and video portals with coverage across the Automotive, Education, Fashion, Film, Food, Gambling, Health, Music, Politics & Economy, Space, Sports, Technology and Travel categories;
We then distribute this content to countless of channels that include Voxant’s The Newsroom but also include Blinkx, Blip, Brightcove, Canoe, ClipSyndicate, Daily Motion, Facebook, GoFish, Google Video, Handheld Entertainment Zvue, Joost, MSN Soapbox, MySpaceTV, Putfile, Quebecor, Revver, Roo Networks, Sevenload, Sports Illustrated, Sumo, Veoh, Vimeo, vSocial’s Vmix, Voxant’s Newsroom, Yahoo Video, and YouTube.
I’d say that we reach over 95% of the online video audiences, and our streams are growing 30% per month.
Q) What makes your site different from the rest?
A) There are a bunch of content producers but most produce either very niche or very timely content. We are also very aggressive with relentlessly increasing both the quantity and quality of our clips. I am maniacal about that and don’t make any apologies about thinking that we can become 10 times less costly while producing quality that is 10 times superior to that of TV. I am certainly not one of those people who say the Web will put offline /traditional media out of business, I just think we can help improve it.
We produce content across numerous categories for more coverage and rather timeless pieces that retain value over time. I would not say we’re better or worst, but we strive to be the company that major portals and social networking sites turn to when they are looking for premium, professionally-produced video content. We’re getting there but the target is not a destination, it’s a process, as they say.
Ultimately, we all want more marketing dollars flowing online and more of those ad dollars migrating to video. If marketers see more WatchMojo.com’s out there, then in the end we change the perception that all videos on the Web are UGC or pirated, which I do not think advertisers have or ever will embrace.
Q) What made you interested in online video?
A) You know, I’ve never filmed or edited a frame of video content… I did write screenplays and always liked packaging content.
But I think that if you like to be in the content business, there’s no place like online video. Distribution has become really fragmented and thanks to things like XML and RSS you can build a very interesting syndication business, basically blanketing the Web with your embedded content. People who developed XML or those like Dave Winer who helped build things like RSS (real simple syndication) really blazed a trail and were ahead of their times. For entrepreneurs like us to come out and churn out high quality content and get it distributed all over the place, we owe them a debt of gratitude.
I see video as being where search was in 2000: a major part of the online media landscape… desperately looking for a business model. As of December 2007, according to comScore, there were more video streams than search queries. By 2012, video ad spending will soar to $7.1B from $1.3B in 2008… whether you are in it for the content or the business aspects, it’s an exciting and challenging segment to be in.
All in all, from an entrepreneurial perspective: I knew that I could not build a leader in search or text publishing, but there was no doubt in my mind that I could assemble a team that could build a powerhouse in video content. I think we’re in the process of doing that despite the odds.
Q) What excites you about the blogosphere?
A) Considering I was an online publisher of text content from 2000-05, I am so impressed with how much blogging software has leveled the playing field and simplified the art of publishing. So from a technology perspective, I think we are all indebted to the hardworking and groundbreaking people who built many of these sophisticated content management systems and made them open-source for others to use at little or no cost.
From a media perspective: When I started covering the industry on HipMojo.com, I was impressed with the fact that it leveled the playing field. That is what the Web is all about but blogging is a perfect manifestation of it because it’s instant and captures the 24/7 nature of the Web.
While indeed blogs are democratizing the industry, the major players are embracing the technology and medium of blogs… so this is forcing independent bloggers to up their game too.
Q) Where do you see your site 5 years from now?
A) When people think of the company or brand that best combined “music with television”, they think of MTV. I’d like people to think of WatchMojo.com when they think of the company or brand that best combined “video with the Web”.
Of course, five years is a long time out… so we are just thinking about the little things we need to in the marketplace day in, day out, to remain relevant and an important variable in the online media and web video ecosystem.
More on the blog. Check our some of our content on their network.
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