In this week’s show, we run down the list of candidates that I included in my last TechCrunch article on who the Next Talisman of Tech might be. continue reading...
One of the leading storylines of 2011 will no doubt be the radical shift across the Arab and Muslim world: Tunisia’s dictatorship fell, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was toppled, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi was killed by those he oppressed and last but not least, President Barack Obama got the man behind the 9/11 attacks: Osama bin Laden. In all of those stories, the mainstream media was amplified and accelerated by social media and the proliferation of wireless and recording technology added more imagery and context than ever before. Similarly, when Steve Jobs resigned and then passed away, the outpouring of emotions in the online and offline world was never before seen for the CEO of a company. continue reading...
This week marks the one-year anniversary of AOL’s acquisition of 5Min for $65 million. The purchase was a big deal because it marked the first large acquisition in online video since Google’s $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube. The divergent purchase figures capture not only the different sizes of the companies but also the frustration that investors have faced in online video despite lofty expectations and frothy forecasts over the past five years.
When 5Min launched, it aimed to aggregate user-generated, 5-minute how-to videos to build a destination. Over time, it shied away from UGC and embraced aggregation of “premium” content (that’s when my company’s relationship with 5Min started.) 5Min not only shied away from UGC, but also never attempted to license “super-premium” content from Hollywood studios and networks. Indeed, when CEO Ran Harnevo praised evergreen videos he was describing not just our type of content but the hundreds of thousands of videos that the company ended up licensing via partnerships with E!, IGN, CNET and many others. continue reading...
A few years ago, we published a list of companies who ruled the Internet each year, from 1994-2007. Then, we forgot to update it for 2008-2010. On this week’s HipMojo show, we run down the list and picked a company for 2008, 2009, and 2010… and then open it up for you to suggest companies for 2011. Vote for the company of the Year below in the Comments, feel free to vote for the company you work for, but explain WHY, what was the one thing or many things that made the company stand out from the noise? continue reading...
Last week, AOL acquired 5Min for $65 million, five times the $12.8 million it had raised. If the venture capitalists owned roughly 50% of the company, that translates to a 2-3x return. Given the dearth of exits in online video, that is something they should be proud of, but considering that continue reading...
Very good video from Beet.tv with 5Min CEO Ran Harnevo. We partnered with 5Min over a year ago and their growth of late has indeed be nothing short of breathtaking. But, I must say, I also think that our content is perfect for their distribution network, which he explains in the video a bit better:
One of our distribution partners - 5Min - has raised a Series B round from Globespan Capital Partners. Existing investor Spark Capital also participated in the round. The company had previously raised $5.3M, bringing the total to just under $13M.
Globespan Managing Director Jonathan Seelig will join 5min’s Board of Directors. 5Min is one of our distribution partners that apart from YouTube actually drives some volume, which is promising and suggests that they get the kind of traction that VCs would look for in today’s climate. continue reading...
As we cross 35M streams since launching a couple of years ago:
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