ExpoTV started it now it's happening on eBay

Things are really starting to move at eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). You probably figured as much, considering that the company's namesake site helped move $14.3 billion in merchandise this past quarter. However, I'm talking about a different kind of motion -- motion pictures.

An entry in eBay's corporate blog last week indicated that the site is now encouraging sellers to link to videos that showcase their wares. Auctioneers can only go through five of the biggest video-sharing sites -- Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Google's YouTube, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Soapbox, or AOL -- but it's an interesting strategy.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) isn't on the list. The search-engine giant has been a strategic partner with eBay for nearly a year now. Even if many of the clips available through Yahoo! are actually hosted on smaller third-party sites, it's a slap in the face to ignore a business partner that also runs one of the more popular video-sharing sites.

Still, it could be a revolutionary step for the site. The ability to see items in action -- assuming that the seller has the time to make a clip in the first place -- is far better than text descriptions and the occasional snapshot or two.

However, like any true revolution, this isn't a battle that can be won overnight.

Hitting the pause button
eBay thought this through. It contacted a few eBay members who were handy with camcorders, webcams, and video-editing software packages to showcase six different items on the site. OK, so maybe eBay fibbed as to how dedicated these aspiring filmmakers are to the eBay cause -- half of the listings are from sellers who have zero feedback.

However, you can follow the blog entry to check out the six listings. Some of them are pretty amusing, like the guy trying to sell his acoustic guitar in a highly unorthodox way. He strums along as he brushes his teeth on the guitar neck, makes out with the tuning keys, and even plays a few chords while he's on the toilet. Other ads feature stop-motion prowess in pitching a bike, Lego figures, and a 1996 Saturn.

The clips are slick, as expected. The members all chose to host their videos on YouTube, a good move since it may bring in auction-listing traffic through folks who stumble on the videos first.

But there's a rub, my friend. The six auctions have been running for nearly a week, set to end between today and Thursday. Despite eBay's promotion and the viral allure of some of the clips, the bidding battles just aren't taking place. Let's check into the six auctions, as of last night.

• The humiliated Martin acoustic guitar has just the opening $800 bid.
• The 1996 Saturn, star of its slick stop-action clip, hasn't received a single offer despite its reasonable $999 opening bid.
• A copy-room stapler with a compelling back story has been bid up to only $11.
• The vintage Lego figures have had enough activity to take the bidding up to $45, but the listing's reserve price has not been reached.
• A loaded Apple G4 is fetching just $84.50.
• A Surly Steamroller track bike has failed to nab its $300 start price, perhaps because the Brooklyn-housed bicycle must be picked up locally.

Thinking outside the screening room
Encouraging clips to promote eBay auctions may be a new strategy at eBay, but it isn't an original move. Intuitive YouTube users are already using video to direct traffic to their listings.

Val's Art Diary, the woman behind it is an oil painter who works her craft on canvas, documenting the artistic process with a camcorder along the way. She then auctions off the paintings on eBay. The promotional video diary clips are available through Apple's iTunes and her own website, but it was only after she was featured on YouTube that her cottage industry really took off.

The entrepreneurial spirit is starting to creep into the seemingly noncommercial YouTube site. Someone who was featured after demonstrating a self-stirring coffee mug quickly edited the video description to include a commissionable link to where the mug can be purchased.

Most people don't see YouTube that way. The legitimate video resumes aren't getting the kind of page views that the ridiculous, over-the-top ones are garnering. Clips of cars for sale will never draw in users the way fender-benders do. That's just human nature, but I still think that more and more people will begin tapping into the free multimedia promotion that is available through sites like YouTube.

What is getting in the way right now? A big factor may be a lack of education when it comes to shooting and editing videos. The learning curve isn't all that steep. A Windows-powered PC has the free Movie Maker editing application, and Apple users have access to even better editing software packages.

For investors, this trend will open up portfolio opportunities. Stocks like Logitech (Nasdaq: LOGI) and Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) that will thrive in a video-friendly future. Logitech is the webcam leader, while Adobe is the star of publishing software, as well as the company behind the Flash platform that the leading video-sharing sites use.

Will eBay buy ExpoTV?

This will be the largest advertising platform on earth

NEWS Corporation and NBC Universal will launch a free online video site featuring full-length movies and television shows in a challenge to Google's YouTube.

The move underscores how serious a threat YouTube has become to media companies, which fear losing a new generation of viewers that are as likely to be found in front of computers as television screens.

Another media company, Viacom, last week sued Google for $US1 billion ($1.24 billion) over unauthorised use of its videos on YouTube.

While NBC and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (the parent company of News Limited, which is the publisher of NEWS.com.au) compete fiercely for television and movie audiences globally, their partnership shows the risks executives are willing to take to regain control over content as more consumers look to YouTube, or Apple's iTunes, for entertainment.

The two companies also enlisted three of Google's largest rivals - Yahoo, Microsoft and Time Warner's AOL - as distributors of the entertainment on their websites.

"This is a game changer for internet video," News chief operating officer Peter Chernin said in a statement.

"We'll have access to just about the entire US internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want - professionally-produced video delivered on the sites where they live," he said.

The internet video market is key to the future of media and will be vast enough to accommodate competition, analysts said. But one missing element they noted is the ability for users to upload their own videos - a function that has made YouTube so popular with the younger audience.

"There's plenty of room for multiple players," said Richard Greenfield of Pali Capital. "It's still not clear how user-generated content is going to fit in and it's still not clear that all of these companies won't do a deal with Google over time," he said.

YouTube can still distinguish itself with its popular tools for users to share homemade, as well as professionally produced, material. "It's not actually going to take away from YouTube because it's as much about the social experience as the video. So YouTube is going to be fine," said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research.

While free to viewers, the site will be paid for by advertising and has already signed on marketers Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco Systems and General Motors.

NBC and News sought to woo additional media companies into its partnership, including Viacom and CBS, which are both controlled by Sumner Redstone, according to people familiar with the matter.

Viacom said it welcomed the new venture as a vehicle for spreading entertainment online while protecting copyright holders. CBS said it would continue to discuss the possibility of working with the venture, among other initiatives.

Google and YouTube representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Executives briefed on the project, the name of which has not been disclosed, say it will include its own site as well as allow partners to feature video on their individual websites.

The venture includes a new internet media player, which will be embedded on partner sites and carry branding of both, they said.

Advertising revenue is likely to be split between the site carrying the content and the company that produced the entertainment, though financial terms were also not released.

While the site will allow users to edit - or "mashup" - some video, it apparently does not have a component for uploading home-made videos.

NBC said separately that it will introduce social networking and video sharing functions to NBC.com, in what could be a challenge not only to YouTube but its new partner, News Corp's MySpace social network.

Watch Out YouTube, Global TV JOOST Got Better!

In the few months since Google paid $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube, both companies have tried to come up with a formula to turn the hugely popular online video site into a moneymaking venture.

Friday, YouTube announced a deal with the BBC, creating a channel for the British network's most popular shows. On Monday, it announced a similar deal with the National Basketball Association.

But at least one partner has expressed unhappiness with its YouTube deal. Last month, NBC, which promoted its fall lineup on the site, demanded that YouTube take down some unauthorized videos. And now more media companies are flirting with smaller YouTube competitors, such as Revver and iFilm. Last month Joost, signed a content deal with Viacom, which owns MTV and Comedy Central.

Without a deal with Viacom, YouTube is left without some of its most popular clips from Comedy Central's "South Park" and "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." Viacom, which walked away from a YouTube deal last month, claims that traffic to its Web sites such as Comedycentral.com and MTV.com has increased since it put more video there, allowing visitors to embed clips on their own blogs or other Web sites.

The Joost team has a few things going for it, good lineage when it comes to getting traction with a new product (Kazaa, Skype); founders (Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom) with deep pockets and the ability to attract more; and the byproduct of those two—plenty of publicity/hype. (Joost is feeding the buzz with a time-proven gimmick: make the beta hard to get into and urge people to ask those already in the beta for a token to get access.) Their contention: they shouldn’t be grouped with the others because Joost is real TV for the web. If the player is half as good as Joost’s ability to get juice, they really could be on to something.

For now, it’s by invitation only, but by this summer it will be open to the public. You’ll download the free Joost software, then use it to watch channels ranging from Lime, a lifestyle station, to National Geographic. And potentially thousands more, from anywhere, in real time — and without the stuttervision that dogs streaming video today. It’s the creation of a team of 60 top engineers — veterans of Apple, Flickr and Firefox.

Joost says it’s about to announce a pact with JumpTV to carry some programming it has rights to from 270 stations in 70 countries; that deal will launch with prerecorded Spanish and Arabic programming. The goal eventually is to stream some of the stations live.

YouTube Goes Mobile

SAN FRANCISCO: Video-sharing website YouTube announced today its foray into distributing video clips on mobile telephones through a tie-up with Verizon Wireless.

YouTube said that from early December, a selection of its most popular videos would become available to US subscribers of Verizon Wireless's premium "V CAST" service.

"With the largest community for online video entertainment, YouTube's move into the mobile space will enable a new audience of mobile users to enjoy entertaining videos virtually whenever and now wherever they want," it said.

YouTube, which last month was bought by Google, has emerged as the web's hottest site for watching videos since its launch 18 months ago.

The company indicated that mobile tie-ups were likely after the deal with Verizon, which is the largest US wireless operator in terms of revenues.

"People want to be entertained in a way that fits their individual lifestyle," YouTube co-founder and chief technology officer Steve Chen said in a statement.

"We will roll out exciting partnerships and features for the mobile user over the coming year," he said.

YouTube Viewers vs Google Viewers Survey Results

I have been running the same videos on YouTube and Google for the past 3 months and was interested to see which get the most views and why...


Steve Irwin Stingray Accident YouTube 86,861 Google 173,196
Beautiful Girl using a Cordless Hair Straightener YouTube 4,845 Google 585
Toast YouTube 77 Google 175
Canadian girls gone wild YouTube 328 Google 371

Results:

YouTube viewers really want straight hair, they were sad about Steve Irwin's death but not as sad as the Google viewer who was distraught in comparison, the Google viewer prefers toast over the YouTube viewer and both The YouTube viewer and the Google viewer are into Canadian girls!

Is ExpoTV another billion dollar YouTube?

Expo TV is a new video solution to product research, with thousands of consumer-generated reviews and product demonstrations all available in full-motion video. In addition to the video reviews contributed by our community, we also produce informative ‘how to buy’ videos and have advertising partners who have contributed product demonstration videos.

Shop Whenever. Shop Smarter.

Google Looking to Buy YouTube for $1.6 billion

The rumour is that Google is looking to buy YouTube for $1.6 billion. YouTube has had informal talks with a number of companies about acquisition in the $1.5 - $2 billion range.

The discussions are still at a "sensitive stage", the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Make it, Post it, Profit with eefoof.com

Could eefoof.com be the new competition to YouTube.com

When you upload a piece of media for submission to eefoof, your first hit immediately starts generating income. Each month, we measure the amount of individual page views for each item you submit, and then calculate the percentage of hits it accounted for its media type. We then use this number to figure out your share of the sites ad revenue. Once your account exceeds $25, we will send you a Paypal transfer to the email specified at account creation.

So for example, if you uploaded FUNNY.JPG, and were to calculate last month's earnings:

eefoof image hits for the month:	10,000
FUNNY.JPG hits for the month:	100
eefoof image ad revenue:	$1,000
FUNNY.JPG revenue earned:	$10.00
eefoof's expenses	$5.00
FUNNY.JPG earned you:	$5.00

The Fastest thing on the Web

The amazing speed at which the web works is Epitomized by the growth of YouTube now ranked number 14 on the net according to Alexa. YouTube was only launched in early 2005, the power of social networking is driving this site far above others and really answers all that was promised of the net at the end of the 90's. The speed of the Internet now allows popular culture to become more truly popular than ever before.

YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!