ExpoTV Takes $6 million
Nick Gonzalez
21 comments »
Today, ExpoTV, a site focused on user-generated reviews and product demonstrations, announced a $6 million Series A round of funding led by Masthead Venture Partners and Prism VentureWorks, including existing investors. Brady Bohrmann of Masthead and Will Kohler of Prism are joining ExpoTV’s board.
David Beisel, with Masthead, writes on his blog that he feels the ExpoTV investment is a promising investment because of ExpoTV’s focus on the “intersection of online video and social commerce”.
ExpoTV is best described as a YouTube for product reviews. Users can peruse or upload video opinions by category. They also have their own reviews branded as ExpoTV on demand. To reward their users for their content, ExpoTV currently has a “Pay-per-Play” program where you will receive $0.01 each time any of your published Videopinion reviews is played. Payments are made once per month via PayPal. ExpoTV also has several holiday promotions on right now as they focus on collecting holiday gift reviews.
Readers interested in ExpoTV will also be interested in user-generated review site ShopWiki’s $6.2 million round of financing last July.
Wow, great idea but…. The color combination on their site is horrible. It’s bad for the eyes.
Agreed…site looks pretty crappy…
This looks great and the momentum around product reviews and user feedback continues. At iNods, we have always believed that increasing amount of a user’s time “before” the transaction is now spent on reading up expert reviews and user feedback/experiences about a product or a place. We call this “social research” (which you will see in a big update in the next 2 weeks) - with the ultimate goal of simulating the real world experience of asking our “expert” friends for their recommendations.
ExpoTV will create a platform to add valuable video content of reviews/opinions and we will be sure to index it
This is closer to what I had anticipated with the Youtube.com Technology. These are projections going into the right direction for commerce. What will this do for the informercial circuit? Looks like it will pave the way for more players.
Finally a chance to show the world how well my new Norelco body shaver works. I just love my smooth new neck and shoulders.
I would demo me trying to set up all of my five emails into my new Motorola Q. That would probably be a funny sight.
That is great. Consumers really need somewhere like this to learn the products more. But if this gets popular, will it be a place for vendors to promote their products?
Tech Tutorials: http://www.hotcoding.com
you got to be kidding me. there are videos of a people recommending Elmer’s Glue. this is a joke right? I will buy a product endorsed by Joe Shmoe on video, why? How is this better than a 5 star rating system with short sentences as to why a product is good/bad?
Buy this bag, cause look…I have one and I like it.
Boggles the mind.
@ burstingbubbles, there are hundreds of companies who want to promote products and need a good host because video content is expensive to run on a server and here you have a site dedicated to that very thing. Granted you can throw your stuff up on a variety of platforms, but here you’ve got a dedicated one to this specific purpose. Production companies are starting to get into producing ad content, ad companies are starting to produce ad content, consumers have already proven they’ll waste endless hours of their own time creating content they’re never paid for. Lots of interactive ad agencies have acquired or launched social networking platforms - I’m not so sure the folks behind this site are all that dumb to launch.
I’m not saying this site’ll sink or swim but at least they’ve got the sense to differntiate - which is kind of a lot more than we can say for a lot of “web 2.0″ platforms right now.
why on earth would anyone go to all the time and effort to do a video product review?
i dont find this site interesting in the least bit and it looks horrific
The Internet + Creating Thinking = Unlimited Potential.
Gotta love the ‘net!
“This is closer to what I had anticipated with the Youtube.com Technology. These are projections going into the right direction for commerce. What will this do for the informercial circuit? Looks like it will pave the way for more players.” - Ted
You are right - afterall a site needs to be monetised at some pt. But with Google now in control…with all the money they are making they can afford to keep the old strategy. As long as the hits are there…the monetising is about all the ads that can be shown.
http://www.jollyjo.org
“Why would anyone - make a product review site?”
Umm for the same reason millions of people put random vids on Utube -
A video demo has more purpose and meaning than - a fat girl shaking her but, or mentos in diet coke.
and also - Some people hate becuase that can’t get 6 mill in funding - RB
Hmmm…I might have to get a video camera so I can start making product reviews if they are going to pay for them…
Take one look at these consumer generated gems, and you’ll know why ads use cameramen and actors! People mumbling incomprehensibly about their crap on a fancy looking site are still simply people mumbling inconprehensibly about their crap.
Seems unbelievable that people are willing to sell their souls to corporate america for a few pennies.
Hello David,
If they are going to pay then everyone would get a video camera and start making video product review.
I can’t believe people would watch bad video and boring dialogue in a product review!
Destined for the scrap heap of tech companies.