Flixster, a San Francisco based social network where users rate and discuss movies, closed a round of financing today with LightSpeed Ventures. This was a small round of financing – $2 million or possibly less, but there was apparently heavy competition from Sequoia Capital in the deal (and possibly Kleiner Perkins). Flixster has recently seen very heavy user registration and page view growth, so a sub-$10 million valuation, which this deal almost certainly was, could be considered quite cheap.
There are also rumors that major studios got involved in the Flixster bidding as well, either as an investment or an outright acquisition.
Look for an announcement in the coming weeks.
Update: Comments from founders in the comments (on their way to Aruba apparently) confirming the deal, and traffic stats in this post.
WOW…they have grown like CRAZY and fast too! Congrats to them.
Would love to get some of those members to my site…Google Adwords here I come!
actually interesting space, u watch a movie and everyone has an opinion.
News travels fast!
I got an Out of Office Auto reply email from Joe tonight reading “I will be on vacation in Aruba indefinitely. Please do not try to reach me.”
[Laughs nervously]
#s aren’t quite right above, but I can say we’re very excited to be investors in the company. I’ve posted a bit about why we like them at the Lightspeed blog – click on my name in this comment if you’re interested.
IMDb
IMDb
IMDb
IMDb
IMDb
IMDb
or the plethora of websites out there that reviews, catalogs, and discuss movies on forums, blogs, or mailing list.
Jesus tap dancing christ.
Mike – thanks for the kind words… but you spelled “flixster” wrong!
(in paragraph – title is right).
Jeremy – This is the last time i will be online before hopping on the plane for Aruba. As they say “So long and thanks for all the cash…”
~j
I’d also just add that we’re really excited too in that we feel we got the right partner in Jeremy to help us take Flixster to the next level.
Good to be done with fundraising and getting back to work though….from Aruba of course
This is a great company that has a lot of potential. Movie companies and other media companies would do well to put some investment into this venture. Flixter looks alright to me.
Congrats to Flixster on the investment. I do have one concern though about the user base – it’s very young, and I wonder how well something so young monetizes. Also, all of the ratings tend towards between 3 and 4 – not Flixster’s fault of course, but doesn’t really make for a very compelling user experience if every movie falls within the same range. Regardless, I do see social networking around popular media content as the next great area for advertisers. Watch this space.
Niko – you make a good point. Avg ratings – on flixster like elsewhere tend not to be very informative.
That is exactly why we thought it would be interesting to build a site where you could connect with friends and meet others with similar taste… then get recommendations & reviews from them.
Unfortunately, it turns out all my friends have terrible taste in movies. But what are you gonna do? Still fun…
~j
10m users and I’ve never heard of them. Wow.
Joe, don’t get me wrong, I really like what you’ve done with the site, very slick. I just wonder if it would be possible to do more with regards to connecting people with similar tastes. Your MCT is a great start, but again, as with the ratings, everyone tends to score between 55 and 75, so it doesn’t really tell you that much about others. I think there is a lot of potential in this space…
how did they grow (in user base) so fast ?
I am new to techcrunch. TechCrunch is not a blog written by one person right? It gives you so many stories everyday. I am just wondering how many people are working for this blog. It seems to take a lot time and resource to discover those stories.
what’s up with all these internet co. names of …Ster this …Ster that. or My…this or My…that? i’m not saying they’re neither good or bad, but as far as i’m concerned – think of something original. not to mention it may cause some sense of confusion amongst the “homers” of society…they may think jobster, friendster, flixster, sexster, dogster, godster, bookster, enoughster etc etc are all runned by the same Ster Inc co.
wow
Elenoire Versus Elenoire
http://elenoire...paces.live.com/
Flixster seems to me that it is for more casual movie fans. Maybe those that aren’t so interested in the depth and art of cinema.
Where as IMDB (one of my favourite) websites, has a wealth of information regarding every possible aspect of a movie. Not only that but they seem to attract a large amount of intelligent movie goers who to analyse every aspect of a movie.
To be honest out of every single start up that has launched recently – AMIE ST has to be the cream of the crop. Oh my god, I can’t get enough. My friend (an artist) has recently signed up and I just have to say that both him and I are extremely impressed by the site and the economics behind it. It is possibly the best business model I have seen in a long, long time. Keep giving us the updates on this one Mike. I am extremely interested to see how these guys go – especially on the venture capital front.
Another one to the list….it will take another crash to sort out the best from the rest…I have never used it so cannot really critic it…well anyways wish these guys well….
I would like to be able to import / synchronize my netflix ratings. I would hate to have to rerate a big bunch of movies.
so 3% of the US population uses this site?
Congratulations to Flixster!
It serves as a very important lesson that if you passionately build something for a specific use that can be an enjoyable experience – you’ll be rewarded in loyalty regardless of whether it’s ‘been done before’. Movie recommendations will be a fascinating space for some time to come – it’s certainly not state of the art yet and we’re excited to explore the area as well.
We too want Flixster members to see what added value we can bring in enjoying great movies!
@alex:
i do not share your amie st excitement.
yes, the business model has *massive* potential.
but no, i do not like their website (at all). it’s way too chaotic; songs and artists in all kind of different boxes and representations scattered througout the page.
i mean, take a look at for instance a page like this one:
http://amiestre....php?query=funk
call me stupid, but i don’t understand what’s being shown there. of course, i could spend some minutes to figure it out, but i don’t go to their site for figuring stuff out, i just wanna hear nice music!
amie st could use a usibility advisor.
p.s. sorry for being off-topic
Tawm, sorry for the confusion. The link you pulled up is a search results page for funk; instead try: http://amiestre...rts/today/Funk/
For “nice music,” check out: http://amiestre.../buzzing/today/
Flixster ROCKS, congrats guy!!
One day i would like to know how can this venture companies invest in such sites like this one. This is a copy of a copy of a copy, and the success that it’ll take maybe it’ll be zero, it’s not a inovation idea. If we know these, if everyone know this, i really would like to know one day why this companies invest.
I am a very newbie to TC (just yesterday) and I love it. Love mobilecrunch as well. I am also a newbie to the tech side of things. I did work for an original dotcom startup for 6 years in marketing/sales.
Anyway, since we’re on the topic of Flixster, I was wondering what type of technology a site like this is built on. Wize.com is another example. I have an idea (like everyone else) and I am trying to do research for a biz plan on what is needed to start-up a social networking website like the aforementioned.
I apologize if this is the wrong forum and if this is a perceived stupid question, but when I saw the Flixster site, the design/model is similar to what I had in mind (but not anyway associated with flixster’s model or movies). If I cloned it, what technologies would I be talking about? (PHP, RoR, etc?).
If anyone has any quick answers or resources (’Dummies guide to creating a social networking website business’
) it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! (and I apologize a second time if this post is a nuisance).
Me thinks the losers might be the winners here?
I was wondering how the DB of Flixster created. I know about IMDb, but the Flixter, anyone any clues?