Two years ago Y Combinator invested in Justin Kan and Emmett Shear’s calendaring company, Kiko, which eventually folded after Google Calendar launched in 2006.
The Kiko guys have returned to the startup scene since their acquisition on eBay with two new partners and a new quirky live blogging startup, Justin.TV, also funded by Y Combinator. Justin.TV is a website entirely devoted to chronicling the life of one of the company’s founders, Justin Kan, around day and night via web cam. This might sound a lot like JenniCam circa ‘96, ill-fated DotComGuy, or marketing ploy OurPrisoner, but some really cutting edge mobile technology sets the show apart. Justin won’t be chained to his house like these previous cam shows. Instead, armed with a head-cam, batteries, and 4 EVDO cards, he will roam free, streaming video across the mobile network and onto their own live flash content distribution platform.
On the site, you can watch the live feed of what Justin sees and hears, and chat, call, or text message him. The site also features a calendar that serves as his TV guide, listing his plans for the upcoming days. There are a couple boundaries about what Justin will film. He won’t be filming in the bathroom and will do his best to respect people’s wishes to not be on camera. His plans this afternoon will be to get a new wardrobe, and carry out some interviews with founders of other startups based out of San Francisco, such as ShoutFit, PairWise, and LicketyShip.
Justin.TV will sink or swim based on having interesting content, and while mobility spices up that scenery a bit, the life of a web entrepreneur is no episode of 24. As an answer to this, Justin is trying to keep his schedule interesting and East Coast time zone compatible, but will also feature archives of his most interesting content. The archives will be in the form of his personal blog, which will include his selected videos, and a raw archive of Justin’s life that viewers will soon be able to pick apart and mash together.
The long term goal of the project is to create an affordable live mobile video platform they can use to recruit other live bloggers. They already have plans to loan out the technology to a group tracking the Iowa local caucuses and have also set their sights on tracking some musicians.
This is cool. lots of swearing though
Well.. I expected a little more from the Kiko guys
Congrats to my former Kiko coworkers on a succesful late night launch. May you be able to bring up enough EC2 servers to sustain you.
And to Justin: I look forward to putting you all in on Wednesday!
This is actually a pretty cool site. I found I was sticking around for a while.
why would anyone want to virtually hang around these dorks all day?
serious.q: good question
Justin’s been wearing his gear to all the Y Combinator events, so it’s a surprisingly good way to get an insiders look on a web startup.
i’m with #5.
the video is nothing but drunk-sounding, giggling geeks.
i’d rather watch a professional web broadcast of tech events, than these guys. not that i’d watch a web broadcast anyways to begin with.
Interesting experiment, but the video doesn’t seem work under Linux (Ubuntu, Firefox 2)
the chatbox doesn’t work in ie6 nor ff1.5
Chris — video works fine for me on Linux (Fedora core 5, FF 2)… Maybe you need to upgrade to flash 9?
Alex: I’m on FF1.5 (Can’t stand the tab implementation in 2.0) and chat works fine…. you may just be seeing the first of the TC effect. /shrug
So far it looks like they could have accomplished the same thing in ~5 minutes with a stickam account, but very interested in what they do with mobile.
Coincidentally, they’ve succeeded in creating the internet’s only Web 2.0 chatroom.
To the chronic doubters out there, Justin.tv is awesome. This is a concept that breaks through the overused web 2.0 ideas with something refreshing and bold. I am personally amazed at how much these guys have accomplished in just the past few months, from the video streaming technology to the highly developed sense of branding and planned content. There are a few technical kinks to be worked out, sure, but once they are, I expect this idea to be explosive.
‘Revolutionizing the way people think about the web’
Raises eyebrow slightly.
Really?
I can’t wait.
Upon reading this enry I was very disappointed with what they came up with, but after visiting the site it’s suprisingly entertaining and addicting.
its interesting.
What is he going to do if he gets laid? Well, I guess a guy with a camera stuck to the side of his head doesn’t have to worry about that
from big brother: we are watching you.
justin kan: rock on! bring more cameras!
the sleeping video has a Trumans Story feel to it.
Looks very interesting…
web Tv will be awesome in 2007. More niche video community sites will start making the bigger ones a bit redundant…maybe. Maybe not.
Hi, very good you blog
…
Ok…
Let me get this straight…. Various ‘talking’ heads claim that you need to be on Techcrunch if you’re a player (cough ‘guy’)… and this is what’s put forth as companies worth watching… Yeah, right…
Why doesn’t Tech crunch come up with a A, and a B ranking for the biz articles.. This would allow us to know which Techcrunch site to focus on.. .The A list could be potentially real viable business opportunities. The B, something to read while we’re bored…
This is an experiment, not a business.
peace..
I agree with #5, nothing innovative or interesting. I’d rather see something nicely edited with a decent story.
Paul Graham funded this? Mid-life crisis? It’s a long way from Lisp, that’s for sure …
serious.q: dead on. Apparently a large portion of the Web 2.0 crowd has yet to figure out what type of original content will attract a large, mainstream audience. This is not it. If Y Combinator wants to get into this business, it should fund a pretty woman.
Interesting jump of interest for Justin. I think this might actually work well if they are trying to build a platform (scaling to more users, live web cams and channels) that will allow other people who are crazy (like Justin himself) enough to put themselves to this. Allowing other users to have their own page/channel is the only way they should grow this. It will be like “MTV Real World” but broadcasted on the web. Now that will be cool.
Interesting idea.
Anyone know who is streaming the video for them?
Surely it ain’t cheap…
Problem is that people who Twitter and watch Justin TV all day have zero revenue to spend on anything…
Reminds me very much of The Truman Show!
I think it’s an interesting experiment, but I’m not sure if it’ll last as long as 30 years like the film!
Also, will the camera be going everywhere like the shower?! Guess we have to watch to find out!
seems like it could work…pretty cool site….;)
it might serve an unintended reverse result and once people realize how hard, frustrating, tedious, full of endless days, non-glamorous, negotiating services with incompetent people, etc etc no one may be inclined to be a start-up
Amazing how many of the “insightful” readers here simply can’t get it. I don’t think they are hoping to attract numerous people with the content on justin.tv, though they might.
More importantly, the platform that they are developing could prove quite compelling for many who can’t implement this on their own. If they eventually enable any myspace user to embed this functionality within their page, I think it will appeal to lots of exhibitionists. I have been talking with some friends in the construction business and in the “adventure touring” business that would be very interested in doing something exactly like this. Many companies may have interest in funding users of their equipment (eg power tools, kayaks) to provide video of their products in use.
I think this will be an interesting example of how one can monetize the events of their daily lives if they can make it usable by the non-technical.
Drama: funding a pretty woman would be a little pointless–you don’t actually SEE the camera wearer, only the people he talks to.
On April 3 they have a meeting with a VC (Allegis Capital)…let see if they broadcast that! It’s very voyeuristic, but seeing 2 guys typing away outdoors is not my idea of interesting (rather it’s a huge timesink).
I agree with bdb: i think it’s about the platform/technology they’re building rather than the content.
Boring. Don’t they get that reality tv is interesting because the boring bits are edited out? Try watching Big Brother Live on a slow day. I bet you won’t last longer than half an hour.
Y Combinator funded this?!!!
Reminds me of http://youtube....e?user=ichannel
there we go!!
if we disagree.. we just don’t get it!!!! hmmm.. sounds like what mark cuban stated in one of hist posts. this is the response you get when you disagree with someone of the web2.0 crowd!
the fact is.. i do get ‘it’, but i disagree as to the business opportunity around this. it’s easy for a person to put their ‘life’ online in a video format. you have countless of differrent ways to accomplish this…
but i’m not convinced that corporate operations would ‘pay’ someone to promote their tools, and even if they would, why the need for this…
nope.. not buying it!
to be blunt.. if home depot put together a site for their users, i’m sure there would be plenty of service businesses that would easily put their small videos on the site to demonstrate how to use the various tools that home depot stocks, without the need for any of the ‘technology’ used by these guys…
i get back to my original point… when do we get back to real/viable companies.
peace.
Check out blogtv.ca for all those Canadians out there. They have live streams coming from a hummer with two broadcasters on all the time. PLUS you can broadcast yourself.
goc: at the very least an attractive woman is more likely to create interesting situations because she “attracts” more attention. The average American would rather watch a beautiful woman or studly man putzing around town than they would an “entrepreneur” going to meetings with VCs, hanging with other geeks from the Valley, typing pointless messages into his Blackberry, etc. Will this content appeal to some people? Sure. But there’s some audience for everything.
If this is a platform/technology play, it might have some potential, but I don’t necessarily think it’s something so unique that somebody would pay a significant amount for. Anybody that’s serious about producing compelling content probably doesn’t need this. As sam noted, it’s already pretty easy for a person to broadcast his or her life online.
Again, there seems to be this belief in the Web 2.0 “culture” that all content is created equal and that everybody is capable of producing compelling content. Content is not created equal and not every Joe Blow is capable of producing content that many people will find to be worth watching. Needless to say, tonight at 11 pm I’ll be watching The Daily Show and not Justin.tv.
Drama 2.0
Everyone is competing for the limelight, screaming for attention, looking for a model that has traction, and yet most of the fruit is going sour simply because there is far too much of it. The market is saturated with nearly every conceivable innovation coupled with the desperation of a starving man, so getting the cream to rise in the new marketplace is akin to pushing the cattle uphill to the pumps.
There is a subtle undertone felt by every competitor in this uphill struggle who feels the desperation of this market. All of the entrepreneurs locked into little online cages barking, crying, singing and dancing for attention and at a moments silence threatened with being discarded as scrap.
The internet is a very different market than that in which we have traditionally traded, where the separation between us has vanished, no miles to travail to find a competitor, no space to walk and hardly any effort takes you to the next guy with a pitch.
The market can sense this anxiousness and has become desensitized to the common peddlers and their Mickey mouse offerings who stare now only at the sight of spectacles which in someway they can exploit, like the gathering of dealers at auctions of the dead who look for bargains from redundant factories.
The market has become fickle and you will loose them to the next guy at the first sign of trouble, which might well be in the form of a request for registration, not having the right style, don’t even mention money, difficult navigation, or a host of other minor causes that could demand something of the user without giving him his fix first.
As a result the effort to capture an audience has reached epic proportions, with ever greater investments being made in marketing and with ever simpler systems developed for the competitors, to the point now that one can enter the market and publish his own website with as little as 3 clicks of a mouse.
Then as soon as anyone notices the vague whiff of success you will have 10 copycats most of them undercutting themselves to the point of giving whatever you was offering away free, in order to get your slice of the bacon.
We have reached the point now where the winner is actually the one who can give it away the fastest. Forget sound business models, forget making money, forget quality and focus on finding rubbish that you can tout to anyone who will take it off your hands, then auction off segments of your floor space to others who will pay you to offload their own piles of crack.
Then for a few fleeting moments you will have been the champ, the top dog on the stage which will last until your resources are depleted or your competitors have surrounded you, or the market has simply had its fill and cannot stomach a single ounce more.
Unfortunately this is where we have arrived and naturally at these tipping points when the market is selling short the inevitable collapse is just around the corner.
The survival guide is kiss, keep it simple stupid, observe but don’t follow, build organic companies from seeds, don’t try to muscle your way into markets, and don’t be fooled by venture capital from which there is no return to sanity.
The website is well made. But i am not sure if this idea will catch on.
Again like I said ealier… “looks very interesting”…
Y combinator should seek and fund small niche Tv/video sites that adds value to user’s life. Justin.tv will likely be watched by the VC and their friends and family.
Founders, ps do something useful. VCs, ps invest in something useful. I hope the web 2.0 world don’t end up writing a bad reputation with bad products and ’silly’ investments.
Hold the show sam. I couldn’t, whether I like it or not, consider myself part of the “web2.0 crowd”. Far from it, but I like to follow along. It is exactly this reason that I believe there is a market for this type of platform.
Not everyone is “serious about producing compelling content”, at least at the beginning. However, if users can easily set this up with minimal upfront costs and minimal technical capability, these users can work toward providing the compelling content eventually. Just getting “something” out there is a start.
I would think the “web2.0 crowd” would be the cynical ones because it is this crowd that probably believes “it is easy to broadcast ones daily life online”. Most programmers that I know believe they can understand the needs of market and/ or end users; many can, but most cannot. Most couldn’t understand what was compelling about youtube or myspace; I must admit that I couldn’t either…
I dont know if this will be the easy_to_use platform, or if a comparable or better solution exists, but when Joe Blow can easily and simply share their everyday activities, it will become more widespread. Eventually, the compelling content will rise to the top.
Nothing about this platform leads me to believe the content couldn’t also be edited at a later time (to remove the “boring bits” or classified info, thinking about soldiers in Iraq/ Afghanistan).
Webcams aren’t interesting. You have enable access to priority/pertinent content to visitors as much as possible. I spent 10 minutes on this site and it’s just blurry circa 1998 style video with bunch of giggling and mumbling in the background. I care about this why…?
Zefrank’s content is 3 minutes or less a day for a damn good reason. Any more than that and it’s just pointless.
I wonder how many other small businesses folded when Google decided to dip their toe in the water.
There are currently 107 viewers 12 hours after launch though who knows if it’ll last.
However, since Alaska believes it is pointless perhaps they should just close up shop. Anyone experimenting with new ideas should simply be shot…how dare they!
Definitely agree with grainy picture and poor audio comments. Hopefully that will improve.