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August 6, 2007

ICQ Founders Start KnockaTV

Michael Arrington

33 comments »

We just heard about a new Israeli video/TV startup called KnockaTV, which has the tagline “The People Have Taken Over.”

KnockaTV is self described as:

Knocka.TV… the latest from the inventors of ICQ, the web’s first Instant Messenger (www.icq.com). Building on our success with bringing people together on the web, “We’ve created a new form of Television!”. It’s social and real. It’s hyper-interactive and creative. Best of all, it’s democratic. Knocka lets the People decide what’s on TV, playing only original videos from the best web video producers in a professional TV broadcasting style.

They are also looking for original content producers to submit content to the service. Beyond that there isn’t much information yet. The site has not yet entered private beta, but it does show a constant stream of quick video clips on the landing page. Some of those clips show a counter for total number of current viewers; others contain a thumbs up or thumbs down icon, suggesting viewers will vote on the content, possibly skipping stuff they don’t like (as Pandora does when playing songs). This is all speculation, though. I haven’t yet spoken to the company.

The founders of instant messaging service ICQ are behind the company. ICQ was created by Yair Goldfinger, Arik Vardi, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir in 1996 (it’s not clear if all of those individuals are involved in KnockaTV) and its parent company was acquired by AOL for $408 million in 1998. Yotam Eshel’s LinkedIn profile lists him as the product manager for the company.

Alarm Clock says they raised $1 million in capital in June 2007. Evergreen Venture Partners, an Israeli firm, was named as an investor. Evergreen is also behind Aniboom, a user-generated cartoon site that launched in late 2006.

Whatever KnockaTV is, it looks like a hell of a lot of fun. Thanks for the tip, Orli.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 1:57 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Somewhat Frank

    August 6th, 2007 at 5:31 am

  2. Metagg

    August 6th, 2007 at 10:44 am

  3. pureweb20.com

    August 6th, 2007 at 11:19 am

  4. Ollivier Jacq » Blog Archive » KnockaTV - hyper-interactive Television

    September 1st, 2007 at 12:57 pm

  5. Knocka TV: yet another online video identity crisis « The Beyondness of Things

    December 4th, 2007 at 12:09 am

  6. Knocka.tv Comes Out Swinging, Does it Pack a Punch? | Roi Carthy :: Product Launch Consultant

    December 4th, 2007 at 3:13 am

  7. Knocka.tv Comes Out Swinging, Does it Pack a Punch? teasered @ Feed UP !!

    December 4th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

  8. KnockaTV May Heading To The DeadPool

    February 13th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

  9. Serious Drama As KnockaTV Shuts Down

    February 14th, 2008 at 1:45 am

  10. Knocka.tv Comes Out Swinging, Does it Pack a Punch?

    May 15th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Comments

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  1. UK-Jon

    August 6th, 2007 at 2:23 am

    So what can we expect to see on ‘KnockasTV’?

    Those of you on the ‘wrong side’ of the Atlantic, probably ought to be made aware that here in the UK the word ‘knockers’ is used as a slightly old fashioned reference to women’s breasts.

    And as this is a social TV channel, its only a matter of time before the name will probably become highly appropriate.

  2. Anand

    August 6th, 2007 at 2:44 am

    It looks like a bit of Digg thrown over Joost…’The people decide what’s on TV’..Now, that seems such an in-thing now…

    —————————
    Anand
    Feedrer (Private beta)

  3. Misery

    August 6th, 2007 at 3:58 am

    UK-Jon @1 - if TechCruch had mod points, you’d have mine now.
    Based on the content on there, it’s a mix between YouTube and MTV, tending towards webcam pr0n. Should be very very popular….

  4. Mustafa

    August 6th, 2007 at 4:03 am

    The broadcasting revolution has taken over the web. This started off with YouTube with people uploading videos of their choice, now they want more control and that’s what these people are giving them. So this looks like the next level.

    Nowadays, the Internet startups mainly consist of 2 vital elements:

    1) Personalization

    2) Control

    Getting a web 2.0 successful is a combination of these 2 hings… You have to have the right balance of control and personalization … Things can get a little complicated and unruly if you miscalculate the right balance.

    I believe this depends on what kind of service you are building.

    If you are building something like YouTube, Digg or Flickr … Then you surely need to give the users the right amount of control with a dash of personalization.

    On the other hand if you have something like Blogger, Typepad or Feedburner than you need a good level of personalization without giving away a lot of control.

    I’m still not sure what category Knocka TV really falls into but I am pretty sure that it will be about both: personalization & control, on equal level, head to head.

  5. steven f

    August 6th, 2007 at 5:05 am

    Check out http://www.constantcomedy.com it is sort of similar

  6. Richard Miller

    August 6th, 2007 at 8:07 am

    The broadcasting revolution is here for sure. But it has to have some sort of editing factor involved in it I guess. Otherwise we will witness a bunch of weirdos precording all sorts of stuff.

  7. carlity

    August 6th, 2007 at 8:08 am

    There are so many tv startups coming out, it seems like most of them are going to fail, especially if part of their model depends on having their own content.

  8. BeingParents

    August 6th, 2007 at 8:18 am

    This sounds a lot like Youtube.
    What completive strategy will they
    use to to compete with GoogleTube and the likes of Joost?

    Thanks

  9. sam madino

    August 6th, 2007 at 8:40 am

    I am very surprised about this article. For one, is not clear which of the former ICQ founders are involved and that’s the only newsworthy part of this article.

  10. The Buxr Widget

    August 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am

    What’s new here? Is this the Vulcan mind meld of Youtube and Digg?

  11. Andrew Pass

    August 6th, 2007 at 9:27 am

    Why do we need another company that does the same old thing? I’m hoping that the developers of ICQ recognize that their new company can’t do the same old thing if they want to succeed. Therefore, the question is: What will they do to make their company stand out?

    Check out my living textbook: http://www.pass-ed.com/Living-Textbook.html

  12. Ed

    August 6th, 2007 at 9:30 am

    I thought PowWow was the first instant messenger? It was the first one I ever used.

  13. Deals and Coupons

    August 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am

    I use AIM, never actually got into the ICQ mass.

  14. LonelyBloggers

    August 6th, 2007 at 10:12 am

    Excellent — Yet another place to upload our viral videos for free distribution..

  15. john

    August 6th, 2007 at 10:15 am

    That’s bulshit man.

    Michal check your sources again. The only guy from the founders that is still on the web business is Goldfinger and he is way into Jajah and Dotomi.

    AOL bought ICQ. Orly the girl you link to in the end works in AOL. I wonder of you are starting to get the point…

  16. Eze vidra

    August 6th, 2007 at 10:17 am

    See my coverage of KnockaTV on Venture Capital Cafe - http://goisrael.blogspot.com/2.....es-1m.html

  17. B S meter

    August 6th, 2007 at 10:23 am

    WebbAlert.com Update Day 3

    Well since Mike isn’t giving his daily update on this service, I figured I’ll give the update….

    She still is talking at warp speed along with the exaggerated facial expressions we all love. Amanda Congdon she is not.

    Btw, She is not looking nearly as “hot” today without her makeup… a little lipstick and foundation will go a long way. Her hair is also looking a little tired (bad highlight job?).

  18. Alaska Miller

    August 6th, 2007 at 10:27 am

    Once I finish reading my Ajax for Dummies book, you’ll all be sorry!

  19. Tyler Wright

    August 6th, 2007 at 11:27 am

    Wow a whole bunch of low self image girls resorting to near-porn. Nothing new here. VERY SWEET layout/colors/name and tagline though.

  20. Jason

    August 6th, 2007 at 11:43 am

    Sounds like Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV (www.current.tv), which has already been around for 2 years in the States.

  21. Importer

    August 6th, 2007 at 12:59 pm

    B S Meter

    ROTFL…I was expecting someone to write this!!

  22. Johnny

    August 6th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    What i could gauge from the site was that the streaming was good but really low quality.
    Lay out and design was awful.
    Unfortunately the TV shows on it looked totally bgrade at best.
    But i hope they prove me wrong because it has potential to have some really cool shows on it. As long as it does not get flooded with psycho’s like most of these sites do!!!!

    It is still very early days.

    All da breast

  23. David Mackey

    August 6th, 2007 at 9:14 pm

    I was starting to dread another YouTube copycat - but this looks like it might be halfway decent.

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