In June 2006, former medical student Miles Beckett and disgruntled lawyer Greg Goodfried teamed up with filmmaker Ramesh Flinders to launch Lonelygirl15, a fictional video journal series on YouTube that captured audiences and led them to believe that the female protagonist was actually broadcasting her real life.
After the truth came out about the authenticity of the recordings, Lonelgirl15’s creators went on to produce a British sister show called KateModern, which launched on Bebo in July 2007.
Now Beckett and Goodfried have formed EQAL (pronounced “equal”), an interactive media company that will continue producing the Lonelygirl15 and KateModern series among others to come. The new company has raised $5 million in Series A from Spark Capital and individuals such as Conrad Riggs, Ron Conway, Marc Andreesen, and Georges Harik.
Both series will be hosted at LG15.com. Since the company’s name refers to the equality of this new type of media, and the way in which community members interact with the stories it produces, LG15.com features social media like comments, chat, a forum, and a wiki.
EQAL plans to produce different versions of its shows for different countries, all of which will be distributed through LG15.com. These shows will contain occasional nods and references to each other, and their plots may even cross over at times.
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Enron twitter’d. They wanted their logo back.
LOL. I never noticed it.
why does it take 5 mil to run a video content site?? ill never understand that..
That makes 2 of us Jason.
lol @ number 1
I seriously do not get the interest in Youtube videos like loneylgirl. I saw a few minutes of a clip and that was enough for life.
Marc Andreesen?
It just goes to show, you only hear about the winning bets.
This makes DanceJam look GREAT!
Good God, seriously? I thought that crap had already died out. This is one of those things that people drag out on, simply because they can’t figure out that the fad, which is all it ever was, has died out.
Give up already. The 15 minutes are already past. And $5 for this project? Are you shitting me?
“Interactive” means it has a play button, right?
just took note of my deleted comment.
Edna hates spam too. as tc50 aspirant we just wanted to allow your readers reading tc on blackberry or other mobile devices to enable them to bookmark this article directly from their device in a free and convenient way.
maybe you should try it once before you delete this post too. thanks, Edna.
Does any one know how they gonna make the $$$?
Why they put such a lott money into this dead idea?
Ask Scott Adam (creator of Dilbert) about “Vijay, the world’s most desperate venture capitalist”
Scott knows everything
Note:
if you feel yourself like Vijay, just drop me a mail
I hope this won’t be considered as spam:
http://www.troyangrignon.com/d.....990427.gif
If all that money for VCs would be spend for good reason we would have
solved many problems, but.
I surely can confirm that I can better realize the size of our universe than why
they put such amounts for sites.
Its low brow but real life has a way of mimicking art ( including creative start up stunts ) and to prove it actress and playright Tricia Walsh Smith, estranged Brit wife of Phil Smith , President of the Broadway’s Shubert Organisation , has just hit the ‘ most subscribed to ‘ top spot on Youtube and racked up over 2 million views in a matter of days , with a journal like video in which she broadcasts her real life gripes with hubby Phil, alleging he is trying to evict her from the marital Park Avenue pad , renege on a pre nup and prefered solo sex to her.
The Shubert Organisation and its subsidiaries shifted almost a $1 billion in electronic and offline theatre and events ticket sales in the US in 2006 so the net has proved to be a bit of a mixed blessing for Mr Smith ( assuming this stuff is real…).
The spoofed response from ‘Philip ‘ is hilarious.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=.....h_response
lonelygirl15 is not 15 anymore so I don’t see pedophiles investing any money
To be honest I heard about her and her show but I think it’s just stupid.
Here is my replay to all of this:
http://www.livecrunch.com/2008.....elygirl15/
Isn’t that the Enron logo?
@1 and 15 - I was just thinking the same thing - or Entertainment Expo.
Wow, $5M for this? I guess that proverb about a fool and his money is true after all. It’s amazing that these people are still betting on these same old business models that don’t work. I guess the winning web 2.0 entrepreneur strategy should be:
Take the dumbest thing you ever thought of, add “social networking” or “ad based content delivery” to it, then come up with a business plan that shows no viable way other than advertising to make a profit, and wait for somebody to give you $5M…
No, it’s not the Enron logo. You can find that here:
http://www.enron.com/index.php
I have been a long time fan of the show…this only means even better production and more shows!
Congrats to the all and keep’m coming. I’m proud of you guys.
why all the whiners here? sure online content has its ups and downs in quality, but someone is going to dominate the field as its develops. TV is advertising driven.
I can give you two very good reasons why they are investing in the producers of LG15 and KateModern.
1. KateModern launched last year as a co-venture with the social network site Bebo. Prior to the launch, Bebo was a little known site and a small fish in the giant social networking pond. KateModern brought a lot of people to Bebo not just new members, but a lot of advertisers as well, in fact it attracted the interest of AOL who recently bought Bebo.
2. Why invest in LG15, specifically? Simple. There are a lot of webseries; however, LG15 is the longest running and the most well-known. Web content is a very hot area right now, if one is looking to invest in that area why not pick the one with the best track record for success?
LOL.
Even more 27-year-olds playing minors?
Cool! Yay! Waited for that.
Truly marvelous news and a sweet deal. The fans win, the producers win, and the investors win.
NUMBER 21 get your facts straight, “LG15 is the longest running and the most well-known”, check out microphone check at http://videostomp.com, we were producing web video content when lonely girl was a toddler…come on..!
how lucky we r tonight or maybe not…… hallo to all off u…
Digital stratigies are what all investors are intrested in at the minute, and lg15 and km are serious contenders in this ever growing market, why should we not encourage this step forward?
Congrats to the producers of Lonelygirl15
i say congrats to the creators also… @27