Montreal based MediaScrape, a Google News meets video translation service has taken $3.2 million in a new round from we don’t know who, for total funding or over how many rounds we have no idea either.
MediaScrape’s new service is updated every 30 minutes and gives users full control on the way they receive their news, from on demand through to regional loops. The company syndicates content from Reuters, AP, Canadian Press, Dogan News Agency, and others, and translates these clips into English when required. MediaScrape claims to have a distribution deal with YouTube as well.
The site has received fairly extensive positive press coverage in Canada, but there are a couple of oddities that I cant quite work out. There was no details on the investors; it’s not completely unusual that investors don’t want to be named, but usually this would be noted by the company, it wasn’t in this case. MediaScrape claim the $3.2 million is a second round, and yet when they talked to the Montreal Gazette in September 2007 when they took $1 million, they claimed the $1 million was their third round (making todays round the 4th). They claim to be a “leading online broadcast news network” and yet their traffic is so small that they aren’t being tracked by comScore, and even Alexa puts them at over 200,000; their so-called YouTube syndication deal has only netted 714 videos in 7 months, with most videos getting viewer numbers only in the low three figures. Then there’s the web site, with the cheap logo, the stolen BBC world map down the left hand side, cheapy Google logos and just a general look and feel of a site done on the cheap, not by a company with 2-4 rounds of funding who apparently leads the field in news syndication.
The first link to MediaScrape doesn’t work.
This one’s a winner.
Duncan you forgot to mention that their site rips off the look and feel of cnn.com, what a hack job.
They are super thin on content. There’s nothing there, basically, that’s why compete.com says they have less visitors that uncle Joe’s false teeth collecting website.
Sounds a little fishy but hey… so are many other things around the net.
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories!
Hi,
I self-funded and founded MediaScrape. I put all my initial efforts into flying around the world to sign content deals. Now that I have managed to raise funds, I am looking to hire graphic designers and people who can help with the branding of the site. If anyone knows anyone, I would be truly appreciative of being connected. I can be reached at: cavell@mediascrape.com Now that I have proper funding, if anyone else is interested in working for the site to add the value that it needs then I am very interested. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your input.
Best,
Tyler
cavell@mediascrape.com
Can anyone please advise what “The company syndicates content from…” means?
Do they have to have agreements with all these agencies?
If not - should they contact these agencies to let them know that they will link to their content?
Or can they just start posting links to those agencies’ web sites without any notice?
Thanks in advance for any suggestion.
More details about Mediscrape and the funding can be found on Montreal Tech Watch.
I co-founded this company, and then proceeded to serve Tyler and Mediascrape with a Cease & Desist based on their outright theft of my intellectual property. Tyler’s M.O. is smoke and mirrors - lots of bogus PR and very little actual understanding of the web and how people engage in and share content. If it weren’t for his father’s very wealthy friends, this guy would be nowhere.
Anyone planning to work with him should be warned…. just ask anyone who’s worked with him before and has been subjected to his lies and temper tantrums.
Thanks for the post.
I agree with Jimmy,
MS’s problem is Tyler Cavell. It’s a great idea. I was hired by the co-founders as a technical adviser to architect the back-end and write the documents for the patent. I wrote a feasibility study and met with his father and some patent lawyers. They were trying to promise me that I’d have shares in the company without a written contract, all I had to do was write the documents first and give the solution for the patent lawyers, including my own ideas/designs, then I would have a contract. I said if there’s no contract upfront then I’m out. They said no, so I bailed. All the while putting pressure on me, saying they were honest, and getting mad at the request and threating with his Father, etc. Very shady business practices if you ask me. They don’t really want good honest people working for them. They want to use people to make the company look really good and maybe get bought.
Here, you have a rich kid with Daddy’s checkbook trying to turn his education and “thesis” into a business model by tyrannically firing people and yelling at employees. Tyler is a lot of talk, flash, networking with rich friends, but little actual can-do or practical business sense.
If only it had a different President, MS could be a good thing.
Oh and as far as “self-funded” goes, I remember the co-founders not being able to pay me. I worked for a while without pay. Then, I got one small check from Charles G. Cavell’s own hand himself. And when I say small, I mean small. Charles is Tyler’s Father and the former Quebecor World President and Chief Executive Officer.