Venice Beach, CA based Mogreet has raised a $5 million Series B funding from existing investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson Frontier and other venture capital firms such as Ascend Ventures, Black Diamond Ventures, and Spyglass Ventures. DFJ Frontier had already invested an undisclosed amount in an earlier round (estimated to be $1.2 million Update: We’ve confirmed from the company that the series A round was actually $2.1 million), and VentureBeat reported that the company subsequently raised $2.5 million in a Series B last June. But CEO James Citron says that report was false, and the correct amount is $5 million.
Mogreet, founded in 2006, has developed a distribution platform for mobile video messages dubbed ‘mogreets’ (short for mobile greetings), which can be delivered by MMS or as an attachment in a text message. Mogreets, which are in essence video files compressed to 100 kilobits or less, are priced between $0.49 and $0.99. Evidently, teenagers are the company’s main target group.
We have a promotion code so 200 TechCrunch readers can try out the beta service for free; if you’re based in the US or UK, try entering ‘techcrunch‘ in the promo code field when sending a video message from their library. It’ll work for a week or so.
By striking deals with major Hollywood studios like Paramount and other content partners, Mogreet has built up a 3500-strong catalog of greetings ranging from short original clips shot with celebrities to re-purposed clips from films. Other clips include animation and user-generated content. The company also offers an ad-supported outlet with free mobile video greetings that are used as a promotional tool for upcoming film releases. In those cases, mogreets are free to the user with the advertiser picking up a fraction of the charge depending on how many messages are sent. Subscription-based pricing models are in development and expected to be released in early 2009, enabling users to send an unlimited amount of mogreets for under $5 per month.
Mogreet has sealed a number of on-deck distribution partnerships with AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint. When you send a mogreet, the charge is added to your mobile phone bill, making it unnecessary to enter credit card information. The company also offers off-deck access on all the major U.S. carriers and on 3 and T-Mobile in Britain.
Depending on the carrier, recipients may need a data plan to receive the Mogreet video message.
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“which can be delivered by MMS”
“Mogreets, which are in essence video files compressed to 100 kilobits or less, are priced between $0.49 and $0.99″
LOL, Both the iPhone and the Google phone can do this all by themselves for free right now. Click media->Send as Gmail->Enter first 2 characters of contact->Click send
Mogreet == obsolete
Thanks Google
BTW, I switched from Flickr to Picasa today and did not renew my pro Flickr account. I am sick of flickr making all my pics public by default. People need some privacy in today’s world. BTW, the picasa iframe viewer for large images totally sucks, but I can live with it for the free 1 GB storage.
ya but a lot of phones cant do what iphone or google phones will do and you can still make money - hence why DFJ would invest. duh.
i mean callwave made money from selling a call answering service for dial-up internet connections. Also think international.
“sick of flickr making all my pics public by default” , how much time it will take from you to switch it to private ?
You CAN’T “do this … for free right now.” These are little seven second “greeting cards” delivered to a phone. The reason they’re delivered as 3gp via MMS is that most phones can receive and display them. Good luck sending a legally obtained Godfather video ‘card’ to a phone w/o using a service like Mogreet.
Hit the Gmail button, select the file, type the 1rst 2 digits of the contact then hit.the bsend button.
Google phone wins flawless victory
Chris, the iPhone and the G1 represent less than 5% of the US Market. While email is certainly a compelling delivery mechanism, it still only applies to those who use their mobile devices for email. I wouldn’t call your scenario a “flawless victory” for the majority of the market who need you to send them an SMS or an MMS to reach their mobile with the movie content.
Another interesting step in your process begs a question.
“Select the file”
Are you going to create the video that you wish to send? If so, that adds a whole string of previous effort to get you to the point where you have the file that you wish to send. Similar to the ringtone and wallpaper business models, sure, some people will figure out how to create and apply their own content to their mobile devices. The majority of folks will go ahead and do it the “easy” way for a small fee.
Geoff, the G1 actually lets you create and edit your own media ON THE PHONE. Check the “market” from the main menu on the G1.
View media, click the share button, and enter the first couple letters in the contact and click send.
If you can’t manage that, you’re a retard. Besides the fact that the G1 does YouTube as an App.
This app isn’t needed anymore. If the guys that made it had any brains they would rebuild it as a G1 app instead.
Remember Teleflip?
“Man, we have a patent!!! Like dude”
Our phone turns crappy phones into Email MACHINES!!!
YEAHHHHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAAAAHHHH
You are the weakest link goodbye.
http://gigaom.com/2008/08/12/t.....-for-good/
Don’t try to upgrade terd devices. That is the lesson learned.
Get with the program or get out of business. Legacy is a swear word.
“I wouldn’t call your scenario a “flawless victory””
You’re right, it’s called FATALITY !!!
Good to see the mobile web and video advancing even in tough economic times.
Yes! I agree up.
seems a bit pricey in a recession. the domain hurts. mogreat, mograte, mogreet, moregreet, moregreats moregreets, mogreats. does it matter? better get those variation domains before someone else does.
PlatformLocator.com- Got Base?
http://apps.facebook.com/voo-zoomobile/
to try mobile greeting cards - you can win money!
Nice
http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
def agree that it’s great to see mobile innovation still thriving and developing. and to the point above, when compared to $4 generic hallmark greeting cards, it’s a pretty fair deal.
What a cool application! I can see a ton of kids sending these to their friends (in a way it reminds me of when ringtones were first introduced). I remember first hearing about downloadable ringtones and then as time went by EVERY phone had some funny jingle. My 60-year-old father now has ringtones on his phone… I sense the same ubiquity for sending a “mogreet”.
Interesting point on IPhone and Google, sure you can use Avid, cut a 7 second video of a Guns and Roses video, even strip the audio, send it via text and you are looking at about $30,000k in a one time licensing fee for the “no audio” version plus probably triple that in legal fees. Mogreet is the first to actually have deals in place with motion picture houses, etc. Rock on Mogreet. Think you guys are onto something big!
Oh and in regards to greeting card pricing, brandingstrategyinsider.com reporting 89% of greeting cards being priced over $2.00. A potential “unlimited monthly Mogreet” package of $5 is a steal! If the average person ideally wanted to send a greeting a day that is about 16 cents a day.
Sounds cool. I like how they’re bridging mobile and video for all of us non-iphoners.
I smell some serious astroturfing in these comments. You know people, you could have just given an official response instead of making anonymous comments in praise of some service as silly as ring tones.
People were dumb enough to buy ringtones, so maybe this will work.
One more thing: Not many people care is the content is legally licensed or not. If they can do it for free, they will.
One person’s dumb product is another’s little bit of personalized pleasure.
Re ‘free;’ agreed, but mobile pipes are tightly controlled by the carriers so tough to make any on-deck product that’s not on the up and up. A WAP product would circumvent that, but would need a business model like ad-supported ‘cards.’ And the WAP / real-internet-on-phone market is still small compared to the number of dumb phones out there. Someone will probably try free, pirated content to phones, but not yet.