Video sharing site Motionbox has just closed a $6 million Series C funding round led by Constellation Ventures, with Canaan Partners and SAS Investors also participating. Alongside the funding, Motionbox is also announcing that its founder and CEO Chris O’Brien will be assuming the role of Chairman of the Board and EVP of Strategy and Corporate Development, with former COO Josh Grotstein taking the reins as CEO.
Motionbox is similar to YouTube in that it allows users to upload and share their videos on the web, but it includes a more robust suite of privacy settings that make it better suited for sharing clips with a select group of friends rather than the whole world. The site offers a free version with standard video sharing options, as well as premium memberships that allow users to upload an unlimited number of videos, with no time limit restrictions. Motionbox’s site also lets users order their videos on DVD and in paper flipbooks, which can recreate brief scenes.
The site recently got a boost from AOL, which recommended Motionbox to as an replacement for its recently-shuttered Video Uploads service.
wow, that there really is someone who is willing to invest in something that has no roi-value (even with millions and millions of vistors)..
that the no time limit restrictions is supposed to attract many premium memberships is a non-argument… as such restrictions will lead to copyright-infringements without a doubt! why pay for something that gets blocked anyway…?
youtube may be a good guy
Couldn’t even find a sample video on their site. They don’t seem to even use their own video for promotional purposes.
If the company is a web based video network, they should at the very least have a video on their homepage, or at least a link to one.
Weak.
Another Web 2.0 “me-too” company raised $6 M. It looks like VC still have money to burn. You better hope your burn rate is low
as such restrictions will lead to copyright-infringements without a doubt! why pay for something that gets blocked anyway…?
http://kisalt.net/d2
If you need TOTAL privacy, http://www.SeeToo.com lets you share your videos directly from your pc with invited friends only. It doesn’t require upload at all, the video length is unlimited and it’s FREE!
Wow, that’s actually good news for the internet industry. I guess VC’s still have money to invest. Hoping to read more funding success stories in 2009.
http://www.seetoo.com allows complete privacy, and doesn’t limit the size of the files.
Hmmm… I just tried to use http://www.seetoo.com and Mac isn’t supported. FAIL. How can you have a site that doesn’t support Mac?
Or is this just comment spam?
Mitch,
The viewers can watch it on MAC as well. The initiator, that shares his videos with the viewers, must do it from a PC (until the version that will be released on March).
BTW, all can watch the video in total sync, as if on the same screen…!
–Alon
From what I can tell from experience with YouTube, Motionbox is in a position to surpass YouTube in many key areas. YouTube’s greatest weakness is that it uses silly programs to block alleged copyright infringing videos we try to upload. Music and record companies can sign on to YouTube and have this program block the upload of your videos. Yet these legally inept companies (and YouTube) don’t bother to READ Copyright Law Section 107, which clearly says that as long as your video abides within the guidelines of that Section, the video does not infringe. But YouTube’s program doesn’t know the law, and so many people, like myself, are very dissatisfied with YouTube for this one reason. It restricts our ability to be creative. And so if Motionbox can be smart and capitalize off of YouTube’s weakness, it will gain more customers and surpass YouTube. But Motionbox has to hurry because YouTube knows that there is competition and it knows that people are upset.