Comments on: VidPay: Dead Simple Sponsored Video Ad Platform

By: Daniel Gleckler

Daniel Gleckler — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:14:23 +0000

I doubt that most of the counters that are up around the web are REAL-TIME. They simply estimate how many have played, and how many play each second. Then they make an SWF using that math and recalculate and update them every now and then. It’s not really lying, it’s just not building a completely real-time counter.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:35:55 +0000

I have to agree. The name is excellent.

By: VidPay：簡単に使えるスポンサードビデオ広告プラットフォーム

VidPay：簡単に使えるスポンサードビデオ広告プラットフォーム — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:56:52 +0000

[...] ［原文へ］ [...]

By: James from FaceySpacey.com

James from FaceySpacey.com — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:38:24 +0000

Roi, consider this your passage to entry at TC, but yea, these guys are correct, you didn’t make it sound Dead Simple at all.

What would have made sense to me would have been this:

“VidPay lets publishers embed a snippet of code on their site and show a box of featured videos from paid advertisers throughout pages on your site. And when each video thumbnail is clicked it opens up that video in a player on your site. For the Advertisers, they can browse the inventory of multiple publishers and their videos and place videos in these boxes. Advertisers are offered tools to make groups of videos they want to advertise on as well as create groups based on keywords. The videos ultimately appear with a pre-roll and in-video popup add of their choice. VidPay’s strategy is to resell MetaCafe’s inventory while offering the snippet of code to grow their inventory past MetaCafe.”

By: James from FaceySpacey.com

James from FaceySpacey.com — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:29:04 +0000

Mark, I have to agree. There are a million providers and aggregated providers that get video ads into videos on your site (for publishers) and allow advertisers to put them there.

As the startup is not that unique to me, I don’t have too much time to research it, but frmo the TC screenshots their differentiating factor is that they put a box of multiple related videos in html format on a publisher’s site–useful (maybe done elsewhere), but not a big deal.

COMPETITORS:
adap.tv
Bright Roll
YuMe
VideoEgg

They probably do some cool stuff, but it’s too deep in the minutia to matter. E.g, my guess is their sponsored videos open up in the branded player of the publishers’ sites. That’s cool. How cool is it if it leads back to MetaCafe? I guess that depends on how much you’re getting paid.

By: fb897125713

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:14:41 +0000

Oops. Looks like it’s not ‘resells’ but ’sells on behalf of’.

By: fb897125713

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:11:56 +0000

Unless I misunderstood, VidPay buys ad-spaces on sites like MetaCafe and resells them to advertisers as video content ad-spaces.

Given that AdSense already supports video ads, VidPay must have something extra they are offering.

By: stu

stu — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:39:36 +0000

What a load of crap !

By: jamboree

jamboree — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:22:21 +0000

I’m totally with you. This is dead simple… NOT!

PayPal is dead simple. Ebay is dead simple. Twitter is dead simple.

Either Roi is a lousy writer or the solution is NOT dead simple… cause I still don’t get it after reading it twice.

By: dont

dont — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:39:40 +0000

1) having to advertise your site in a blog’s comment section = fail.

2) Bad grammar in the URL = fail.

By: Avi

Avi — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:12:26 +0000

Net… According to your logic, Adsense should never have been built, each website should have built its own advertising platform to save a few $ on commission… that’s pretty lame…

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:10:50 +0000

TC is behind vidpay? do you mean by writing about it? or actually funding the startup?

By: lemonobrien@yahoo.com

lemonobrien@yahoo.com — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:18:02 +0000

no, i don’t get it. “They let you promote” why would i pay someone to let me “promote” when i can do it myself for free and get a better response because i know my target market better than some dweeb who doesn’t really understand or care.

By: lemonobrien@yahoo.com

lemonobrien@yahoo.com — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:14:44 +0000

yeah, not good.

By: lemonobrien@yahoo.com

lemonobrien@yahoo.com — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:14:08 +0000

i don’t get it either. billing and what ever is all automatic. take a look at umakeitcool.com you have three bank accounts, royalties, commission, and advertising.

it’s all automatic. we’re killing the human part, they’re too expensive; especially for low margin businesses.

that’s why we outsourced everything… so i don’t get it.

By: Bob14

Bob14 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:38:21 +0000

They let you promote your video ads, any video ads, which have already been uploaded to metacafe (by you or any other person). A video ad can be an actual ad or just about anything, important to you. Get it? now go to your room and weep for not thining of it yourself.

By: Bob14

Bob14 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Just like adsense but for video….uuhhh…why didnt i think of that?

By: Digital Media Buzz - Simple Sponsored Video Ad Platform | Digital Media Buzz

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:30:43 +0000

[...] To appreciate my gushing enthusiasm over VidPay you must understand that one of the occupational hazards of writing for TechCrunch requires the deciphering of what startups actually do. Increasingly rare are startups like VidPay that offer straightforward value for its customers and have a CEO that knows how to intelligently communicate what the product actually does without overselling it or using tiring hyperbole. So let’s dive in:…..[read entire article] [...]

By: A.F.C.

A.F.C. — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:51:31 +0000

Dude.. I don’t understand what this company does. Kind of annoying since the author runs on and on about how “dead simple” it is.

They sell video ads on Metacafe? Ads for videos or pre-roll video ads? Only on Metacafe?

If I had a video site they would sell ads for me? What kind of ads — ads for Metacafe videos or ads for my videos?

I “dead simple” don’t get it…

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:58:32 +0000

Roi, we appreciate the enthusiasm but you’ve got to be more critical of the start-ups you cover.

By: KillerStartups.com - VidPay.com - A New Sponsored Video Ad Platform

KillerStartups.com - VidPay.com - A New Sponsored Video Ad Platform — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:03:23 +0000

VidPay.com – A New Sponsored Video Ad Platform…

I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog …

By: Lewis Buckley

Lewis Buckley — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:52:23 +0000

Nobody cares.

By: Adrian Eden

Adrian Eden — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:40:34 +0000

You know what’s really funny about this company, they have a ticker on their home page that is counting upwards, but when you refresh the website, it goes back to the original number, so they are essentially lying to the world about how many video ads they are serving. What a joke, not a good way to start out.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:45:39 +0000

hehe. SELLING the result of your work and making a profit IS the core competence of every BUSINESS.

By: Roi Carthy

Roi Carthy — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:30:26 +0000

“Building” in many respects is easy part. The areas that demand human and capital resources are billing, settlement, support, etc. Areas which are not the core competency of video sites.

This is why a 3rd party solution makes sense. The video site, in this case MetaCafe, can just get a cut of the revenue with practically zero work.