If the Online Video Market were a movie about a boxing match in Moscow on Christmas Day and I was casting, the overwhelming character of Ivan Drago would have to be played by YouTube and the underdog role of Mr. Balboa would be played by Philly’s own Viddler.com; the hardworking blue collar fighter that refuses to take short cuts and ultimately proves to the world he’s a force to reckon with. Aaadddriiiiiiiaaaaannnnnnn!!! (Sorry, I get carried away when I talk about the best of the Rocky series).
According to Viddler.com “Viddler is a fresh, creative web application that lets you upload, enhance, and share digital video quickly and easily inside your web browser.” What makes Viddler different than the thousands of other online video sites that appear every day? Viddler is targeting the ‘Long Video’ niche, essentially removing limitations on length and file sizes (file limitation is 500Mb) for it’s video producers. Compare that to the ’short video’ approach of YouTube where the average video is under 2 minutes and file sizes are capped at 100Mb, you immediately see the niche differentiation.
Viddler is able to take this unorthodox approach because of their unique and robust commenting and tagging technology which allows users and producers to leave notes, links, and video-responses embedded right in the original video. The ‘Long Video’ format lends itself to syndication episodes and has already seen some break out stars show the online-video community the potential for this new approach.
I was fortunate enough to get in touch with Rob Sandie, President of Viddler.com, and ask him a couple questions:(to see Rob’s responses to my questions just expand the embedded comments by clicking on the blue triangle button)
Though the fight for survival is far from over for the Viddler crew, they can be confident that their hard work will pay off in success even if that doesn’t mean the death of the ‘Siberian Express’.If YouTube is Drago and Viddler is Rocky, then who is Bridgette Nielson’s character hiding in the corner pumping the real star full of ‘juice’ to ensure a Soviet Victory? My money’s on Google Video.
Attention Investors: Act fast and you might still be able to get in on the ground floor before Viddler shoots into international spotlight.
Attention Phillypreneurs: Viddler is a great example of a top notch online start up that didn’t come out of Silicon Valley. The proliferation of technology and web access makes it possible to start an on-line company from anywhere in the world and more specifically right here in entrepreneurial bread basket known as Philly.
Dave Speers is an online marketing consultant and blogger that has worked with a wide variety of Philadelphia Start-Ups . Dave spends most his time annoying really smart people at Indy Hall co-working collaborative.
