Blip.tv - How Charles Hope brought the New Media Revolution to the masses
Blip.tv co-founder, Charles Hope, talks about the beginnings of Blip.tv, how it all came about. With all the traction they have gotten with Blip.tv, what they look forward to and where they see themselves going. Charles defined what Blip.tv is and how they are different from Yahoo! and Google Video sites. Launched over a year ago, Blip.tv has risen to a position of immense value to video producers all around the globe. They remain free to upload for the general public. Broadcast channels such as CNN are using Blip.tv technology for their own usage.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ):I am with Charles Hope who is the co-founder of Blip.tv. Blip.tv is making waves in the video circles, challenging the big guns like YouTube, Yahoo! Video and Google Video. Charles welcome to the podcast.
Charles ( Blip.tv ):Thank you.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So, Charles every startup has a story. Blip.tv is getting a lot of traction in the blogosphere. So talk about how Blip.tv got started.
Charles ( Blip.tv ):Well.. let’s see, five of us or I should say four of us that’s me, Mike, Justin and Jared, were on our weekends working on a piece of software which was a knowledge management application, and we came across video blogging in the spring of 2005. We were really impressed by the power of..you know…the potential power of the format and we also realized that this was the potential application for so it took us about a week to customize it a little bit further…
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): Did you say a week to customize it?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Yes. It was already fully functional and already supported video and audio formats and pictures as well but we..it took us about a week to customize it a little bit further and then we put it up as a solution for these video bloggers that we encountered on the Yahoo Group.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So what is different that Blip.tv does which is different from Yahoo! Video or Google Video?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Well our whole focus is different.The focus of Yahoo! Video or Google Video tends to be more viral video which are short, cute clips of stunts or boys on skateboards or dancing babies or whatever have you that people send to each other and giggle about.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ):They are typically short in length as well.
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Yes, they are shortWhereas we really focus on video blogging which is serialized and a bit serious content.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): What were doing before you started Blip.tv?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): I was programming, all four of us are programmers and Dinaa was a news reporter down in Lexington, Kuntucky, I believe and she was up here, we are all friends, from long beforethis adventure, and then because of her TV background, it seemed like in good fit and she got interested and she joined us shortly after we started.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ):So let me ask you if I am a video blogger or I am a blogger and I want to come and use Blip.tv services, how much I have to pay and what I have to do?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Blip.tv is completely free.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): Free as in beer?
Charles ( Blip.tv ):Yes free as in beer. Drink all you want.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So, I just come here, upload my video and its available for people to download and watch?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Right. And we are also having a blog trust posting teacher, so if you register your blog with Blip.tv then when you upload your video, we can send it right over to your blog.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): One of the things I found, you go to YouTube and you get to see all the choppy video and you have some limitations you can’t do more than 10 minutes. Google you upload you got to wait may be sometimes for three days before it appears. What is the case with Blip.tv ? How are you guys different?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Well, your video appears instantly we do Flash transcoding but..
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): What is Flash transcoding for the listeners out there?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): People work typically, our users typically upload videos in QuickTime or Windows Media formats, but a lot of Windows users can’t be QuickTime or Macintosh users can’t use Windows formats so the format crosses the platforms is Flash, so we take your video and we automatically convert it to the Flash format.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ):And Flash is a player which is already installed with the 90 – 95% of the computers out there.
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Right. Almost all the computers out there already have Flash with them. It’a a seemless experience to go and they watch the video and they don’t realize what format its in, they don’t care, it simply works, but we also make your old format available.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So Charles lets go to a 10,000 feet level if you will and look at the whole new media space and we are here and talking about podcasting and video blogging the whole media is converging. What do you see the future of video?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Well the future of the video is until I can go a few years into the future which would be that people are watching content and they don’t necessarily know or care whether it is coming from internet, independent media film makers or big time production houses. I think that people will be searching for content by keyword or by association rather than by the channel.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So Charles you know…the whole new media landscape if you will, is shifting and we are here discussing all about podcasting and video blogging. So what do see the future of video?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Well there is a little bit of gap in our ecosystem. It is getting a lot easier for the people to create video. It is getting very easier for them to distribute it, but on the playing and viewing side there is still a bit of a gap. People are generally compelled to go to websites, click on some icon and sit there for 2-3 minutes while the video loads and then sit there and watch it and they watch it through a tiny 3 inch by 2 inch window on their computer screen, it’s just not condusive to sitting down and watching three minutes or an hour of video. There is a class of software out there called the video aggregators, they do their best to recreate the television experience on the computer but the content is coming not from the networks but from the video blogs. These applications need to get a bit more popular and need to get a bit more pollished, but I think that’s the future of internet videos - people sitting back from the computer, 10ft on their couches and sitting there for 30 minutes or 45 minutes and are watching all of the video blogs which they subscribe to.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So that will be the tipping point of video, where the transition will occur and the viewing habits will change.
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Right. I think it needs to feel more like television.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So since Blip.tv is offering all this service free to all the video bloggers, how does Blip.tv make money?
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Blip.tv is making money right now primarily through private label websites. We have done Blip style sites for various companies such as CNN, we put up their I report system, they are solutions from from people all over the world actually -pictures and video of various events that occur, get uploaded and emailed in to CNN, enter into their editorial pipe line and actually have ended up on broadcasts.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So Charles you are involved in the video space, which are the other hot companies in the video space which you think are interesting.
Charles ( Blip.tv ): Well we like Dabble, Dabble has a very interesting playlist service. Dabble.com, everyone should go and check that out. I am also a fan of Mefeedia which is a video aggregator but its on the web it’s totally web based and that’s a pretty good partner as well.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): So Charles thank you very much for the podcast. We are glad to have you on the Startup PodcastPodcast. I hope Blip.tv will become CNN very soon maybe a year or two down the road, not too far in the future and you will become a key player in the market place.
Charles ( Blip.tv ): We can only hope.
Vic ( Silicon Valley Blog ): You can find this podcast and other podcasts online at StartupNewz.com. I was talking to Charles Hope, who is one of the founders of Blip.tv.
