April 5, 2010 8:34AM  |
Google has acquired Episodic, a video startup that offers possibilities to monetize YouTube in the booming market for web and mobile video. Episodic lets publishers and marketers host, stream, measure and monetize video content in a market of 178 million U.S. Internet users. Episodic could help YouTube stay ahead of fast-growing competitors.
 In its fifth acquisition of 2010, Google has acquired a fledgling video service that could offer some backup to its YouTube property. The Internet giant snapped up Episodic for an undisclosed amount.Google hasn’t officially announced the deal, but the San Francisco-based startup was so “thrilled” to join the Google family that its cofounders shared the news in a blog post on Friday. The post hints at Google’s motives for buying what Episodic describes as its “comprehensive platform for broadcasting live and on-demand video to the web or any web-enabled device.”“The Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great video experience to the web, mobile phones, and IPTV devices,” wrote Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich. The cofounders promised no service interruptions for customers.
A direct competitor with Brightcove, content creators, marketers and enterprise customers use Episodic to deliver video to the web and mobile devices. Episodic lets publishers and marketers host, stream, measure and monetize video content. Monetization may be the keyword for Google in this deal. With Apple’s iPad exploding onto the scene, many analysts believe online video consumption will continue its fast-paced growth in 2010. “Video is a critical growth area online, in mobile and now on tablets,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. “This purchase offers more tools and monetization possibilities to Google for IP-based video across all screens. It also gives YouTube some new potential monetization scenarios to contemplate.” The online video market swelled to nearly 178 million U.S. Internet users watching 33.2 billion videos in December alone, according to comScore. That translates to 86.5 percent of total U.S. Internet users watching online videos that month. Users watch an average of 187 videos, or about six videos a day. The average length of those videos is 4.1 minutes. YouTube is the leading online video destination site with about 40 percent of all video consumption. But others are gaining fast. Hulu broke the one billion mark for streamed videos in December, according to comScore. YouTube is trying to stay ahead of the competition with improvements to the site, like the recently launched new user interface and closed-captioning services.
How will Episodic fit into Google’s empire? As Sterling noted, it offers more tools to monetize the content. Episodic said it shares with Google a common vision for video on the web. Episodic believes online video will be ubiquitous, engaging, entertaining, informative and effective. “At Episodic, we have always felt that these are the very early days of online video and that there is far more growth to be had,” Episodic’s cofounders wrote. “To put it in perspective, our industry is barely 15 years old. We’ve just received our learner’s permit, we still can’t drive without adult supervision, and we’re certainly not old enough to buy a drink … legally.” Will a merger between Google and Episodic help online video grow up? If monetizing video is part of growing up, this could be a step in the right direction for both companies in a young but competitive online market that shows no signs of slowing down. |
