Archive for February, 2009

Today is a good day. I’m happy to announce that we have, not one, but three new clients that will use our technology to monetize their online video efforts.

The new clients are Dagens Nyheter, Sydsvenska Dagbladet and the Norrköpings Tidningar group.

Dagens Nyheter will use us on their brand new site that features online video closely integrated with the rest of the content. They even use embeded video right on their front page which of course generates a lot of streams. Swedish company Picsearch have built the robust player and made our integration.

Sydsvenska dagbladet is also about to launch their new site, and of course online video will play an important role. Danish company Xstream have provided the player technology and we are really excited to be working with them as they have a strong presence in both Denmark and Norway.

The Norrköpings Tidningar group is planning something really exciting. The group owns media properties in Norrköping (Norrköpings Tidningar), Linköping (Östgöta Correspondenten) and Luleå (Norrbottens Kuriren and NSD). In all these three cities/regions they have started local news-tv-channels and the upcoming online versions of each of these channels will be really cool. Of course, we will help to monetize them.

Be sure to take a look at 24nt (Norrköping), 24Corren (Linköping) and 24Norrbotten (Luleå) when they launch. It won’t be long until they do.

We are of course really excited to be working with these great companies. They are all heavy brands with a lot of tradition, and needless to say, I’m extremely proud that we can play an important role in their efforts to grow their online business.

Further, there is really a bigger story behind this. Almost every media company out there is working with video in some way or another regardless of background. It doesn’t matter if you used to do broadcast tv or print — online video is too big a trend to neglect.

Over the few years that online video have existed, the media companies have struggled. They have learnt what they should do and what they should not, and finally we are reaching the tipping point. The audience and content is there, the technology is there and now it’s time to finally monetize.

We’ve been memebers of the IAB UK’s Video Council since October where we together with the other influential player of the British market are trying to create a standard for online video advertising as well as a pedagogical handbook for media buyers. All of this since we believe it will play an important role to help the growth of the online video advertising business.

When it comes to the Swedish market, IAB has been a bit slower. In fact, IAB Sweden wasn’t even formed until September 2008. But now things are moving, and we’re part of creating a Swedish IAB standard for online video through the IAB Sweden Video Task Force which I am currently chairing.

I’m glad to say that we most definitely have had a kick-start. We had our first meeting last week and besides a few exceptions we had all of the major Swedish publishers present. And we’re working hard to recruit the last few.

Of course, the Swedish workgroup will strive to make the Swedish standard compliant with other similar efforts in other countries. And since IAB UK is certainly making a good job, we are paying close attention to what’s coming there.

Anyway, we are all joined in the effort to make online video as profitable as possible in order to pave the way for better services to the end users.

And the first step is of course to develop a standard in order to make it easier to buy.

Alright, so we decided to throw a big party last Friday. It was so spontaneous that we didn’t even have time to blog about it, but here’s what the invite looked like.

Our excuse to throw the party: The Unix time reached the magical number 1234567890.

We certainly weren’t alone of celebrating this great event, but unlike those unlucky fellows of west coast US who had to party mid afternoon, the magical moment happened conveniently half an hour after midnight here in Sweden which certainly is a better time to party.

One of our dear guests Erik Starck had his ecuipment handy and immortalized the moment (see clip below). It later made it to the frontpage of Digg which explains all the cute trolls in the Youtube comments.

And hey guys, we’re just flattered to be called geeks. In fact, we’re on a mission to attract all the talented geeks out there to join our company. Together we can save/rule the world.

Me and Magnus will head over to Helsinki in a couple of weeks for a short visit. We’re planning to meet potential clients, video platforms, some nice people (Ville from ArcticStartup being one) plus I’m speaking at the WAW event.

I’m really looking forward to this as I’ve never been to Helsinki and I’m curious to find out how many people actually speak Swedish over there. It’ll also be interesting to find out more first hand info on how far their online video market has developed, specially from an advertising perspective.

If you are there and would like to have a coffee or make business (or both!) drop me a line!

Cheers

So after the snow incident we have a new time and venue for the WebTV meet-up (or as Drew calles it, DrinkUp). Here’s the initial invitation and you can RSVP here.

Come over and have a drink with us at OneAlfredPlace, which we actually use as our London office, next Wednesday February 18th, 6.30- 10pm. The drinks are on us.

Believe it or not, but there’s actually snow covering London! Everything from buses to planes stands still so the organizers of the WebTV event have decided to postpone the event a couple of weeks.

Myself, I’m actually trapped in a sunny Stockholm as my flight was cancelled this morning.

Don’t worry beer-hungry people, I promise we will buy drinks for the event, whenever it will be!