Monday, July 9, 2007

Web 2.0 Online Webcast Disruptor

Web 2.0 companies bring both joy and fear, depending on who you are.

Joy if you are a business that can suddenly can tap into web applications that where way to expensive or complicated to use.

Fear if you are a web 1.0 company that after many years of overcharging your companies a new start-up releases a Beta version of a web application for free.

One disruptor that recently I came across is Zentation, whose application is pitched against On24, whose local distributor is Viocorp.

In the past, for a firm to webcast an event it was an expensive exercise, about $4-$5k.

Locally in Australia, $1-$2k went to Viocorp and $3-$4k straight to On24. The actual cameraman would only get paid between $300-$500 to shoot, edit and upload the footage. Viocorp would invoice the client locally.

On24 is a private company that has been operating since 1998 and has built a solid business. More historical data here.

With Zentation launching clients will be in a position to webcast events around the $2k mark, the cameraman will be able to earn more money and liaise directly with the client.

Zentation's has not disclosed what it's revenue model will be, but more than likely will be through integrating with Google's AdSense.

Zentation is partnering with Google Video as the streaming partner citing that it is the only video provider that allows user to jump to video chapters. Perhaps pathing the way to a sale to Google Video in the future.

Zentation also offers a cool sharing tool, allowing users to embed video/slide webcasts;



As sample Guy Kawasaki working his magic.

It will be interesting to see how things develop. I will certainly be recommending the service to clients as an alternative.