You Tube has been bought by Google for a colossal 1.65 b dollars. Apart from the numbers which is astonishing, what really matters is the power of innovation. You Tube has seen an unseen(?) opportunity in the Web 2.0 space. Just two guys and a college grad have created a company worth $1.65b. The story dates back to the days when the trio started discussing some topics on web 2.0 and it was Jawed Karim who has given the idea of video sharing. Jawed’s contribution was minimum and he reconciled into his studies at Stanford. Surprisingly he was in payPal team too, when eBay acquired it for 1.5b$.
Then Chad Hurley and Steven Chen took the mantle and build what is You Tube today. The rest of the story can be read here in NY Times.
Regarding the innovation view – It took You Tube to reach the dream numbers just 18 months and 3 guys. Compare it with any services concern say Infosys, it took almost 23 years and 25,634 employees to reach revenues of just over 1b$ in 2004. (This comparison is just for the numbers and the social change & empowerment infy has brought in is not taken into account here. Also Google has acquired You Tube at a rate 1000 times of it’s current revenues) So an innovative idea with a great market potential is what will make a big difference.
All’s well, that ends well. Not at all. Just shift the scene to India. If the same idea has come been implemented here in India – Can it encompass the whole world in such a short time? Or is there a chance that it will be acquired for such a price? The answer is No and a proven No. This is where the power of funding comes into play.
Some time ago, in some conference the same question was asked by a speaker and he gave the answer as ‘no’. I was apprehensive of his conclusion. Why can’t an Indian start up strike it rich? For a while it engulfed my thought. And I didn’t even think that a real parallel can happen this soon. This is the story of ourmedia.org – a 4x better community centered sharing site with audio, video & text uploads. It was up and running before 9 months You Tube hit the net streets. And well You Tube came into the scene, indeed into every scene from its own site, to other web sites, blogs and every where. So why didn’t ourmedia take off. Gaurav, has made a good deal of Analysis on his blog.
A $1.6 billion lost oppurtunity?
Youtube got bought over by Google for a whopping $1.6 Billion (no links here – its all over the place!). Going by how popular the site has become, it was only a matter of time before one of the big guys bought it out. Congrats to them! Our company, Tekriti, started off building one of the earliest video sharing sites back in Feb-March 2005 for our first client. Ourmedia.org was launched in March 2005. YouTube came along almost 9 months later. Ourmedia had a host of video and media experts on its panel of advisors and it had (and has) a team of volunteer editors to wean out copyright content. YouTube on the other hand has the policy of letting copyright content remain online until the copyright owner objects. Ourmedia allows users to download the original high quality video while YouTube only allows online viewing of very low res. flash versions. So for a site that started with a 9 month lead, it feels like Ourmedia was a missed oppurtunity. Of course, to be clear, Ourmedia is a non-profit and making billions of dollars wasnt even the aim and it still gets significant traffic and has over 100,000 videos hosted. But the kind of popularity that Ourmedia should have seen never came along. At a personal level, it helped us get our company started and gave us the initial credibility any startup needs. So Ourmedia remains very special to me.
Get all of his analysis here. It’s a great piece of write up for every entrepreneur in the Web 2.0 space or other.
Why so? The same and even, much more brilliant idea like You Tube which we have always wondered. Truly indigenous and truly innovative. I suppose, what our concerns’ lack is funding at the right time and at the right stage. Ourmedia was not funded to move as a juggernaut in the Web 2.0 area which is truly required in this sphere. Clones always appear in no time, if they spot a potential. And replication by a well funded company or even a behemoth will take the idea and splash it all all over the world in a fraction of time. MSs’ Zune to iPod is an example.
So for the 1.6 b $ opportunity lost?- the answer is funding. Yes there are some issues with ourmedia as Gaurav has outlined but it all must have vaporized with funds and little honing. India does generate much more powerful Web 2.0 ideas but the implementation is the key. And for implementation early stage funds and a little mentoring is all what is needed. It’s true that VCs can’t fund guys with just ideas on paper but- when it’s on the ground and happening ? And why when in Valley seed and early stage funds propel potential ideas it doesn’t happen in India?. Lot of questions and few answers. Hope VC community will realize this soon and then All’s well and will end well.
Impressions From The Future 