Can Online Video Support Its Next Generation?

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More recently, a crop of new, emerging competitors has been receiving small chunks of funding as well. Episodic, which promises to be similar to blip, but with richer Web-based tools, raised $1.5 million from Granite Ventures. Another, 750industries, barely has a Web site up for its video marketing service but was able to raise $1 million from Maples Investments and Baseline Ventures.

Also notable is Trendessence, a bootstrapped startup founded and staffed by current and former Stanford students that's currently in stealth mode. The young company, which has built a platform for online video producers and advertisers to find each other, has scored meetings with top advertisers including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Kraft and Motorola by promising it can hook them up with the brave new world of online video producers. Other new and newish players include Viddler (hosting), Zadby (product placement marketplace), Castfire (hosting) and Video Breakouts (analytics).

"An Entirely New Industry"

There are already signs that the space may not yet be big enough to support its supporters. Dynamic ad insertion startup Kiptronic, for instance, has already changed its focus away from small publishers to major media companies. But as traditional content consumption moves online and online video finds its way onto other platforms, the difference between indie and establishment will be less important. Notably, however, nearly every startup mentioned in this article offered up Hayden Black as an example of its target market. Could it be that Black isn't just an example of the market, but is actually a big percentage of it?

U.S. online video startups raised $461 in venture capital in 2007—up from $267 million in 2006—yet many of their half-baked business plans are already going stale. It's possible that publisher tools are the next generation of the online video business—but they could also be a sign that we're officially in a bubble.

Ask Black if people like him make up a large enough (and lasting enough) market for these startups, and you'll get a more hopeful, if biased, take: "This is the emerging of an entirely new industry that's going to be absolutely huge," he says. "It certainly, within our lifetime, will become the way of distribution. I think it's perfect timing."

Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it, from Mr. Testimonial himself.

Provided by GigaOm—