Monday, April 23, 2007

Video editing moves online for users to share

By Christopher Calnan

Woburn's Gotuit Media Corp. has launched a website to enable users to edit and share web videos -- one more step in the evolution of the online video environment.

Gotuit calls the site Scenemaker.net and has separated it from its Gotuit website, where it had been offered as an editing tool for users.

The Scenemaker site, which officially launched three weeks ago, combines the trend of online interactivity with users' desires to share what they've done on the web, said David Laubner, Gotuit's director of product marketing.

Gotuit's Scenemaker content is not user-generated. Instead, the videos are licensed, provided by YouTube, Metacafe, Daily Motion and Google Video, which means Gotuit incurs no streaming costs, Laubner said. Rather than altering the video, Gotuit embeds code that enables users to place tags, or digital markers, to extract portions that interest them, Laubner said.

Users create videos by taking the parts of the licensed content that interests them, Laubner said.

"It's to cut off the chaff," he said. "It's video snacking. All we're doing is creating a reference point in a video."

Its sales come from advertising, Laubner said.

Dan Nova, managing general partner at Lexington's Highland Capital Partners, Gotuit's initial investor, called Scenemaker.net the "next generation of indexing and management for professionally produced video content."

Two other companies in the area are operating in the video-streaming space: Cambridge-based BrightCove Inc. and Waltham-based PermissionTV Inc.

BrightCove, which launched in 2005 an Internet television service for video producers and programmers, has raised more than $86 million in funding. Customers include Internet players such as America Online Inc. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. PermissionTV, formerly NetCableTV Inc., produces a platform for customers to create their own Internet-based television channels. Customers include FHM magazine and the InterContinental Hotels Group.

This year, spending on online-video advertising is expected to account for 4 percent of all projected U.S. online advertising spending -- nearly doubling to as much as $775 million from $410 million last year, according to New York-based eMarketer Inc.

In January, 123 million people in the United States viewed 7.2 billion videos online. Seventy percent of the total U.S. Internet audience watched online videos, with the average user watching 59 videos during the month, according to Virginia-based comScore Inc.

The streaming of online video -- especially for political and news-related content -- is expected to increase dramatically in coming years, said Cheryl Gutowski, research analyst for Wellesley-based Nucleus Research Inc. That will mean plenty of business for technology companies such as Gotuit.

Since being founded in 1999, Gotuit has raised more than $20 million in venture capital. CEO Mark Pascarella said Gotuit plans to raise more capital this year to expand its broadband and mobile business. He declined to disclose whether Gotuit is profitable.

Gotuit clients include Sports Illustrated magazine, Major League Soccer, and the New England Patriots.

ccalnan@masshightech.com | 617-241-4337