Blinkx Starts Targeting Video Ads At Yoga Moms And Infonauts (Video Interview)

"Behavioral targeting is all the rage with online display advertising right now, and video search engine blinkx is bringing it to video. For the past few years, blinkx has offered contextual video advertising through its Ad Hoc program, which matches ad keywords against a speech-to-text translation of the video, as well as all the tags and titles associated with that video. “We are extending targeting in Ad Hoc from contextual to behavioral,” says CEO Suranga Chandratillake.

He explains the new targeted advertising product in the video below (I caught up with him last week as he was passing through New York City). Overall, blinkx powers 17.5 million video searches a day across its network, which reaches more than 60 million people a month. But for now, the behavioral targeting will work only on blinkx.com, which is a small part of its overall reach. Using cookies, blinkx will assign psychographic profiles to people base don what they watch. It will start with nine profiles, including Yoga Moms, Digital Dads, Gossip Girls, Adventurers, and Infonauts..."

from TechCrunch

-----------

Comment: Interesting video and a good (if not original) idea. Should be of great interest to the WPPs of this world.

Would be good to see some more mainstream coverage, though, rather than on a site which only Digital Dads and Wired Wonders might look at...

[edit] ...and the more I think about it, the more strange that is. Why no big press launch for what could be such an important technology? Why is Blinkx so good at ideas, but so fucking CRAP at marketing and monetising them?

Maybe they need a businessman in charge who's good at communication, and not some tech not-so-wunderkind...

Blinkx second-fastest-growing video site in the UK

"The number of videos watched on Facebook rose 205% in the past year to 43m views, which made it the fastest growing video property in the top ten.

Blinkx was the second fastest, growing 204% to nearly 29m videos views. BBC and ITV sites were up 143% and 134% respectively, and Sky sites were up 139%."

from New Media Age

------------

Comment: Second fastest-growing video site in the country. Just a shame that we can't say the same for the share price, eh?

Just think: all of those analysts at all those investment banks and they are all - every one of them - missing Blinkx's potential!

Or maybe they've been presented to by Chandratillake and have made up their own minds about the quality of Blinkx management. After all, we know from the company's own Nomad that a roadshow took place last year (which had, going by the share price, zero effect). We also know that Chandratillake gave a 'fireside chat' to the Great Vampire Squid itself, Goldman Sachs, not so long ago - and that had zero effect too (in fact the share price has gone down considerably since then, so maybe the chat's only effect was to identify Blinkx to GS as a great shorting opportunity). And more recently Blinxk hosted an analyst's meeting at its offices and - yep, you guessed it! - that had zero effect too.

It's true of course that Credit Agricole recently announced a 3.1% stake in Blinkx, but by itself that doesn't mean much - Blink has always had corporate investors, and at least two of them recently bailed. I wonder how long it will be - six more months of a depressed share price? 12? - before CA also begin to wonder, as many small private shareholders do, why they ever believed the bullshit hype about this company in the first place...

Facebook scores UK's fastest video growth

Online video viewing in the UK is continuing to balloon, with Facebook the fastest growing destination and a clear demographic split emerging between the main terrestrial broadcasters' internet TV audiences.

A total of 5.5 billion online videos were viewed in the UK in February, representing a 37% year-on-year increase, according to latest numbers from research firm ComScore.

Among the top 10 sites where people consume video content, Facebook experienced the most rapid growth, surging 205% in the past year to achieve 43 million videos viewed. Blinkx saw the second fastest growth, up 204% to nearly 29 million.

YouTube still dominates – up 17% to 2.47 billion videos viewed – while among the broadcasters, the BBC scored best with almost 140 million, a year-on-year rise of 143%. ITV was up 134% to 28.2 million and Channel 4 grew 26% to 39.4 million.

The demographic split between these three terrestrial broadcasters became increasingly apparent. The BBC iPlayer audience tends to be male and mainly aged 25-54. C4 skews heavily toward the 15- to 24-year-old age group, with an even split between males and females. ITV had the least appeal to males and captured the largest proportion of female viewers of all three sites.

Pay-TV company BSkyB, meanwhile, which in the past year has spread the presence of its Sky Player via distribution deals with the likes of Microsoft XBox and Fetch TV, beat both ITV and Channel 4 in terms of its growth, up 139% to 19.5 million videos viewed.

"The UK online video market continues to soar and is attracting a greater and greater share of internet users' attention," said ComScore Europe senior VP and MD Mike Read. "In particular, we've seen eyeballs move towards the online channel to watch more longform, professional video content, such as popular broadcast network TV shows."

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=89&article=55312

-------
Comment: "Blinkx saw the second fastest growth, up 204% to nearly 29 million" - well that's good news of course. Let's hope they monetised that traffic well and that there weren't nasty unexpected costs that came with it...

And what have I been banging on about for more than a year now? That Blinxk should release a Facebook widget to capitalise on FB users' appetite for video.

But what do I know, eh?

Yeah? When?

'The management realize share holders value will increase as our products come on line, Blinkx is known to be unique and to be far ahead of other competitors products, and continual partnerships show that businesses recognize this, the management look forward to strengthening financial benefit for blinkx in the coming year.'

Only I've held this dogturd share for nearly three fucking years now, and I'm more than 40% down for my troubles. Global economic situation notwithstanding the Blinxk share price should be far far higher than it is - and I blame management for that full-square. It is they who have allowed the company to develop a confused product line (SmartShopper, Deal-Scout - WTF?), it is they who shelved Transaction Hijacking without a word of explanation, it is they who oversee the pathetic, incompetent newsflow, it is they who diluted existing shareholders by raising £5m for unspecified purposes - shareholders still haven't been told what for: the list goes on and on and on. And this from a management team led by a man who has never even had the common fucking decency to put his hand into his pocket and buy ONE SHARE with his own money. Chandratillake parrots the 'jam tomorrow' mantra until we're all sick to death of hearing it but I don't notice him risking any of his own fucking capital...

If I had my way I'd replace the whole lot of the utterly, utterly useless fuckers...

Nielsen Top 10 U.S. Online Video Brands, Home & Work

Rank	Brand	Total Streams (000)	Unique Viewers (000)
1	YouTube	4,672,376	96,075
2	Hulu	707,547	12,196
3	Yahoo!	244,422	30,469
4	MSN/WindowsLive/Bing	170,034	14,828
5	Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network	149,950	5,938
6	CBS Entertainment Network	144,085	6,665
7	Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network	141,917	5,588
8	CNN Digital Network	129,721	10,992
9	Blinkx	107,190	419
10	Facebook	104,097	23,339

From Nielsen


Comment: So Blinkx is in the Top 10 US video brands according to Nielsen: and yet the company has a market cap of c£40m, a share price around 14p - less than a third of the IPO price 3 years ago - and roughly zero interest from the markets, journalists, large institutional investors etc (evidenced by the fact that Autonomy, who underwrote the last share placing, ended up with more than 50% of the shares. Did they actually want those shares? Well we don't know, do we?)...

Something isn't right. Either the markets are all asleep to the undoubted progress that has been made at Blinkx (the ELO and Mobica deals most recently), or there's something about the company the markets just don't like. Could be Blinkx's determined 'under the radar' approach (why release the Mobica news the Thursday before a bank holiday weekend when it's guaranteed to pass most people by? Why not the following Tuesday when it might actually be noticed?); could be that the markets are unconvinced by management's presentation/communication style (or distinct lack thereof); could be that with AUT/Mike Lynch owning such a large stake in Blinkx the markets (probably rightly) don't see any potential for a takeover of Blinkx; or it could be that everyone is waiting for the company to break into profit (should come no later than YE 2010 - and many shareholders are hoping for sooner). Or it could be some combination of some or all of the above.

One thing's for sure - it's frustrating as hell for shareholders (and don't forget - never forget - that Chandratillake has never to date bought a single share in his own company in the open market). There seems to be a real recovery in the tech sector (Apple share price doubled over the past year, Google, Yahoo and others all posting great results) which so far has passed Blinxk by completely.

I've long thought - and I still think - that the picture for shareholders would be completely different if Blinxk had a new CEO. But I guess while Chandratillake has Lynch's confidence there's about as much chance of that happening as of shareholders seeing the share price move significantly north any time soon...

Adobe gives up on the iPhone

Adobe has said it won't be developing any more versions of its packager, which allowed Flash applications to be recompiled for the iPhone.

Instead Android will be its focus in the future.

Apple doesn't want Flash on the iPhone, so Adobe fitted its development platform with "Packager for iPhone" which compiles Flash apps into iPhone applications, so Apple changed the rules to say that developers must work in "Objective-C, C++ or JavaScript". Adobe was reduced to screaming abuse, threatening vague lawsuits, and now stomping off in disgust as the Flash product manager explained in a blog posting:

"We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5. However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature."

Apple really doesn't want Flash on the iPhone, and will go a long way to prevent that happening. Steve Jobs claimed that Flash was too buggy and slow for his baby, and now it seems that even applications developed in Flash, but executed natively, won't be up to scratch. So Apple is banning any such cross-compiling through changes to the iPhone developer agreement...

from The Register

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Comment: Will this hit Blinkx's deal with Mobica and any plans/hopes of getting a Blinkx video search app onto the iPhone?

Nice mention of Blinkx in the Telegraph

"Video search site Blinkx, meanwhile, reported that Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg were the subjects of significantly increased web traffic. Over the course of the debate, searches for the pair were up 125 per cent and 126 per cent. Searches for Gordon Brown rose 83 per cent...."

from The Telegraph

Wall Street to Google: We’re Ready for Go-Go Growth Again

We already know that online ad spending is back. Today we’ll get a better sense of where it’s going, via Google’s Q1 earnings release.

Wall Street has taken Google (GOOG) out of recovery mode and placed it firmly back in its go-go growth category: It expects revenue to increase more than 20 percent and earnings per share to climb by nearly 30 percent.

As usual, Citigroup’s (C) Mark Mahaney has a handy “cheat sheet” to help you read today’s earnings news, due after the market closes...

from MediaMemo

------

Comment: We know an easy way for Google to keep growing fast, don't we boys and girls? Buy Blinkx...

Things You Already Knew, Wednesday Edition: Online Ads Are Coming Back

If you pay any attention at all to online advertising, you knew this already. But sometimes it’s nice to see it in print, so you don’t think you’re hallucinating: Money is coming back to the Web again.

Online ads bumped up 2.6 percent in the last quarter of 2009, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. That’s much less than anecdotal reports from some publishers would lead you to believe. On the other hand, Q4 was up 14 percent compared with Q3, so that gives you an idea of where things are going.

And this graph is particularly instructive. Note the sickening drops in the last two years, and the hopeful up-slope...

from MediaMemo

---------

Comment: wonder if today's massive volume in Blinkx shares and modest share price rise (to a third of the IPO price! Whoop-de-doo!) might have anything to do with Google's latest figures...?

More good news - so why isn't the price moving?

Blinkx Plc

blinkx Extends Partnership wi

RNS Number : 2021K

Blinkx Plc

14 April 2010



blinkx Extends Partnership with Brazilian Digital Media Pioneer, ELO Company, to Launch Internet TV Platform

Joint venture democratizes access to millions of videos from around the Web for Brazilian consumers

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.-April 14, 2010-blinkx, the world's largest and most advanced video search engine, and ELO Company, a Brazilian digital media company and distributor of audiovisual content, today announced the launch of ELO blinkx Brasil Internet TV platform to provide Brazilian consumers with access to millions of streaming videos on the Web. Users will now be able to easily discover and watch their favorite content, from music, entertainment, food, sports, travel, fashion and much more, wherever and whenever they want, free of charge. Using blinkx's patented search technology, the ELO blinkx Brasil Internet TV platform allows users to easily search, discover and watch thousands of high-quality videos online. The Platform also provides advanced interactive tools and links to related content to give users a rich viewing experience.

"Brazil is one of the most exciting and fast-growing markets for digital media," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx. "Broadband access has been doubling year over year, and it's estimated that by 2013, there will be over 65 million Brazilians online. We're thrilled to be partnering with one of the leading digital media companies to provide a way for consumers to more easily navigate, discover and access video content online."

"As the leading digital media company in Brazil, we are committed to providing consumers with the best, most interactive online experience," said Sabrina Nudeliman, ELO Company's director and co-founder. "By partnering with blinkx, we're able to expand our service to offer an innovative way for users to find and access all of the premium content available on the Web, free of charge."

As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has made more than 650 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.

About ELO Company
ELO Company is a leading digital media company and distributor of audiovisual content in Brazil. It has a wide-ranging catalogue of videos including feature length films, shorts, videoclips, documentaries, miniseries, and animations that are distributed to TV channels, festivals, exhibitions, and airlines all over the world. In its digital media business, ELO has 18 themed channels available with more than 1,000 titles to be released on various platforms. ELO was granted exclusive licensing rights to use technology supplied by blinkx to operate its Internet TV in Brazil. Furthermore, ELO develops branded TV channels in a joint partnership with brands seeking a differential advantage to enhance their communication. Find out more onwww.elocompany.com.br.

About blinkx

blinkx plc (LSE AIM: BLNX) is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 35 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx's founders set out to solve a significant challenge - as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx's patented search technologies listen to - and even see - the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world's most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available atwww.blinkx.com.

Press Contacts for blinkx

Tim Turpin

Sparkpr

+1 (415) 321 1894

tim.turpin@sparkpr.com

Nicole Love

Marlin PR

+44 207 869 8328

Nicole.love@marlinpr.com

NOMAD for blinkx

Charles Lytle

Citi

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

Erik Huggers' keynote address from the Guardian Changing Media Summit 2010

"The creative industries are in a period of unprecedented change. The BBC's recent strategy review was about how we deliver the BBC's enduring public service mission in a digital age. What does this mean for BBC Online?"

from BBC Internet Blog

Some useful observations about convergence and media in general...

Yahoo Gains U.S. Search Share, Stemming Decline, ComScore Says

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. gained share in the U.S. Web-search market in March, reversing six months of declines, while Google Inc.’s share slipped, according to ComScore Inc.

Yahoo’s share rose to 16.9 percent from 16.8 percent in February, said Reston, Virginia-based ComScore. Microsoft Corp.’s Bing gained to 11.7 from 11.5 percent, while Google, the search leader, declined to 65.1 percent from 65.5 percent.

All three companies are vying for a bigger portion of Web searches, expected to generate $32.2 billion in advertising revenue this year, according to ZenithOptimedia, a London-based ad buyer owned by Publicis Groupe SA. To better compete against Google, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a 10-year deal in July that puts Bing search on Yahoo sites...

from Bloomberg.com

From New Media Age 8th April 2010

From the Guardian Guide 2010-04-10

Should help drive traffic to the Democracy Live site in the run-up to the general election...

Reply from the FSA to my latest letter

[click image for a larger version]

I would urge any and all shareholders who are dissatisfied with the way Blinkx management run the company to contact the relevant authorities. Don't take lying down the shit that Blinkx want to dish out - MAKE A NOISE! I think it is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS the lack of communication from the company about what is going on with OUR company, and what the hell management is currently up to (Pinball/Zango and Transaction Hijacking not least). And this from a management team led by a CEO who has NEVER put his own hand into his pocket to buy A SINGLE SHARE in his own company in the open market!

Apple Ups Their Gaming Game, Attacks Sony & Nintendo

With a plethora of announcements coming to the iPhone’s 4.0 software this summer, Apple has announced Game Center. A mobile answer to Xbox Live and PSN, Game Center is a way for devs to implement achievements, online leaderboards, and multiplayer matchmaking into iPhone gaming.

While this is quite an accomplishment and something to be proud of, Apple’s Steve Forstall boastfully summed up the perceived competition. “Gaming is extremely popular on the iPhone and iPod touch. We have 50,000 games. Let's compare that to the competition... the PSP and DS... we blow them out of the water."...

from bits, bytes, pixels and prites

Did Apple Just Kick Adobe (And Wired Magazine) in the Teeth?

It looks like Apple just stepped up its attacks against Adobe and its Flash standard–used throughout the Web and apparently hated with much passion by Steve Jobs.

If Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is correct in parsing Apple’s new developer agreement, then Apple (AAPL) is preventing Adobe (ADBE) from using a tool that will port applications created in Flash to Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating systems.

Adobe has been pointing to that workaround as its answer to Apple’s anti-Flash campaign, arguing that developers could create programs that work on most of the Web as well as Apple’s platforms. Now it appears that Steve Jobs and company are forcing developers to choose: Our way or no way.

If true, it’s yet another blow to publisher Condé Nast’s efforts to build tablet magazines with Adobe’s help. Last year, the publisher seemed confident that its effort with Adobe would allow it to create a single digital format that worked on all kinds of iPad-style tablets. But by the end of February, it was rethinking that and began pulling back on plans to work with Adobe...

from MediaMemo

Steve Jobs Promises Developers That Apple’s iAds Won’t “Suck” and Will Make Them Money

Hate the idea of seeing ads pop up while you surf the Web from your phone?

So does Steve Jobs. That’s why Apple is focusing its new ad platform solely on its burgeoning app ecosystem. As I reported Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) is using its Quattro acquisition to launch its “iAd” (really!) ad network, aimed at the developers who have built 185,000 apps to date for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

And that’s the real goal of the ad network launch: To keep those developers happy. At the “sneak preview” Apple offered developers today, Jobs talked about the huge financial opportunity available via “in-app” ads: “One billion impressions per day!”...

from MediaMemo

Apple Announces Mobile Ad Plans Thursday, and Google Can’t Wait to Tell the FTC

Apple is likely to introduce its mobile ad platform Thursday at its iPhone developer event, say sources familiar with the company’s plans. Expect to hear a loud cheer from Google, Apple’s former ally and current competitor.

Why would Google applaud the entrance of a new advertising rival? Because Google is trying to convince federal regulators that it has advertising rivals so that it can proceed with its $750 million purchase of AdMob. That deal is being held up for review by the Federal Trade Commission, and there have been consistent murmurs from Washington that the purchase could be in jeopardy...

from MediaMemo

Online Video Will Grow Faster Than Predicted

from ScribeMedia

It's all looking good for Blinkx - what we need now is to see the figures.

And the figures better be good...

Google Acquires Online Video Hosting Platform Episodic

"Google has acquired Episodic an online video hosting platform, according to a blog post on the startup’s site. Google has confirmed the acquisition. We are told that Episodic’s technology will be folded into YouTube, and its staff will be joining YouTube’s office in San Bruno, Calif. next week. Details on the acquisition price were not disclosed..."

from TechCrunch

-----

Christ. I wish Google would acquire Blinkx. I wish someone would, and put shareholders out of their fucking misery...

From NMA 1st April edition

Nice to see Blinxk get a name-check from what I assume is just a normal punter...

[click for a larger version]

Catch up online with Sony internet tv

Demo of Sony Internet TV

Excellent news!

Thursday 01 April, 2010

Blinkx Plc

Partnership with Mobica

RNS Number : 6206J

Blinkx Plc

01 April 2010



blinkx Partners with Mobica to Bring Personalized Video Channels to Mobile Phones

Platform independent offering will deliver customized, professional news and entertainment video to any wireless device

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.-April 1, 2010-blinkx, the world's largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced a strategic partnership with Mobica, a leading provider of cutting-edge mobile solutions and services for leading handset vendors, platform providers and mobile carriers.

Under the terms of the agreement, blinkx and Mobica will collaborate to build a platform independent service that delivers professionally produced news and entertainment highlights to mobile devices, so consumers can enjoy a variety of themed channels, featuring relevant and up-to-date video clips in a "snack-size" format that is ideal for people on the move.

The joint offering will deliver unique benefits to operators, enabling them to act as "mobile broadcasters" and thereby gain advertising revenue, as well as increase user satisfaction and retention.

Leveraging blinkx's ground-breaking AdHoc platform, the first contextual advertising platform for online video, the offering also delivers a unique value proposition for advertisers: the opportunity to combine professionally produced video content with contextually targeted advertising for the most effective marketing experience in any mobile environment.

"Consumer demand for mobile video continues to grow exponentially, and blinkx can deliver top quality content in an ideal format - a playlist of relevant, snackable content," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "We're thrilled to be partnering with Mobica, one of the most dynamic companies in the mobile development space, to deliver this unique video solution to wireless operators."

"By partnering with blinkx, we're able to deliver a solution that capitalizes on our world-class mobile software development capabilities, as well as blinkx's unique content and advertising platform," said Mike Gibbons, managing director, Mobica. "It is an exciting opportunity for mobile operators who want to enhance their video services, and generate new revenue streams."

As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has made more than 650 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.

About blinkx

blinkx plc (LSE AIM: BLNX) is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 35 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx's founders set out to solve a significant challenge - as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx's patented search technologies listen to - and even see - the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world's most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.

About Mobica

Mobica partners with mobile carriers, technology platform providers and handset vendors to deliver leading-edge mobile solutions and services. Working as system integrators we design, develop and test software across the mobile software space on all platforms, from chip-level to applications. More information is available atwww.mobica.com.

Press Contacts for blinkx

Nicole Love

Marlin PR

+44 207 869 8328

Nicole.love@marlinpr.com

Tim Turpin

Sparkpr

+1 (415) 321 1894

tim.turpin@sparkpr.com

NOMAD for blinkx

Charles Lytle

Citi

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

Good to see...

...That Democracy Live seems to have a permanent place on the BBC home page. There should be a nice surge in traffic to it as the election approaches.

I wonder what Blinkx's pricing model is for providing video search/transcription services for DL?