As of today, Waywire.com is now signing up new users to help beta test its website. The company’s tagline is “changing the way we watch video online”. This ambition seems to take direct aim at the Internet’s 3rd highest rated website YouTube.com, but that may not be exactly the case.
Waywire Beta Launch: Finding a Niche
Josh Constine from TechCrunch.com describes the #Waywire beta launch this way:
“#Waywire focused on original and user-generated content. But with today’s update the beta recenters around you collecting videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Vine and news sites into themed playlists.
From one perspective, this update is sensible. It’s #waywire trying to find its niche. “Pinterest for video” is a bit confining, but it symbolizes the value #waywire hopes to offer…..
Moving towards curation bases #waywire on a quicker activity that piggybacks on the consumption most already undertake. And even if it’s official #waywire-produced videos people are curating, it makes peers you trust the source of news rather than another traditional establishment.”
Waywire Beta Launch: Can it Succeed?
#Waywire beta has received a great deal of hype, largely due to a powerful list of backers. The group is headed by co-founder and ultra popular Newark mayor Cory Booker. The rest of the list includes Google chairman Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and co-founder Reid Hoffman, queen of television Oprah Winfrey, and a whole gang of angel investors.
Nathan Richardson, #Waywire’s lesser known co-founder, recently granted an interview to VentureBeat. There he spoke about some of the issues that will dictate the success or failure of the venture:
“Waywire beta users are gaining access to about 40 hours of new video content per day, which is significantly more than the estimated 1.5 hours perday it had access to about two months ago. By access, I mean videos that will seamlessly play on Waywire’s service without having to navigate to the site where the video is hosted to view it. And while the startup didn’t disclose many of its traffic stats, it did say that Waywire users are viewing an average of 13 minutes of content every time they visit.
As for being a platform, Richardson tells me there’s no reason Waywires can’t eventually become a place where music fans end up creating their own curated playlists. To do that effectively, the startup would almost certainly need to forge a partnership with music video king Vevo.
The new Waywire beta 2.0 also paves the way to advertising models, which include traditional pre- and post-roll video ads, in-player display ads, sponsored wires, and more. I asked co-founder Sarah Ross if the service could eventually mimic a model similar to StumbleUpon’s “Paid Discovery”, where content producers (or really any advertiser) has the option of tossing in their content into someone’s wire. It’s a possibility, but Ross told me “we need to scale much larger to see how our users are interacting with Waywire” before determining newer ways to sell advertising.”
Waywire Beta Launch: Get in on the Video Sharing
Waywire beta launch is currently underway, and you can easily join in on the video sharing. Simply head over to the site to register and begin creating your personalized playlists. Use the search function to find videos that interest you. Once you see one you like, just double click to add it to your playlist.
