Judging by the number of people lined up to talk with Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO Vuclip, and the interest from judges immediately after his presentation today at the Under the Radar conference (Mountain View), it seems Vuclip may be Under the Radar’s next dealmaker.
Why is Vuclip so cool? Because the company’s objective to make it completely frictionless has been achieved. No login, no fee, and an easy to use interface has made Vuclip a hit with consumers. During September 08, Vuclip claims to have had over 100 million page views and served in excess of 17 million videos worldwide. We had a chance to talk with Jakatdar after his presentation.
Vuclip (previously blueapple.mobi), a mobile video search and trans-coding service makes searching, finding, and playing video on mobile phones extremely simple. In less than 15 seconds, Vuclip will search for video on the Web, trans-code (or convert) it on the fly, and deliver it to your mobile phone in the correct format. And this is what sets it apart from competitors.
Trans-coding and Video Search for Mobile Phones
While trans-coding sounds like a simple process, surprisingly few companies can do this. Videos come in all sorts of formats and need to be converted before they can be played on a mobile phone. According to Jakatdar, there are only about 20 companies that claim to do trans-coding, and of those, only 10 percent do it on the fly (Avot, Ripcode, and Vuclip) – all others need to pre encode. Firms that offer pre-encoding need to store that information somewhere, we don’t,” he said.
“Major competitors Avot and Ripcode trans-code on the fly, but they don’t offer search. Vtap and Truveo offer search, but no trans-coding. This means you may find the video, but when you hit play, it needs to be trans-coded (unless the specific video is in the cache) and this can take time; it’s not a good user experience,” said Jakatdar.
Vuclip CEO Nickhil Jakatdar at Under the Radar
Offering Mobile Video to B2B and B2C
According to Jakatdar, the company originally made the decision to focus on the consumer, but three months ago, they took their direct to consumer product and made it self serve. Vuclip now offers three models to B2B; each allowing businesses to replace the Vuclip branding with their own. While there is no difference for the user, benefits for business can be significant; enabling online publishers and content owners to mobilize their Web video content via a simple API.
1. Send to Mobile: For companies that have video on their website, but no way to send it to mobile phones
2. Video Powered by Vuclip: For mobile sites that have video but only support specific phones, for instance iPhone or G1
3. Site powered by Vuclip: For sites that don’t offer video of their own but want to start offering it to visitors
Vuclip’s technology represents significant progress in trans-coding and offers a rich multimedia experience across all wireless networks and handsets. We think it’s definitely a company to keep your eye on, although our friends over at Venture Beat have a different take.
If you’re interested in watching the Media Delivery track where Jakatdar presents alongside Avot Media, Bambuser, and iVisit, visit the Under the Radar blog.
