Hype And Reality For Joost -- No, Joost Does Not Lead The Way With Web Video

from the i-can't-believe-what-I-just-read dept

The online video company Joost gets a ton of attention, but mainly for the fact that its two founders were the guys behind Kazaa and Skype -- and the fact that it's raised a lot of money. However, what amazed me this weekend was two separate media reports suggesting that Joost was some sort of huge success, when almost every other indication was that it had stumbled massively. First, there was Crain's New York suggesting that it was a huge deal that Joost had chosen to locate its US headquarters in New York rather than Silicon Valley, calling the company "a top online video company." Ok. Perhaps -- though it seems like a stretch. In the online video world, there's basically YouTube and then everyone else. However, the real kicker was Information Week, which bizarrely declares: "Joost is still a leader in high-quality video by any measure" under a headline declaring "Joost Leads The Way With Web Video."

Well, first of all, Joost doesn't lead the way in web video because it still hasn't released a web version. Second, the claim of it leading "by any measure" seems hard to square up with nearly a dozen reports about Joost's prospects. In fact, about the only "measure" by which Joost may be leading the internet video space is in hype (or, possibly, bandwidth consumption). By nearly all other reports out there, Joost has been in serious trouble this year, with people not finding its limited content (and need for a download) all that compelling. In response, the company has ditched most of its ambitious plans to focus much more narrowly on a short-term strategy to help the company survive. The company has also had tremendous downtime and layoffs. Even Joost's own investors don't have much nice to say about the company. In other words, it's difficult to see how Information Week can declare in any way that Joost is somehow leading the market.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: hype, leading, web video
Companies: joost


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    TSO, 3 Jun 2008 @ 1:58pm

    I have joost account... looked at it a couple times and never used since -- I'm absolutely not interested in it because I can't save videos. My watching patterns are so random, and joost has stupid habit of pulling videos offline. And what's that BS about not being able to watch shows because I'm in a wrong geographical region? This is freaking Internet, dammit, I don't care about geography! Pirate Bay, here I come...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    chris (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 1:59pm

    the beta sucked

    the beta sucked and i haven't given the product a second glance.

    i had hopes for it in the closed beta when they were the venice project, but the product never worked (direct x rendering for video, are you guys serious?) for me.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    YaRight, 3 Jun 2008 @ 2:27pm

    the real deal

    www.hulu.com is the answer

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Jason, 3 Jun 2008 @ 2:38pm

    It's free and legal TV on the internet, I don't see why any of you are complaining. I love it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Joe Buzz, 3 Jun 2008 @ 2:39pm

    No Doubt

    www.hulu.com IS the answer, YaRight got it right!

    And the best part is that on some videos you can choose to watch in HD(480p or whatever).

    I used joost until my machine was to slow to run the client.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    PaulT (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 3:14pm

    Re: the real deal

    ...if you happen to live in the US.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Mike (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 3:16pm

    Re:

    It's free and legal TV on the internet, I don't see why any of you are complaining. I love it.

    I'm not *complaining* about Joost. I'm complaining about false claims that somehow Joost is a "leader" in the field.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    PaulT (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 3:19pm

    Meh

    Joost is OK, but nothing special. I quite like the interface overall, but it can be clunky and I've come across videos that are "no longer available" quite a few times. Other than Robot Chicken, few of the channels I'm interested in seem to change very much and it's not truly multi-platform meaning that I have to boot to Windows every time I want to view anything (unlike, say, Miro or anything downloaded via torrent).

    So, it's a decent idea implemented in an OK way but it seems to have been overshadowed on the US market. A web client with more content available would be a great way to overcome these problems, but of course the content isn't necessarily their decision.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Mark, 3 Jun 2008 @ 4:54pm

    Joost over time

    My problem with joost is that its got a barely workable client (which i could deal with) combined with programming that is disorganized, and an interface that cant decide if its supposed to be used at 10 feet or 1!
    I tried joost, and I tried to love it! But alas, it was just never really what I wanted for video.
    I do love their website graphics though!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    sumbuddy stoopid..., 3 Jun 2008 @ 5:53pm

    Another bad comment

    I tried it as well, a couple beta's anyway. It was cool at first, the concept, the programing, the look of it... But it all just started going away... RIP joost. Now, whats new on YouTube... Click click -- C-YA!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Clueby4, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:12pm

    Simple Math

    Content + Ads + P2P = fail.

    P2P is for free stuff, not a means of offsetting distribution cost on the backs of 3rd parties.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2008 @ 3:27am

    Re: the real deal

    Why do I want a HULU?

    Looked it up and it says HULU is:
    "Slang in South Africa for large piles of Elephant Excrement / Feces.
    Example:
    I can't beleive your wife found out you did that your in some major "Hulu"



    Sounds like this HULU is a delicious cake!

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.