A Stream in Time
by Danielle Wood, Editor, NYSIA Hotwire
KlikVU has devised the optimal solution for streaming video on the web.
The company is a new kind of ASP that provides quality Video-On-Demand time-shifted streaming programs.
But what makes KlikVU unique is its business strategy; the company offers a business model based on partnership, in which its partners can share in the profits of the company.
"We feel that today, there is no way for a small company to make a major space for itself in the markets without allying itself with other companies and other competencies. The main competencies that we outsource to are the promoters of web master promotion engines, the owners of movies, documentaries, short films, and cartoons, educational content and foreign language content," said KlikVU CEO Lowell Feuer. "So those people, whoever owns the content, deserves to have, we feel, a fair shake of the Video on Demand (revenue)."
To that end, the company partners with its clients on ventures, rather than charging a flat fee for their services. The mathematics are simple. Fifty percent of the profits belong to the owners of the content, i.e. the filmmakers or broadcasters. Twenty-five percent of the profits are given to the promoters of the content, such as the web masters who promote the material on their web sites. The final 25 percent of the profits are awarded to KlikVU.
In exchange for a percentage of the profits, the company does not charge either the web master or the content provider for hosting, digital rights management, e commerce or bandwidth.
It is this business model, Feuer says, which will enable to company to provide a real source of competition to other streaming companies.
"No one is looking at the market the way we are," he said. "We are not looking at it as broadcasters, we are not looking at the market searching for blockbusters, we do not license or buy the content. The content remains the property of the owners, we just give them an alternate revenue stream. We don't take any exclusivity, we just give, we believe, the best deal on the Internet. In that sense, we don't have any close competitors."
In A Stream of Their Own
KlikVU's streaming capability also positions them well against the competition.
"Our technology is quite significant actually," said Feuer. "We are able to stream video in the very highest quality, at the very lowest cost on Microsoft Windows Media. We actually stream at a quality of bandwidth that is superior to Microsoft. It is that technology that permits, we believe, a new model for television distribution."
"If anybody is building web sites, and they want to put video on their web sites, they don't have a lot of choice. They are going to go to an existing vendor, or they are going to try to build it themselves, said CTO Chip Ruhnke. "If they try to build it themselves, they will have the same difficulties that we have had over the last seven years of trial and error, testing every video card ever made, on every platform, with every setting. We used to have eight guys around the clock testing everything. And we came up with the optimal solution. And we know its optimal because it is better than what Microsoft is able to achieve and better than what the other leading vendors are able to achieve."
KlikVU offerings include digital rights management (DRM), ecommerce, hosting, fully scalable bandwidth, and online accounting for self-publishing and distribution content providers. The company's counterpart is a wholesale business called ClearLine.
"ClearLine actually does all of the servers and encoding in our office," explained Feuer. "Those machines are expensive and we build them all ourselves. We build all our own encoders and servers and we sell them to broadcasters around the world. The ClearLine business is our first business. It is where we are making our dollars today."
With KlikVU, Feuer and Ruknke are building upon several years of research within the streaming media industry. Ruhnke has been in the space for about seven years, spending several years as CTO of iStreamTV. It was during which time he developed much but not all of the technology that they are now using at KlikVU.
Streaming For All
KlikVU representatives foresee a vast market for their product. Industry wise, the company appeals to broadcasters, filmmakers and e-learning companies. Geographically, KlikVU has plans to reach out to the entire European Union, China, South Asia, South America, and the African markets.
"What we can do, what's unique about our technology, we can stream at a very high quality to dialup and wireless. So at very low rates it's still a decent picture," said Feuer.
The company is now looking to get the word out about their amazing technology. They are not simply seeking investors; rather they want everyone to know about all of the good things that KlikVU has in store.
Said Feuer, "I want the financial people to know that we are raising money. I want the programmers to know that we are reaching out to them; we want to cut deals with them to help us get going quickly. And I want the companies that support NYSIA to know that we can support their businesses by allowing them unique new sponsorship opportunities, and by allowing them to have streaming through their firewall to their workers. We also do corporate streaming; we do corporate streaming at the very lowest cost. And for the broadcasters, we can create TV stations on the computer to be served to both computer and mobile devices. And that can power some of the biggest networks, so we are interested in talking to them as well."
The company is mere steps away from finalizing the KlikVU product for consumer use. Currently, they are finalizing the e-commerce engine, and once that is done they will be up and ready to share KlikVU with the masses.
"We believe our timing is right. Finally convergence is here. Flat screens and LCD TVs are getting very inexpensive because of Asian competition. Mobile devices and wireless devices are going to be WiFi or WiMax-enabled. Cell phones are going to be WiMax, and they are going to be here within a year. As the hardware advances, it is going to empower the KlikVU software and service model," said Feuer. "We are leveraging all of technology, and at the same time we believe that the generation has finally come up that is used to the idea of viewing TV on non-TV devices."