Metacafe
| File:Mc-logo cr.png | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Online video entertainment |
| Founded | July 2003 |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, CA |
Number of employees | 75 |
| Website | http://www.metacafe.com |
Metacafe is an online video entertainment company, somewhat like YouTube, but with a couple of key differences. Using its unique "VideoRank" system, Metacafe attempts to gauge viewer reactions to videos in order to feature those that prove most popular to its viewers. Additionally, Metacafe pays video creators for original work that has exceeded a certain theshold of both total views and Videorank score through its Producer Rewards Program.
History and Usage
Metacafe Inc. was founded in July 2003 by Israeli entrepreneurs Eyal Hertzog (CTO) and Arik Czerniak (CEO) and received early funding from Ofer Adler (former Board Member) and later raising $3 million from Benchmark Capital. On February 5, 2007, Erick Hachenburg, previously of Electronic Arts and Pogo, took over as CEO of the company.
In 2006, the website's traffic increased rapidly, and by June 2006 it was ranked 128th by Alexa Traffic Ratings[1]. Metacafe streams more than 500,000,000 videos every month and attracts more than 27 million unique users each month.
In October 2006, Metacafe was ranked the third largest video site in the world according to ComScore[2].
Producer Rewards
[3] In October 2006, Metacafe announced its Producer Rewards program in which video producers are paid for their original content. Through this program, any video that is viewed a minimum of 20,000 times, has achieved a Videorank rating of 3.00 or higher, and does not violate any copyrights or other Metacafe community standards is awarded $5 for every 1,000 views.
As of November 2007, the top 20 producers on Metacafe have earned over $10,000 each[4], with the top producer, KipKay, having earned over $75,000.
The program had several success stories, some of which have been featured on national TV, such as the Beer Launching Fridge on Jay Leno, and the Ron Paul Girl series by Liv Films, that has been featured on Fox News and CNN[5].
References
- ^ Alexa
- ^ We Try Harder, article from [1]
- ^ Producer Rewards Press Release
- ^ http://www.metacafe.com/channels/earnings/ever
- ^ http://www.livfilms.blogspot.com
- Bogatin, Donna. Interview with Metacafe CEO Arik Czerniak on ZDnet Blogs
- Gerson, Jen. Off the wall flips. From the Toronto Star. An article about a producer who has earned over $23,000 in Producer Rewards.
- Holahan, Catherine. Don't I know you from the Internet? From Business Week
- Marshall, Matt. Metacafe unveils producer awards, to underscore advantage over YouTube from Venture Beat
See also
External links
- Metacafe Official website