 Vuse, "Joost with an Audience," Rocks the P2P HD Video World with 4 Million Monthly Uniques
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January 29, 2008
Vuse, the P2P high resolution video platform has reached 4 million regular registered users of which half watch videos on the desktop application daily, Jim Diaz, head of strategy for the Palo Alto-based start-up told me today.I caught up with Jim at the AlwaysOn conference in Manhattan.I asked him how Vuse compares to Joost and he says his company is like "Joost with an audience." He says that Joost has under 300,000 registered users.The HD video player has been downloaded some 14 million times since the company launched last year. Vuse is an evolution of Azureus an open source BitTorrent-based application that has been widely installed over the past five years. Vuse, the platform for licensed content, launched last April with 2 million existing Azureus users. The company creates channels for licensed content from video publishers large and medium sized. Showtime and BBC are some of the better known names. He sees the target universe of video publishers at around 10,000. He said that advertising programs are being managed by the content creators as well as a Vuse advertising platform.The platform provides downloads to the computer. Coming soon will be streaming HD video. Popular content on Vuse is generally short-form. Music video and extreme sports are widely watched.The company is well funded, having closed on its $20 million C round in December with NEA, Redpoint and other top tier investors. And, hey, they might also have some good karma in their office space. They took over the old Facebook offices over the Chinese restaurant on Emerson in downtown Palo Alto. More to come from the conference. -- Andy Plesser
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