Skype founders take on TV distribution
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It would already be sensational to hear that Niklas Zennstrom, the 2006 “Phenomenon of the year” (in Polonia), starts a new venture. But it’s him and Janus Friis, his buddy who shares his pedigree of Kazaa and Skype, who will do it. And the traditional industry is thrilled ― again.
Their idea called the Venice Project is “to become a dominant TV distribution company for the Internet era, just as companies such as Comcast have dominated TV distribution in the cable era,” says Business Week.
For the record, Novac, a Japanese device manufacturer, already demonstrates the possibility of broadcasting TV programs using Skype toolbox and peer-to-peer technology. And we guess the Venice project will be build on top of Skype/Kazaa share libraries.
But for now, Zennstrom and Friis will do some Google-work, developing their project asides from their daily duties. “Zennstrom isn’t expected to contribute much work, beyond strategizing at a very high level. Friis is expected to spend up to 20% of his time on the venture to help develop the business model.”
What approach?
So far, no business model nor roadmap has been unveiled. It’s unclear if they could find one rapidly. KaZaA and Skype have been two huge hits, but this time, the situation is slightly different.
KaZaA was truly innovating and used the Napster notorious fame to traction itself to the top, to the Sherman Networks buyout. Skype was launched in 2003, just between the first dotcom bubble and the start of Web 2.0 era. At that time, there were just a few competitors on the Skype market segment. Yahoo, Google and others were consolidating their position and focusing on their market strategic advantages.
This time, it’s different, competition is already set and tough.
Although if some critics considers new startups business models are weak, famous BitTorrent, YouTube, Guba are all dealing with Hollywood movie majors and TV channels. Meaning 1: More hurdles for new ventures. Meaning 2: Major parts of public attention have already been captured. Just think about it, who still think there could be a new YouTube mighty killer?
The technology environment has evolved a lot since the Skype launch. And peer-to-peering is no longer considered as a Devil attitude. Lately, Microsoft goes its own P2P application called Avalanche.
Jul 24, 2006 | By Nuno
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