Founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom of Skype and Kazaa fame, broadband video service Joost hoped to revolutionize the broadband video industry, but struggled with slow broadband speeds, internal turmoil and a contractually-limited catalog. Last winter, Joost ditched their P2P approach for a more Hulu-esque flash-based website approach, though it didn't help. The company has since shuttered their consumer service entirely -- hoping to develop video services for existing ISPs. The company had been shopping itself to ISPs but nobody was interested -- and today announced they'd be selling what's left of the company to online advertising outfit Adconion Media Group for an undisclosed amount.
I tried Joost when it was in beta back in the P2P stage. They didn't have much I liked vs things like Hulu. And they were definitely right about speeds hindering things.
Some ventures like this succeed while others bomb. Wonder what those 2 people will develop next?
I wanted to try them, but I never could get their software to run correctly. Always crashed at startup.
What ventures like this seem to miss is that people don't want to watch stuff on their computers. They need a box that could be attached to the TV. Akimbo had the right idea on that aspect, but their programming stank, and they wanted to charge you a subscription for anything decent. These startups also fail to grasp what content people want. Homemade videos and clips of extreme sports only get you so far. What about all the old films that have fallen into the public domain? Surely, they could put together a cult film channel with these things.
I got a chance to see some shows and channels I couldn't get at that time (I didn't have cable). While others have discovered Hulu, I discovered torrents and never looked back .