One area of online video which isn’t short of competition is ‘How to’ sites which specialize in instructional videos. One of the main players in this sector is 5min, and the company has just raised another $7.5 million in a new round of venture capital funding.
How To Video Sites
It’s human nature to want to learn new skills and discover how to do new things. Years ago, we garnered this type of information from books and leaflets, and of course from school and college.
But now, thanks to the Internet and online video, there’s no need to be physically taught how to do everyday things because someone, somewhere will probably have demonstrated that skill on one of the many ‘How to’ sites.
Along with rivals such as Howcast Media, Instructables, WonderHowTo, and VideoJug, 5min offers viewers the chance to watch short instructional videos, and most also offer people the chance to make their own and upload them for other to watch.
5min Means Business
is one of the largest and most popular of these sites, now hosting a library of around 100,000 short instructional videos. Although made by a combination of amateurs and professional, including media companies, all 5min videos have a professional quality to them, and range in subject matter from arts to food to technology.
In November 2009, 5min raised $5 million in a first round of venture founding, that coming from Spark Capital. Now, the company has raised another $7.5 million, from both Spark Capital and Globespan Capital Partners. The company was started by a $300,000 injection from unidentified angel investors in April 2007.
VideoSeed Syndication Platform
This latest round of funding is to be used to continue development on the VideoSeed syndication platform, which basically allows other sites to embed 5min videos with monetized advertising already present. Big name information sites such as Answers.com, wikiHow, Wikia, and Articlesbase use 5min in this way, as well as literally hundreds of other sites.
5min is already a hugely popular site, boasting of between 150 million and 200 million unique visitors every month. This latest round of funding should help increase the growth of the site and ensure more people than ever choose to take advantage of the syndication options 5min offers. Which are what singles 5min out from the rest of the competition.
Conclusions
Instructional videos are clearly big business, and rather than rely on the odd one uploaded to YouTube, 5min allows users to have a veritable database of knowledge at their fingertips, all in easily-watchable, short video form. Which for those of us with short attention spans is absolutely ideal.
