Revver is one of the video start ups which suddenly became well known when the success of market leader YouTube took video sharing from the domain of the geek to a worldwide boom.
The site was launched in late 2005, and has since seen a good level of investment, securing $12.7 million in 2006 from investors that include Turner Broadcasting and the venture capital division of Comcast.
Up For Sale
Now, just over a year later, and the company seems to be up for sale, with News.com claiming an asking price of between $300,000 and $500,000, which includes taking on debts thought to total around $1 million.
Former employees are also claiming the company has shed about half of its total staff over the last 18 months. So what has gone wrong?
A Fair Revenue Sharing Deal
The site was once seen as a great alternative to YouTube, and one which offered video producers an opportunity to make revenue, a model which has since been copied by YouTube itself.
The thinking behind the revenue sharing was to try and entice the best producers in, and hope the viewers would follow, but though the site has slowly increased in popularity, it has never reached the levels needed to make it a successful venture.
The core group of producers are happy with the site, and reportedly very loyal, but with debts of $1 million loyal producers is clearly not enough to make money in an increasingly saturated market.
Deals Fallen Through
Revver has looked for buyers in the past, with representatives from Soapbox touring the company premises last year.
Then just last month, LiveUniverse had apparently agreed to acquire the site, but the deal came to nothing, with debt levels thought to be the main sticking point.
For one reason or another, the audience that the company expected, has clearly never materialised. Whilst YouTube has continued to grow to become the most popular site on the Internet.
Conclusions
In November last year, the site underwent a design change, seemingly to make it more user friendly, and more, well YouTube like, in a case of if you can’t beat them, join them.
Despite all good intentions, it seems even joining or to put in another way, copying them, still didn’t work, and this is one video sharing start up which looks to be falling to the unstoppable might of YouTube.
