Revver
Encyclopedia
Revver is a video sharing website that hosts user-generated content
. Revver attaches advertising to user-submitted video clip
s and originally offered to share ad revenue with the video creators. Videos could be displayed, downloaded and shared across the web in either Apple
QuickTime
or FLV
format. In addition, Revver is a video publishing platform that enabled third parties to build their own "Revverized" site. Revver allows developers to create a complete white label
of the Revver platform.
, Ian Clarke, and Oliver Luckett in 2004, and is currently based in Los Angeles
. The website launched October 29th, 2005. The company received investment from Bessemer Venture Partners
, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
, Draper Richards, William R. Hearst, III, Comcast Interactive Capital and Turner Broadcasting. Oliver Luckett and Ian Clarke departed the company in late 2006, Steven Starr in 2007.
A revision of the site, Revver 1.0 was released in September 2006. This included a new design, user dashboard, a web based uploader and Flash
as a video delivery method. Around the same time as the release, prominent YouTube user lonelygirl15
signed a promotional deal with Revver.
Shortly prior to its relaunch, around 20,000 videos were available on the site. By mid-October this number had almost quintupled to 100,000 videos. The site's most popular user, a creator of videos mixing Mentos into Coke, had generated a payment to its creators of $30,000.
On November 29, Verizon Wireless
and Revver announced a deal to make Revver videos available to subscribers of Verizon's V CAST
service. The deal was announced one day after a similar deal with YouTube. On V CAST, Revver videos do not contain advertisements at the end, but Revver shares half of the revenue from the venture with content creators.
Revver was acquired by LiveUniverse for $5 million in February 2008. LiveUniverse stopped making regular payments of shared ad revenue to video creators several months after the acquisition.
through advertising and to share ad revenue with the creator.http://news.com.com/Start-up+Revver+zooms+in+on+Net+video+sharing/2100-1025_3-5924327.html
In 2006, Revver was awarded the Most Influential Independent Website by Television Week, nominated for an Advanced Technology Emmy Award, and honored as one of the 100 most promising startups by Red Herring
. In 2007, Revver announced it had paid out its first million dollars to online creators and syndicators.
The defining feature behind Revver is the RevTag, a tracking tag attached to uploaded videos. The RevTag displays an advertisement at the end of each video. When clicked, the advertiser is charged and the advertising fee is split between the video creator and Revver. RevTags are trackable across the web; because the RevTag is part of the video file itself, the technology works regardless of where the video file is hosted or displayed. Users are further encouraged to share by Revver's affiliate program. An Affiliate is a user who helps to promote videos, through email, sneakernet
, peer-to-peer sharing, or posting on their own website or on social networking sites. Revver affiliates earn 20% of ad revenue for sharing videos. The remaining revenue for each video is divided equally between the video creator and Revver.
Revver uploads license allows for redistribution under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Creative Commons License
.
and That Guy with the Glasses
publicly posted complaints of Live Universe owing them vast amounts of money on their websites and began moving their content over to Blip.TV
. To date, neither company has been paid. Many public complaints appeared in the Revver forums indicating that LiveUniverse would not respond to inquiries.
In 2010, the State of California lists the status of LiveUniverse as "Suspended."
User-generated content
User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
. Revver attaches advertising to user-submitted video clip
Video clip
Video clips are short clips of video, usually part of a longer recording. The term is also more loosely used to mean any short video less than the length of a traditional television program.- On the Internet :...
s and originally offered to share ad revenue with the video creators. Videos could be displayed, downloaded and shared across the web in either Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
or FLV
FLV
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–11. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different video file formats known as Flash Video: FLV and F4V. The audio and video data within FLV files...
format. In addition, Revver is a video publishing platform that enabled third parties to build their own "Revverized" site. Revver allows developers to create a complete white label
White label product
A white label product or service is a product or service produced by one company that other companies rebrand to make it appear as if they made it.-History:...
of the Revver platform.
History
Revver was founded by Steven StarrSteven Starr
Steven Starr is the producer of FLOW: For Love Of Water, and the founder of Revver.-Background:Steven Starr was born on Long Island. Starr started his career in high school as a volunteer journalist at WLIR-FM in New York, pursued a degree in Radio, TV and Film at the University of...
, Ian Clarke, and Oliver Luckett in 2004, and is currently based in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The website launched October 29th, 2005. The company received investment from Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners is a private venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Massachusetts, Israel, China, and India.Bessemer Venture Partners is the longest-standing venture capital practice in the United States...
, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $7 billion in capital commitments....
, Draper Richards, William R. Hearst, III, Comcast Interactive Capital and Turner Broadcasting. Oliver Luckett and Ian Clarke departed the company in late 2006, Steven Starr in 2007.
A revision of the site, Revver 1.0 was released in September 2006. This included a new design, user dashboard, a web based uploader and Flash
FLV
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–11. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different video file formats known as Flash Video: FLV and F4V. The audio and video data within FLV files...
as a video delivery method. Around the same time as the release, prominent YouTube user lonelygirl15
Lonelygirl15
lonelygirl15 was an interactive web-based video series which began in June 2006 and ran through to August 1, 2008. Developed under the working title The Children of Anchor Cove, the show gained worldwide media attention when it was outed as fictional in September 2006.-Overview:lonelygirl15...
signed a promotional deal with Revver.
Shortly prior to its relaunch, around 20,000 videos were available on the site. By mid-October this number had almost quintupled to 100,000 videos. The site's most popular user, a creator of videos mixing Mentos into Coke, had generated a payment to its creators of $30,000.
On November 29, Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
and Revver announced a deal to make Revver videos available to subscribers of Verizon's V CAST
V CAST
V CAST is a 3G EV-DO network created by Verizon Wireless to deliver audio, video, and entertainment content. The typical download speed is between 800 kilobits and 1.4 megabits per second with burst speeds of up to 3.1 megabits per second...
service. The deal was announced one day after a similar deal with YouTube. On V CAST, Revver videos do not contain advertisements at the end, but Revver shares half of the revenue from the venture with content creators.
Revver was acquired by LiveUniverse for $5 million in February 2008. LiveUniverse stopped making regular payments of shared ad revenue to video creators several months after the acquisition.
Revenue model
Revver was the first video-sharing website to monetize user-generated contentUser-generated content
User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
through advertising and to share ad revenue with the creator.http://news.com.com/Start-up+Revver+zooms+in+on+Net+video+sharing/2100-1025_3-5924327.html
In 2006, Revver was awarded the Most Influential Independent Website by Television Week, nominated for an Advanced Technology Emmy Award, and honored as one of the 100 most promising startups by Red Herring
Red Herring (magazine)
Red Herring was a technology business magazine, which flourished during the dot com boom, with global distribution and bureaus in Bangalore, Beijing, and Paris. It also sponsored conferences designed to bring venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and technologists together. But the magazine went into...
. In 2007, Revver announced it had paid out its first million dollars to online creators and syndicators.
The defining feature behind Revver is the RevTag, a tracking tag attached to uploaded videos. The RevTag displays an advertisement at the end of each video. When clicked, the advertiser is charged and the advertising fee is split between the video creator and Revver. RevTags are trackable across the web; because the RevTag is part of the video file itself, the technology works regardless of where the video file is hosted or displayed. Users are further encouraged to share by Revver's affiliate program. An Affiliate is a user who helps to promote videos, through email, sneakernet
Sneakernet
Sneakernet is an informal term describing the transfer of electronic information, especially computer files, by physically couriering removable media such as magnetic tape, floppy disks, compact discs, USB flash drives, or external hard drives from one computer to another. This is usually in lieu...
, peer-to-peer sharing, or posting on their own website or on social networking sites. Revver affiliates earn 20% of ad revenue for sharing videos. The remaining revenue for each video is divided equally between the video creator and Revver.
Revver uploads license allows for redistribution under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. The licenses differ by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S...
.
Criticism
In February 2008, Revver was sold to LiveUniverse, which abandoned the creator/syndicator revshare model, starting a precipitous decline in users. On December 9, 2008, Revver sent a message to all its users saying that earnings from June were transferred, and the other earnings would be transferred 'as soon as possible'. But several of Revver's most popular content providers including ScrewAttackScrewAttack
ScrewAttack . is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Its content is also shown on GameTrailers and IGN...
and That Guy with the Glasses
That Guy with the Glasses
That Guy with the Glasses is a website that mostly showcases satirical reviews of movies and video games. It primarily stars Chicago native Douglas Darien "Doug" Walker as "That Guy with the Glasses". The founder and administrator of the site is Michael Michaud, CEO of the parent company Channel...
publicly posted complaints of Live Universe owing them vast amounts of money on their websites and began moving their content over to Blip.TV
Blip.tv
The website Blip.tv is a platform for web series. The company offers a for the "best in original web series" and also offers a dashboard for producers of original web series to distribute and monetize their productions....
. To date, neither company has been paid. Many public complaints appeared in the Revver forums indicating that LiveUniverse would not respond to inquiries.
In 2010, the State of California lists the status of LiveUniverse as "Suspended."
See also
- User-generated contentUser-generated contentUser generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
- Viral videoViral videoA viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
- Comparison of video servicesComparison of video servicesThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable video hosting services. Please see the individual products' articles for further information...
- Web 2.0Web 2.0The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
- YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- MetacafeMetacafeMetacafe is a web site that specializes in short-form video entertainment in the categories of movies, video games, sports, music and TV.The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Tel Aviv...
- blip.tvBlip.tvThe website Blip.tv is a platform for web series. The company offers a for the "best in original web series" and also offers a dashboard for producers of original web series to distribute and monetize their productions....
- Break.comBreak.comBreak.com is a humor website founded in 1998 that features comedy videos, flash games, and pictures among other material. The chief executive officer of Break is Steve Boss...