Posts Tagged ‘eMarketer’
New Online Video Investments: StyleHaul & YouNow
eMarketer recently reported that they expect US online video ad spending to grow 43.1% in 2012 and to become the 3rd largest category of online advertising after search and display by 2013. As part of this trend, we have just made investments in two very different online video companies, and this represents our third investment in this space.
StyleHaul is located in Los Angeles, and is the leading YouTube network in the fashion and beauty vertical. Over the past year, StyleHaul has aggregated many of the most popular online fashion influencers for the 14-34 old female audience in both the US and UK, and now reaches over 100 million monthly views and over 35 million monthly uniques. We believe that there are significant opportunities to increase the monetization of the fashion video category, and that StyleHaul can provide real value to both consumers and advertisers. In the gaming category, Machinima has demonstrated the ability to build a significant business while remaining largely on YouTube.
In a world of performers and voyeurs, YouNow is a fascinating social entertainment platform that allows aspiring video stars to broadcast live video on a variety of channels ranging from talk to hip hop while their audience continually votes on whether to keep the live performer online. A friend of mine recently said, “YouTube’s tag line is ‘broadcast yourself’ – YouNow actually is true to that statement, whereas YouTube is asynchronous, canned content, YouNow is synchronous, live.” YouNow is located in New York City, and has demonstrated initial user traction in just a few short months.