Metacafe, a YouTube-like video sharing site originally
from Israel, has just gone live with a revenue sharing program called Producer Rewards. The payments are
on a sliding scale and based on 'views'. Payments start at 20,000 views ($100) and go up
from there - e.g. 2 million views is $10,000. Videos must also have a rating of 3.00 or
higher (maximum is 5.00) to qualify for payment, of which Metacafe notes: "this tells us that
the viewers like the video." What I liked best about this scheme though is that the users
retain ownership of their videos - the license to Metacafe is a non-exclusive deal.
However the users must own the rights to the video to begin with and there are some content guidelines which the
video must pass (e.g. must be family friendly).
There are already Metacafe users who have earned over $1000 - the top earner so far is a user called Reel Stunts who has earned $23,215 (as of now). That was earned from a single video, called Matrix - For Real.... It's a 3 min 41 sec camcorder video of a University student doing gymnastics - pretty amazing athletic ability, but there's nothing that special about the video. However it's been viewed 4,642,700 times, so has earned big bucks.
This Revenue Sharing program might turn out to be a good way to get the best 'user-generated video' on Metacafe's site. But as Steve Bryant points out, YouTube will continue to "have the copyrighted content that everybody digs." Of course YouTube may have its own problems with some of that content. But as a way to encourage amateur video enthusiasts to upload their videos in the hope of getting a decent sized payout, Metacafe may be onto a winner here.
Also check out Steve's excellent overview of Metacafe, in which he explains that Metacafe used to be a desktop app - and to this day uses a desktop app for its volunteer editors. Metacafe has behavioral ranking and filtering technology, which works as follows:
"For a video to make it onto the site, it first goes through a quick but extensive filtering process, courtesy of volunteer editors using the desktop app. The editors' ranking is then combined with what Czerniak calls a "behavioral ranking" -- data culled from monitoring how users interact with clips on the desktop app."
Hmmm, so that's how the video of "monkey kissing" got on the homepage! Finally, here's my trail of Metacafe - showing the links mentioned in this post with a little extra commentary.
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Comments
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just curious, what's their revenue model here? i don't seem to see ad anywhere in their site
Posted by: wil osb | October 30, 2006 3:47 AM
sounds like a great idea to increase usage.
how do they take it away in the future though?
and if they dont... will the rev exceed the expenses?
-- Clay
Posted by: Clay Cook | October 30, 2006 5:18 AM
Sounds like the web 2.0 version of mp3.com
That sort of worked... for awhile.
Posted by: Eric B | October 30, 2006 12:03 PM
i don't think its fair you have to get rated above a certain value to make money.
Posted by: lemon obrien | October 30, 2006 4:07 PM
Thats a great idea. Good way to take traffic from YouTube and quickly escalate one's ratings. Now if only they would pay us to watch the videos.
Posted by: David Mackey | October 30, 2006 9:24 PM
Yes I liked this idea too, and like Lemon, think that it's unfair this rating threshold thing.. But the biggest problem is that they're a bit too late. YouTube got the market, Google acquired it and now they're even more stronger. It will take time for mainstream to become aware of MetaCafe's revenue sharing model and when they do, YouTube also will offer it.. Same story everywhere..
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | October 31, 2006 1:39 AM
now that Eyespot raised $3.7M in Silcon Valley. More variants of such
mashing will come up, each addressing niche user needs, and all
offering alternative business models to monetize traffic.Eyespot has
been actively engaged in busdev and that will be starting point for
gaining momentum, while insulating model from the regulatoty Digital
Copyright and Fair Use attacks.
Posted by: Hindol Datta | November 2, 2006 3:45 PM
nuttin
Posted by: denzel | November 14, 2006 3:50 AM