Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Monday, March 26, 2007 at 2:10 PM PT

 

Justin.tv, Meet Johnny.tv (a.k.a. Ustream)

Pretty soon you won’t be able to walk down the street without bumping into an internet entrepreneur broadcasting his life 24/7. When it rains Justin.tv’s, it pours.

This weekend we learned of Ustream.tv, a project that’s “eerily” similar to Justin.tv, as co-founder Brad Hunstable puts it. The company has the same ultimate goal as Justin.tv — to build a platform for interactive live streaming. And now, they have the same demo product — a twenty-something Asian-American male entrepreneur accompanied by a camera. (Except in Johnny Ham’s case, the camera’s not strapped to his head, but instead carried by his girlfriend.)

Ustream angel investor Chris Yeh says the similarity between what Justin and Johnny are doing is not just a coincidence. “I don’t think we would have ever contemplated broadcasting live 24 hours a day because we thought it was boring. And we were dead wrong. There’s 150 people watching Justin sleep.” He says when he saw the swell of interest in Justin.tv, he pushed the guys to take the plunge and put Ham on camera.

Ustream had actually gone live in mid-February after more than six months of work, signing bands and minor celebrities to use its streaming broadcast platform. But Ham was convinced to take it to the next level, and quit his job as a pharmaceutical sales rep Friday.

Instead of using the antics of his roommates as subject matter, he’s taken to hanging around Los Angeles hotspots in search of celebrities. They call it “Liverazzi” (which probably sounds better when they say it than when I sound it out).

Ham has already caught David Spade, Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Ryan Seacrest, and Britney Spears on camera, and has big plans to utilize the interactive nature of the site to involve fans in the paparazzi process. Unfortunately the archives aren’t posted to the site yet, except for this crappy taping of a computer screen broadcasting Johnny meeting Paris Hilton’s parents.

Hunstable and Ham are “very enthusiastic and very unfamiliar with the ways of Silicon Valley,” says Yeh, who is currently acquainting them with the ways of Sand Hill Road. In fact, the two founders met at West Point and split up when Ham was shipped off to Iraq.

Ham admits the Ustream experience makes for a strange juxtaposition. “I was an aide to a two-star general, and here I am live-streaming paparazzi.”

 

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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. [...] a service that will give anyone a chance to create their own live video streaming. This is very related with the recently launched [...]

    Vic Okezie » Blog Archive » User generated stream (24/7) on March 26th, 2007 at 3:36 pm - Permalink
  2. I’m way ahead of the game… I’ve got a 90lb FAX machine strapped to my head, and a very long phone line.

    Chuck Olsen on March 26th, 2007 at 8:38 pm - Permalink
  3. Have you ever thought about getting your fax machine an EVDO card?

    Liz Gannes on March 26th, 2007 at 10:45 pm - Permalink
  4. [...] the next table, his coworker Robert Scoble was sporting a Justin.tv-esque hat-cam from Ustream, the Justin.tv competition. He said about 20 people were following him in a Ustream chatroom. It was some kind of crazy [...]

    NewTeeVee » I Stream, UStream, We All Stream @Web2.0 on April 16th, 2007 at 5:42 pm - Permalink
  5. [...] library. This searchable archive is something still being worked on by other live streamers, like UStream. The only thing Veodia doesn’t come with is one of those “LIVE” lights you see [...]

    NewTeeVee » Veodia - We’re Live and It Works on May 6th, 2007 at 1:45 pm - Permalink
  6. [...] Ustream had employed publicity stunts similar to competitor Justin.tv early on, sending out founder Johnny Ham to live-stream his life, it’s now describing itself as a “micro-broadcasting platform” to enable live [...]

    Ustream Names New CEO « NewTeeVee on November 13th, 2007 at 7:00 am - Permalink
  7. Watch the biggest premiership match of the season today at http://www.freewebs.com/frankiegoestohollywood

    This is the final day of the season and its between two teams , Chelsea and Manchester United for the Premiership title. Chelsea play host to Bolton and Wigan with ex- man utd player Steve Bruce in charge welcome United to the JJB Stadium. With Wigan safe from regalation surely they will not be trying too hard. If Man Utd win then it doesnt matter what Chelsea do , the title is Utd`s but if Utd draw or lose and Chelsea win then Chelsea will be crowned Premiership champions. This is must see tv.

    http://www.freewebs.com/frankiegoestohollywood

    I.Owens on May 11th, 2008 at 3:02 am - Permalink

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