Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 6:00 PM PT

 

VideoEgg CEO: In-Video Ads a Tiny Market

The entire market for non-YouTube in-video ads this year is worth between just $50 million and $60 million, according to VideoEgg CEO Matt Sanchez. Over lunch yesterday, the two of us talked about VideoEgg’s recent decision to drop many of its partners from its video platform service. Sanchez explained that the company didn’t see enough potential in the video advertising business to merit the effort it was putting in. So it cut its video partner list and added non-video inventory from alternatives like Flash games and Facebook applications.

screenshot7.jpgSanchez said he subscribes to Marc Andreesen’s theory that the size of a market is the most important factor in a startup’s success. Thus he’s been willing to go through the painful process of turning his ship around multiple times (a few years, a few lifetimes, and a few million dollars ago, VideoEgg started as a personal video uploading tool provider).

By in-video ads, Sanchez is referring to what’s increasingly the online video ad format of choice (see pictured example). Some people call them in-line ads, some people call them overlays, others call them bugs. Yes, these are the same units that VideoEgg got all huffy about when YouTube “copied” them last August (yesterday Sanchez called his company’s posturing a very successful “PR stunt”). Other companies peddling such ads include adap.tv, ScanScout, and Yahoo/Maven.

But Sanchez is done pumping the PR. He’s not suing anybody, least of all Google — he’s just hoping there’s money to be made, maybe even this year. His pragmatic approach contrasts with dozens of less realistic-minded CEOs heading online video startups backed by hundreds of millions in collective venture funding.

chart2.gif

Bear Stearns last month estimated that YouTube will pull in $90.2 million in domestic revenue and $13.8 million in international revenue this year. That’s not restricted to in-video ads; in fact, the vast majority is expected to come from banner ads shown on pages alongside video.

Bear Stearns was even more conservative about in-video ad revenue than Sanchez. Labeling the category “video streaming” ads, the firm said it saw YouTube collecting just $22.6 million in such revenue domestically this year (that’s what’s going in the chart shown above). The number is supposed to increase to $106.4 million by 2012.

YouTube has 34.3 percent of the U.S. online video market, according to comScore’s last count. Sanchez said he’d heard that when you take into account the expected economic downturn’s effect on ad budgets, YouTube revenues will be worth closer to $70 million than $90 million.

But that’s just a competitor talking. Anyone else want to chime in? How big a market is there for online video advertising today, and how big will it get tomorrow?

Update: VideoEgg’s competitors respond.

 

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Topic: Money Power
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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. Well I guess we all better throw in the towel.

    Liz, talk to OM and get him to turn off the server. Don’t forget to turn off the lights when you leave for the Facebook party.

    Tim Street on April 1st, 2008 at 6:43 pm - Permalink

  2. Monetizing online video remains an unsolved problem. We just have one less player to make noise.

    leopold on April 1st, 2008 at 7:07 pm - Permalink

  3. Like search was a tiny market before Overture and Google figured it out…

    Firefly on April 1st, 2008 at 7:20 pm - Permalink

  4. Some of Joosts most “popular” forms of advertising are their little Ad Bugs that pop up in the corner .

    Ive been told eventually Joost will have into full motion 1/3 overlays like the networks and cable channels do .

    Matt_ on April 1st, 2008 at 8:34 pm - Permalink

  5. It sounds a failing company calling the market small. Video is THE largest ad medium in the world. If this market is small, then monetizing social media like Facebook apps, where VideoEgg doesn’t seem to be throwing in the towel, is even smaller since that’s a medium that is a lot less proven to advertisers, given Google’s inability to monetize MySpace pages. From what I have heard, VideoEgg is all marketing engine, but with little to no real technology behind it. Rumor also has it that they have shopped themselves around to potential acquirers but with no takers. Maybe yet another sign that contraction is finally happening in the space….

    Tom Nosher on April 1st, 2008 at 11:29 pm - Permalink

  6. Online Video ad revenue is small? HA! This is a case of a company chasing the latest and greatest. VideoEgg fell back asswards into the ad game and now they are realizing that the cyclical and very competitive arena they have entered is no easy game to win. No powerhouse was ever built by chasing trends and with their consistent change in direction we can count them out as any real threat to the big boys of on line advertising.

    Adam on April 2nd, 2008 at 3:10 pm - Permalink

  7. [...] VideoEgg CEO: In-Video Ads a Tiny Market « NewTeeVee Interesting comments from Video Egg’s CEO on the true size of the online video ad market. (tags: advertising video overlay) [...]

    links for 2008-04-03 « PK on April 2nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm - Permalink

  8. $50 million and $60 million? I’ll have to disagree with that. After looking at VideoEgg’s samples, I can see why they’re cutting back. Their ads are just as annoying as the old pop-up type that have the users scrambling to click the big “X.” Video ads can be very successful when integrated into the start of a video stream. The secret is to keep them short. I watch them all on Hulu, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, etc.

    rsslivetv on April 2nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm - Permalink

  9. [...] Down the Video Ad Market After we quoted the CEO of VideoEgg this week as saying that the market for overlaid video advertising would be a [...]

    Nailing Down the Video Ad Market « NewTeeVee on April 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm - Permalink

  10. [...] you want more current numbers, Bear Stearns estimated that YouTube would pull in $90.2 million in domestic revenue and $13.8 million in international [...]

    YouTube Pays Users $1 Million « NewTeeVee on April 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm - Permalink

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