• Startup Video Syndicator Vidible Hits 1 Billion Streams Per Month

    Vidible, a startup video syndicator, has announced its platform enabled 1 billion video streams in August.  Further highlighting its momentum, Vidible said it has 150+ content providers across the U.S., Europe and Asia in 12 different categories now using its platform. Vidible anticipates 300% growth in 2014 and profitability in 2015.

    Michael Hyman, Vidible's CEO and co-founder, recently explained to me that Vidible is differentiating itself from other video syndication platforms with greater transparency and controls for all parties plus a lower cost structure for publishers. Michael believes that to date video syndication has offered minimal transparency, akin to the early days of ad networks where arbitrage was the primary business model.

    Publishers and content providers can access Vidible's video content exchange or they can use the platform to create and manage their own syndication networks. Vidible adds a programmatic element to its exchange with algorithms helping drive efficiency and optimization for both publishers and content providers. Michael demo'd the platform for me, which showed many customization parameters, including UI attributes like player controls.

    Depending on which model is being used, Vidible either collects transaction or licensing fees. Michael said there are clients using it both ways currently, and no surprise, the majority of the video transacted is short-form, 2-6 minutes long.

    Vidible, which raised $3.35 million earlier this year, is the latest entrant in an area I've called the Syndicated Video Economy. With video ad CPMs strong, but the cost and complexity of creating high quality video still high, syndication enables content creators to transact with publishers that have significant audiences. Early syndication leaders included 5Min (acquired by AOL), Grab Media (acquired by blinkx) and NDN.