There has been no shortage of talk about the apparent demise of Userplane, the text, voice and video chat software provider that was acquired by AOL in August 2006 for around $40 million (the exact price was never disclosed).
Venturebeat ran a story on the property last May, citing sources and Userplane clients as saying the service had been “neglected if not abandoned by AOL”. Yet this morning, I exchanged some e-mails with Darin Ohlandt, General Manager of Userplane, and he responded to the rumors saying they are definitely not shutting down and will continue to offer the existing chat and IM services to third-party sites.
However, some writing on the wall suggests he may not be painting a complete picture of what is going on. → Read More
Widget developer JS-Kit has joined with AOL’s Userplane in a widget cross-distribution partnership that should significantly increase the potential userbases for both companies.
Both companies produce popular sets of widgets that can be easily implemented with a minimal amount of code. Among Userplane’s offerings are a popular Webchat widget (which allows for full featured online chat), a media player, and an embeddable bulletin board. JS-Kit offers less media-centric widgets like Ratings, Comments, and Polls.
With the new partnership, these two companies will begin offering eachother’s widgets in the hopes of gaining further distribution. At first, Userplane will be offering the JS-Kit Ratings widget and JS-Kit will be offering the Userplane Webchat widget, with both companies splitting embedded advertising 50/50. In the future there are plans to include more of each company’s widgets in the deal. → Read More
Userplane, the company behind Webchat and a number of other online communication services, has introduced a new video app dubbed “Mediaplayer”. The free white-label app will allow web publishers to add hosted video uploads to their sites under an ad-supported model. Mediaplayer users will be able to upload videos as large as 100MB, and there is no limit on the amount of upload or streaming bandwidth they can consume. For the time being, all ad revenue from Mediaplayer will go to Userplane, but Michael Jones, the company’s CEO, says that they hope to introduce the revenue sharing model seen on their other apps in the near future. The current version of the app is restricted to video only, but the next release will feature Minichat, allowing users to chat while they watch clips. Mediaplayer should see a significant boost in initial usage from ex-VideoEgg members. VideoEgg announced last March that it would be leaving the free video hosting space, and has named MediaPlayer as one of its recommended replacements. Userplane was acquired by AOL in 2006 and, with more than 200,000 publishers, is one of the largest providers of online white-label services. For the time being their product will see competition from other video hosting sites including VSocial and KickApps, but with the eventual introduction of simultaneous chat they will also face off with Meeboand Videophlow, among others. CrunchBase Information Userplane VideoEgg Mike Jones Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Stateless Systems has launched a professional, subscription based version of its hosted content management system CushyCMS. I interviewed Guy King from Stateless for the CushyCMS launch in April (the post includes a demo video) and he mentioned then that the long-term plan for CushyCMS was to offer a professional subscription version. King tells me that the demand for a professional version of CushyCMS was strong from the day the service launched, so they immediately started building it. As of last week, the free version of CushyCMS has more than 4,600 active users, a tidy number given this isn’t an every day consumer based product. CushyCMS is a simple content management system that aims to make life easier for web designers by simplifying content management. Web designers use CushyCMS to give content editors (for example a client) access to part, full or many pages at a granular level (headings, images, sidebars, etc), enabling them to update or create standards-compliant content directly from a browser without messing with the sites coding. CushyCMS Pro is being offered at $28/month and features branding support, including a custom logo, colors and domain (e.g. acmedesign.clienteditor.com). There is no set-up fee or minimum subscription length and both PayPal and AlertPay are accepted. In addition, several new features have been added to the free version of CushyCMS, including SFTP support (secure FTP), Improved WYSIWYG editor and Support for IIS and other Microsoft-based FTP servers. Former TechCrunch writer Duncan Riley edits The Inquisitr, a daily dose of tech, pop and penguins. CrunchBase Information Stateless Systems CushyCMS Guy King Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
This guest post about the widget economy was written by Michael Jones, an angel investor, the CEO of Userplane and a Senior Vice President of AOL. Userplane, which was acquired by AOL in August 2006, is a communications widget provider (add chat and other services to sites) and a large advertising network. Mike Jones’ personal blog is here. Companies facing a slowing economy are looking for more cost-effective ways to reach customers. Forrester’s recent post on the role of social media during economic recessions supports the idea that social media can help companies survive and thrive in tough economic times. And Josh Bernoff’s full report on the subject calls for an end to “toe-dipping” by interactive marketers and advises a more serious look at cost-effective and measurable social marketing programs. A key take away: …since interactive marketing programs are now fueled by measurable results, not dot-com madness, we believe that they can thrive in a recession. Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects’ decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures. Interactive marketers should stop toe-dipping and invest only in programs that can deliver on measurable metrics. Additionally, Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang points out that social marketing costs far less than traditional marketing. So when purse strings are tightened, marketing execs will become more excited about social media’s potential of reaching exponentially more people with fewer dollars. While the recession-proofness of social media is a case study in the making, the idea that social applications can thrive in tight economic times because they are a cost-effective, precise way for companies to interact with customers and prospective customers, is right on the money – quite literally. → Read More
http://www.viddler.com/player/56df0f97/ UserVoice offers a hosted way to harness the innovation and ideas of customers and potential customers that replaces email. San Francisco based UserVoice improves the signal-to-noise of user opinion by allowing the moderation of the ideas of one person against the opinions of the many. UserVoice allows users to voice opinions, suggestions, and complaints. The video above demonstrates how it works (it’s difficult to pigeon hole) but think focus groups for companies that can’t afford focus groups, with elements of a forum and even Digg style voting thrown in for good measure. For companies, UserVoice offers an open and transparent process for customer feedback to any company. The system also allows site owners to ask the community more directed questions (e.g. by a poll) about how users like a new feature or what they think of a specific idea. I first saw UserVoice when I interviewed Guy King for CushyCMS (post here), King loves the service and although I didn’t video it, he spent 5 minutes showing me how they were using it. It’s always a good sign when people not involved with the company spontaneously evangelize a product. CushyCMS’s UserVoice page here and the official demo page for UserVoice can be viewed here. The service is completely free during the public beta. UserVoice competes with SalesForce (IdeaExchange) and GetSatisfaction. CrunchBase Information UserVoice Get Satisfaction Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Userplane is announcing a second version of their Desktop product that’s based on newly released AIR and therefore compatible across operating systems. The Desktop product enables web developers to extend functionality outside of the browser with instant messaging, notifications, advertisements, and other general messages. This new release should appeal to social network developers in particular who want to take advantage of AIR but don’t have the resources to develop a custom application on top of it. With the newest version of Userplane Desktop, available March 10th, they just need to provide customizations and the application will even run on Userplane’s servers. Userplane Desktop comes in a free version, but developers will have to pay monthly charges depending on user levels if they want to get rid of advertisements. CrunchBase Information Userplane Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Today, Web-based IM and chat room provider Meebo is releasing full-fledged APIs for its Meebo Rooms that will allow Websites to embed chat functionality in an automated fashion. Currently, Meebo Rooms can be embedded on sites or blogs manually by pasting in the appropriate code, which has already led to a proliferation of such widgets. There are more than 200,000 Meebo Rooms, attracting millions of visitors a month. (See our previous coverage here and here). Explains Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg: Now, the servers of our partners can say, “I want to create a room.” It automates the creation process on a server-to-server basis. Also, we will be putting advertising into these rooms. In addition to the APIs, the company is also announcing the Meebo Network, which will serve ads inside Meebo Rooms across the Web, splitting the revenues with the Websites hosting the rooms. Since each Meebo Room is formed around a particular interest, ads can be targeted. And to the extent that sites participating in the network have demographic data on their members, that can be used for ad targeting as well. Only Meebo Rooms created through the API will show ads, not the ones created manually. The launch partners joining the Meebo Network are Piczo, Revision3, RockYou, Social Project, and Tagged. Revision3, for instance, will create a Meebo room on its site where fans can watch a synchronized loop of Web TV shows while chatting. Access to the full APIs and the ad network is by invitation only at this point. Social networks could use the new APIs to automatically add chat rooms to every group page. Rock bands or movie sites could add Meebo Rooms to their sites for visiting fans. Comparisons can be made here to Userplane, a white-label chat service which was bought by AOL in 2006 and powers many of the chat rooms on MySpace. But there are subtle differences. Most notable is the fact that Meebo Rooms can spread anywhere on the Web. Anyone can grab the embed code and put it on their blog or MySpace page as I’ve done below. Notes Sternberg: A user cannot take a room off of MySpace and throw it somewhere else. We have all our rooms networked. A user can take the CBS Jericho room, and throw it on their WordPress blog. Our chat rooms are networked versus islands within Websites. It is very hard to → Read More
Angel investor and startup advisor Jeff Clavier (pictured with Digg founder Kevin Rose) just announced a new $12 million early stage venture fund today at the TechCrunch40 conference. The new fund will be called SoftTech VC II. Clavier, who has a degree in computer science, has been actively investing in startups over the last few years and has had notable successes such as Truveo (acquired by AOL for a rumored $50 million), Userplane (acquired by AOL for a rumored $35 million), MyBlogLog (acquired by Yahoo for $10 million), Kaboodle (acquired by Hearst for a rumored $30-40 million), Mayas Mom (acquired by BabyCenter for $7 million), Dogster, Kongregate, Edgeio and many others. In other words, he has an eye for winners. His investment philosophy will remain much the same, he says. He’s just now investing money from limited partners as well as his own capital. He says he’ll invest the fund in a total of 30 to 40 seed stage startups with investments ranging from $100k – $500k. SoftTech VC will focus on consumer Internet. Clavier has made four initial investments through the fund: Satisfaction Unlimited, Social Media Network, Grouply (which will launch at the conference today) and Active Athlete. → Read More
Only very long time readers will remember our coverage of proximity-based instant messaging service Meetro back in 2005. Meetro is an instant messaging client for Windows and Mac that shows you other users (and their picture) that are physically close to you. Want to make friends with someone sitting near you in a cafe, or who lives in the same, apartment building? Meetro can help you do that. One problem though…the company has not gathered a critical mass of users and has sort of gone sideways. The company has survived on a very low burn rate, but there isn’t much buzz about it. Now we’re hearing a rumor that the Meetro team is quietly building a new product – an easy “one-click” way of creating new forum on the fly. Instant messaging and forums are very similar businesses. In effect they are the same thing except that one is synchronous (IM) and one is asynchronous (forums). So the meetro team should have the expertise to create an interesting forum product. As an aside, another startup, Tangler, is tying the instant messaging and forum worlds together. Meetro is being tight lipped about this, but some of the investors they are pitching are talking. We’ll post more information as we get it. AOL is also rumored to be releasing a new forum product in the Fall. We’re hearing that the product was handed over to the Userplane team after some development difficulties (Userplane was acquired by AOL in August 2006). The new product is to be called Userplane Boards. Update: Userplane says this is not quite how things are. See CEO Michael Jones’ comment below. → Read More
Web messaging services company Userplane has launched a new revenue-sharing program that brings monetization to online instant messaging and web chat Userplane Money serves ads in instant messaging, web chat and other widgets. The new program is said to be the first of its kind amongst community platforms. Userplane CEO Mike Jones sees what he calls the “Platform Web” as the next area of online monetization. ” Userplane Money offers rich application experiences that increase user engagement on our clients’ websites, and provide them with a new revenue channel and increased site usage”. Userplane was acquired by AOL in August 2006 and the new program is linked into AOL’s larger advertising strategy. “AOL has a rich offering of ad solutions for advertisers, including internal advertising within the AOL network, 3rd party publisher relationships through advertising.com, and a longtail ad offering through the Userplane network” said Jones.”Userplane Money grows the Userplane longtail ad network and gives advertisers access to users and inventory they had not had access to previously on smaller, targeted niche web communities”. Jones sees Userplane Money as a way to reward users and position the service as a key revenue driver for smaller up and coming web communities. The combination of Userplane’s technology with a revenue-sharing program is sure to drive future growth to what is already a very smart offering. Previous TechCrunch coverage of Userplane here. http://www.google.com/notebook/static_files/blank.html → Read More
Web messaging services company Userplane has been acquired by AOL, it was was announced this morning. This company powers the interactive features (chat, video chat, video profiles, etc.) on most online dating and many social networking sites. Terms remain undisclosed, but there are rumors that this was a “very large deal”. Founded in LA in 2001, Userplane uses Flash and Ajax to offer video, audio and text chat in the browser, in single or multiple chat rooms. Those video and audio chats can be recorded using the company’s Webrecorder application. Its target audience has been social networking and dating sites but it’s technology has been deployed across 100,000 sites in 25 countries. Big customers have included Friendster, Date.com and Red Bull. Investor Jeff Clavier reports that the ad-supported version of Userplane recently broke the billion monthly ad impressions and has further discussion on the history of the company and this deal. Userplane says that it hopes to work with a system of federated identity leveraging the AIM brand and intends to speed the pace of its innovation post-acquisition. I just spoke with Mike Jones, Userplane CEO, and he told me that one of the first ways the partnership will take shape is that users registered with Userplane client sites (like Tagged) will be able to be contacted via AIM by other site users even when they themselves are not on the original site. Extending presence through AIM, off-site and thus building a greater sense of community to users of Userplane supporing sites. Makes sense, but doesn’t address what AOL will do with Userplane. Now that nearly everything is free at AOL, a compelling user experience could be key to maintaining the kinds of audiences advertisers will pay for. Recordable multi-room video chat could be one solid way to bring users in to AOL properties. A very early TechCrunch profile of Userplane is here. → Read More
Company: Userplane Founded: 2001 Location: Los Angeles What is it? Userplane is an application service provider to web 2.0 companies. They offer a suite of easy-to-integrate services, built on the flash platform, including chat, group chat, a webrecoder and, soon, a sitesearch product. Typical Userplane customers are dating and social networking sites (any site that has users who would like to interact and/or create profiles that include audio/video content). The applications are polished, intuitive and fun to use. In their own words, “Userplane is the premier provider of enterprise social software for online communities. Userplane Apps are easy to use, rapidly deployed Flash web applications that support live text and audio/video communication. The application suite consists of three apps that each add core, must-have features to thriving community websites: Userplane Webrecorder enables users to record and share audio/video messages, Userplane Webmessenger provides live text and audio/video instant messaging, and Userplane Webchat delivers full-featured, multi-room, multi-user text and A/V chatting. Leveraging Macromedia’s ubiquitous Flash, the Apps are lightweight, cross-platform with no user installation, and customizable for a site’s specific needs. Deployed internationally on sites ranging from online dating to social networks to intranets, Userplane Apps reach millions of users in more than ten countries. Userplane Apps dramatically increase online interaction and improve guest-to-member conversion.” Webmessenger Product: This was the first product launched by Userplane. The Webmessenger product is a one-to-one instant messaging client that includes text, audio and video features. Janet Song, Userplane’s Marketing Director, gave us a demo of the product: Webchat Product: Webchat is group chat. It has all of the features of web messenger, and also allows users to see who is watching their video and/or listening to their audio. It can support an unlimited number of users, and a single user can view up to four videos simultaneously. Webrecorder Product: This is a feature that sites can add to easily allow their users to record and play back audio/video messages. The products are deployed on the flash platform and non-userplane branded. Pricing starts at $50 per month (there is a free version of the webchat product that is add supported as well). Integration can be as easy as inserting an html script, or sites can choose a full integration into their database to include user’s site profile information. Userplane keeps a low profile, but their customers are blue-chip – they include friendster, eharmony, honda, date.com and red → Read More
