The future of web video..... is there one?

Just received notice this week that RealeFlix.com (real estate video site) and MotionBox (general video hosting site) are shutting down.

This is just the latest of many video sites which have "shut down" in recent months....  

Of course, I also received an email that the first "real estate video portal" is just starting up in a week, so new ones are coming online.  (they clearly haven't seen that they're hardly the "first")

But what is the future?

More importantly, if one puts faith in these sites by uploading and using videos for real estate and MLS, what happens when the companies and all of your videos on the MLS disappear one day?

Hmm... Motionbox is being acquired and absorbed into Snapfish's service (which is owned by HP).  I think it sounds like Snapfish will just move all of Motionbox's software over to Snapfish-- too bad everything will be deleted in shutting Motionbox down though.

I haven't found a real estate video site that truly delivers other than WellcomeMat.  I stopped uploading to Zipvo and many others months ago.  I only upload to the major sites and then a couple local video sites specific to Utah.

One thing I'm working on is building my own video platform to host videos for clients-- it's a heck of a lotta work, and something I don't fully understand (I hope the developers know what they're doing!)... but it's a learning experience for sure!  The advantage to using sites like WellcomeMat is that they can deliver on higher bandwidth, where as I don't know how well my servers will scale when listings start getting thousands of views...

I have the same frustration.  I used Motionbox for my videos and now have to find an alternate solution. If I remember correctly, I paid a one-time small fee and had HD quality, embedding, etc.  It was easy and affordable.  Now I'm looking for another solution that can do the same.

Fred...the answer to you question in your subject line is "HELL YES THERE IS."

Be good all...

I started using Motionbox, only to read in their fine print that they wouldn't allow Real Estate Video tours.  Talk about being disappointed.  I've had a couple of different sites shut down or shut my account down because they didn't want me to upload tours.

 Sherri:  A LOT of sites do not allow commercial (or real estate) video....

Blip.TV, Vimeo are two big ones who will cancel your account.  Motionbox did allow commercial videos, but only with their paid PRO account.  However, they were a money losing operation and had to sell out to HP in pretty much a fire sale just to stop the bleeding.  

Real estate specific sites, such as RealeFlix.com are also shutting down.  No surprise to me as I've always felt that a public facing site of real estate videos serves nobody.  Buyers aren't interested in (mostly) out of date videos that represent less than 1% of what's available... they want to see EVERYTHING.  And if you want to charge someone to upload a video to a site like that, why would they bother when there are many free options out there?  (not to mention a small audience!).  Hence:  No way to make money!  Yet, new sites are starting up all the time (like www.realestatelivetv.com) thinking that this is a viable business idea....   

It's an interesting and changing world out there....  it'll be fun to see how it all shakes out!

 Fred, Was the Motionbox sale a true fire sale or perhaps they saw an opportunity to sell their profitable business model and cash out?  I was just wondering where you were getting your information. I too had videos on Motionbox, because they did have the absolute most customization available for a player.  I looked today at the service they are sending their videos to and I signed up and I've already forgot the name! And once I remember it I'll be canceling before my free 14 days is up.  That says a lot I guess.

My hope is that Wellcomemat will continue to work towards making a completely customizable HD player for embeds so I can use it exclusively, which I'm about to start doing anyway.  Wellcomemat has come a long way and I like that they listen to us and act accordingly.  

 Fred, Was the Motionbox sale a true fire sale or perhaps they saw an opportunity to sell their profitable business model and cash out?  I was just wondering where you were getting your information. I too had videos on Motionbox, because they did have the absolute most customization available for a player.  I looked today at the service they are sending their videos to and I signed up and I've already forgot the name! And once I remember it I'll be canceling before my free 14 days is up.  That says a lot I guess.

My hope is that Wellcomemat will continue to work towards making a completely customizable HD player for embeds so I can use it exclusively, which I'm about to start doing anyway.  Wellcomemat has come a long way and I like that they listen to us and act accordingly.  

 From what I've heard, they've never been profitable, and evidently lost their VC money.  It was pretty much a fire sale just to get out from under the thing.

It seemed very abrupt, so I'm assuming it was not a happy day at Motionbox.  It was definitely not a happy day with their customers.  They really screwed a LOT of people.

Hi Fred & Christian, Hi Everyone. Wel(l)come to me then. John Perkins of HomeVideoTour.com

I'm not a web video place such as WellcomeMat but I have just launched my site as of 8-14-2010. Http://HomeVideoTour.com (took 4 months to get off the ground). The difference in my site from RealEstateLiveTV.com and several others is that I have control of what cities will be displayed in the dropdown list. I'm in Fremont, CA and so that is all I will showcase for the public until I branch out to other cities with other videographers interested and then eventually States if it all works out. My admin panel allows me to easily add/delete when I want.

I have 4 video's so far and you will see 3 are Active and 1 is Pending ( I did these real tests over 2 weeks ago). Each Realtor will have their own Acct. Panel which allows them to have their own No Charge profile and control of all Listing information (including Active, Pending, Sold) and upload of pictures. However, they do not have the ability to embed their own video's (this is an administrative function only).

The public may also sign up for their own account and "Save" properties in their own acct. panel they might be interested in. Realtors also have this function.

I guess we'll see if I survive. First I need to find another Videographer/Partner to work with as I don't think I can do this totally alone. I'm funded only by myself. I don't know if that's a positive but at least I'm not beholden to anyone. I do realize what I'm doing could be difficult without controls but I will look into each difficulty as it comes up.

Best, John
 

 GLAD TO SEE WELLCOMEMAT ADDED AUTOSHARING WITH POSTEROUS!!!!  The WM video embedded perfectly across my Blogosphere (autoshared from posterous) except for my Wordpress Page. It didn't show up....only the text showed up. Oh Well...maybe next time.

Not sure what to think about these video sites going under. I've cut my TubeMogul back  to YouTube, Dailymotion, Veoh, Metacafe and Yahoo Vids anyway...........and WM of course.

YouTube receives more views per day than all others combined anyhow. I still like having a few others to upload to for the Google PR security though. +Plus....as of the last couple of weeks YouTube has added some SWEET new features...such as iframe embedding(allows HD full screen viewing on embed sites), 15 min Video Length with a new RESUMABLE uploader, Autoplay enabling on your featured Channel video(who cares where to views come from...it's all about Google PR)...... and most recently VIDEO EDITING/Trimming

I'm still in a major UP-ROAR over the fact that they STILL only give you an option of 3 thumbnails to choose from though.

KUDOS to WellcomeMat for making thumbnail representation a BREEZE.

Good to see Y'all on here...Take care Marcus

 I just got cut off from TubeMogul too....  :(

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