Veoh and Facebook Team Up

Veoh continues its steady ascent to the top of online television and video ladder. Today at the Facebook f8 event Veoh announced the Veoh Favorites Player which is an application built on the Facebook Platform. Veoh CEO Dmitry Shapiro and his developers continue to incrementally add one excellent aspect after another in an obvious quest to become one, if not the premier Internet television network.

The new Veoh Favorites Player will allow Facebook members to view their favorite videos on their profile pages and share them with friends. The real news here is not so much the player but the continual collaborative associations Shapiro and Veoh constantly cultivate.

In a press release via PRWeb today Shapiro basically paraphrased Veoh's strategy: “We are thrilled that the Veoh video application is part of the launch of Facebook Platform and are excited to extend the reach of Veoh's rapidly growing internet video system into the Facebook community.”

Stages of Success

Veoh has been one of my favorite Web 2.0 startups and in my first report Veoh appeared to be a derivative of YouTube, all be it a much tailored one. I spoke with CEO Dmitry Shapiro a couple of times and have never really been in doubt about the startup's success. Shapiro is an intelligent, confident and friendly person like so many I have talked about this year who are on the leading edge of startups. Every one of these developers follows a similar pattern towards success. Stable financiers, a clear vision of the market plus the end product and absolute adherence to excellence in every aspect of their product are some of the cornerstones to successes at Veoh, Joost, Me.dium, and Tangler to mention a few. Startups are a reflection of the people behind them.

If a recipe for success is ever needed, here is a prime example. Shapiro got rock steady investors from the outset and then meticulously set out to incrementally build Veoh into a magnet for first content and then collaboration. All the results along the way from PR and marketing to technical additions and user flexibility have had the same character. The result is Veoh spells tailored, tasteful, useful entertainment and success for themselves and their partners.

Branding the Web

Make no mistake about it branding is the name of the Web 2.0 game. With this latest association with Facebook Veoh gains access to the 24 million users and the collaboration makes for a much broader brand. Content affiliations for Veoh are second only to Joost in my estimation with Ford Models, Road & Track, Indy Mogul, Prom Queen, Classic TV and Ustv to mention a few. The Facebook Platform launch now allows companies and businesses to interface with these millions of users. Beyond the obvious ad bonanza is the “holy grail” mentioned by Alex Iskold on ReadWriteWeb in an article about this platform the other day. Veoh may have just jumped in with perhaps the first giant IPO of Web 2.0.

IPO's and Ad Space

Josh's intuition about Facebook as an IPO is “spot on”, as no one web site really has enough space to accommodate enough ads to maximize monetization. So, enter Dmitry and perhaps the Web's poster boy for Web TV! Veoh's video capability for advertising is far greater than Facebook's rather static pages and the collaboration adds a new dimension to the monetization of both sites. As Alex put it, “Facebook needs to find a way to bring more services into the network.” As it turns out they are bringing an audience in and taking one outside the wall in order to spike revenue and value.

Conclusion

Pretty soon we will not be able to talk about one of these great startups without mentioning another. Every CEO I talk to I ask them about collaboration and win-win scenarios. Each one considers the win-win situation to be in the interest of their entity and the Web. Just as I ask the question out of inevitable idealism, these companies realize the power of alignments and big brands. Do not be surprised to see some massive IPO offerings and collaborations later this year. With big time players like Shapiro and others the cute little business of Web 2.0 is a game of hardball. Ultimately, we will all benefit from these chess moves through great services and I applaud honest and straightforward striving towards excellence by Veoh and Facebook. Bravo, just make the ads like we want them guys.