Revver on the Ropes

It's starting to seem like another Web 2.0 company is either failing or on its last legs every time my news feeds refresh. Today's victim appears to be video-sharing site Revver, which updated the site's layout and added new features a mere three months ago. The fire sale price is a mere $300,000 to $500,000, unless you count the company's debt, which is rumored to be in the $1 million range.

Revver's business model was a bit dicey to begin with; sharing whatever revenue they received (mostly ad-driven) with their most popular content creators. They ended up with some very high-quality video producers and a very small audience, instead of the huge audience they thought would flock to good videos.

The sad reality of a lot of Web 2.0 content-driven sites is that audiences are drawn to the trainwreck. Would YouTube have taken off like it did without video of Diet-Coke-and-Mentos fountains and LonelyGirl? Would MySpace have become as popular without “personalities” like Tila Tequila?

The reality is that lowest common denominator seems to be the hallmark of the most successful content-driven sites, and niche sights with higher-brow content and production are never going to be the big money-makers unless you come up with some other way to monetize them. The hit-and-miss marketing scheme that still seems to succeed is viral, and there is no real predictor of who the next Chris Crocker or Tay Zonday will be, but odds are it will still be home home-shot video with poor lighting and some strange content.

For Revver, however, it seems that the problem wasn't just profitability, but also in how they valued themselves. Two rounds of VC netted them $12.7 million, but at least one report suggests that a possible buyout from LiveUniverse fell through when Brad Greenspan tried to drive down the price, based partially on Revver's debt.

No potential suitors have come forward yet to bite at the $1.3 million price tag (which looks much more daunting with the debt added in), but Revver's devoted userbase is hopeful that it can be saved.

Updated 7 February 2008: Revver story first reported by news.com