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OR EMAILJoost: Opportunity Lost
So… a few months ago I wrote about Joost. In the beginning, I felt they did a lot of things right, which unfortunately slid into general annoyance as the service deteriorated. Now Techcrunch writes that they’re preparing a “major retrenchment of staff,” and that article reminded me - I haven’t fired up Joost in months.
What Joost did right was convince a lot of people such as myself to download a client through an initial flurry of viral marketing. They also created a compelling video delivery platform with a pretty, glammy interface which does immerse you in the programming.
What they’ve done wrong: not lining up enough compelling content, content, content. There still isn’t anything I’d go out of my way to watch.
I can empathize with Joost to some degree. It’s surely difficult lining up licensing agreements with old media. But meanwhile, the networks are simply bypassing Joost (and other websites, I might add) by creating their own video sites such as ABC and NBC via Hulu. Then there’s Apple - my recent Apple TV purchase rendered Joost essentially pointless.
Anyhow, I do I think their idea of going all-browser is a good one, but ultimately - they still have to get the content.
Update: Perhaps “major retrenchment” were too strong words, as Joost denies the talk of changing strategy or layoffs. Personally, it’s a bit late as I’m concerned, as I just deleted the client from my computer. Here’s hoping Joost can someday give me a reason to reinstall it.
Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.
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