Despite persistent competition from Vimeo and DailyMotion, YouTube remains, after all these years, numero uno in people’s minds as the online video-sharing service. Now, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, who left the company in 2010, hopes to top his past success with a brand-new “video-based” product that he says promises to deliver “flexibility for people to work together and create content.” Unfortunately, the rest of the details about Hurley’s new venture remain a mystery.
What’s Hurley up to? Our guess is as good as yours
Those who were lucky enough to attend this SXSW event on Saturday can tell you the same thing: We have virtually no idea what Hurley’s next move is. While speaking at SXSW, Hurley did a stellar job being as vague as possible about the venture, but he made sure to let the people attending SXSW 2013 know that he’s got something up his sleeve that will revolutionize video collaborations. “I wish South by Southwest was a month later because I could unveil the new product,” said Hurley in an interview with Digg founder and Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose, according to AdWeek.
The only real clue we have is the fact that his current company, AVOS, is looking to hire more software developers and engineers, perhaps in anticipation for a new batch of products. But with today’s social media developments constantly inspiring innovators to come up with something fresh, it would be safe to assume that Hurley’s vague statement hints at a feature-packed endeavor that aims to pique the interest of many video enthusiasts.
Hurley is well aware of what a huge success YouTube, which Google purchased for $1.65 billion in 2006, has grown to be. And he hopes he can match – if not ride alongside – its ongoing success. According to his Q&A with Rose, Hurley’s goal is not to “kill YouTube,” but to design a platform that allows people to team up over video projects more seamlessly.
What’s in the online video editing market today, collab-wise
Currently, there already are a few websites that are geared towards online video collaboration. Showcased in the YouTube clip above (yes, it’s a bit ironic that this feature is on YouTube) is Stroome, a simple drag-and-drop video collaborating tool. The official website is currently going through a face lift, but according to its CrunchBase profile, Stroome offers video editing tools “that make it possible to work on videos together and remix other people’s work.”
Another company, Mediasilo, gears itself for professionals who want to easily brainstorm media presentation ideas and edit projects with team members. And a third possibile competitor to Hurley’s forthcoming offering, Cozimo affords its users synchronized video collaboration that supports a number of popular video formats.
WeVideo is the sleekest of the bunch, offering video collaboration capabilities we hope Hurley has used as his peg. The cloud-based platform has a wide range of online editor modes that cover different levels of expertise and a central hub that makes online media management and teamwork easily accessible. WeVideo will orchestrate a live demo of their product at the SXSW Trade Show, which will be held until March 13, 2013.
