New Delhi Times

Gaurav Bhatnagar reporting from New Delhi, India

MeraVideo – desi YouTube?

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Kanwaldeep of BrainGain Media emailed me to inform me about MeraVideo. Mera Video is a self confessed YouTube clone as of now. The site has very similar features with the main difference being that the content is targeted towards an Indian audience. I had two obvious questions for Kanwaldeep:

 

1. What are your plans in terms of scalability? YouTube was burning more than a million dollars a month on bandwidth costs. How do you plan to monetize the website to keep it sustainable? Are you raising money for the same?

Kanwaldeep:

MeraVideo can be termed ‘as of now’ the Desi version of YouTube but has been designed to eventually generate monies thru various unexplored revenue streams. Some of the revenue streams include: Syndication of Content, A Television show called ‘India’s Amazing/Funny Videos’ and selling of premium accounts for users with high bandwidth usage requirements. The eventual goal is to be a ‘Media Content Aggregator’ for India. The main source of revenue ‘at this point of time’ is ‘Confidential’ and we plan to unleash it with the rollout of our Beta Version slated to be sometime end of this year. I am not in a position to share the ‘main revenue’ or monetization source at this point of time due to its confidentiality.

I agree, the main barrier to entry when it comes to scalability is ‘the high bandwidth requirements’ for running a video sharing site. To address the same, MeraVideo is raising its first round of funding. A lot of angels as well as early stage VC funds have expressed interest in this venture. We expect to close the first round in the next 20 days. The first round of funding is intended to address the following: Infrastructure, Scalability and Manpower, PR.

2. What is your stance on copyright material? I see lot of copyright material on your site. How do you plan to deal with that issue?

Kanwaldeep:

The real truth is that due to the sensitive nature of the subject it is very difficult to prevent any violation infringements with regards to the ‘intrusion of private space’. The other violation i.e. reuse of components such as Music, Clips etc. can be easily monitored using a skilled set of researchers who screen the videos manually. Apart from this we will always have the standard ‘Terms of Use’ and the ‘Privacy Agreement’ as our first defense mechanism. We screen every video that is uploaded on our site. We have taken permissions from respective producers and studios for most of the copyrighted stuff that you can see on our website i.e. movie promos etc. To further this, we are finalizing contracts with Sahara Motion pictures and UTV to allow MeraVideo to showcase their films/promos as well as movies. Being a part of the Producers Guild in Mumbai, we actually are very particular about copyrights infringement. That is probably the reason why you do not see any clips from Indian TV shows (like the laughter challenge) etc.

My Take

In general I am skeptical about clones of any sort. I think MeraVideo or any India targeted video portal will have to innovate locally in some aspects. My guess is that mobile integration could be the killer feature for the desi audience. The fact that MeraVideo has tie ups with big media houses is definitely a big plus in their favor. At the same time, the popularity of YouTube was to a large extent due to the availability of copyright TV content there. It would be interesting to see how VCs react to Video sharing sites post-YouTube acquisition. This is one space where you can not survive long without VC money! All the best to MeraVideo!

Written by gaurav

October 29th, 2006 at 8:08 pm

Posted in Social Networking

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  • http://www.twentyonwards.com Jatin

    It would interesting so see original amateur content from India on this site as amateur content is quite big on youtube and one of the main attractions. But, i doubt a indian youtube would work in the long run.

  • http://www.twentyonwards.com Jatin

    It would interesting so see original amateur content from India on this site as amateur content is quite big on youtube and one of the main attractions. But, i doubt a indian youtube would work in the long run.

  • http://www.zerocaffe.in suman

    Indian youtube huh! well i guess they can succeed given that they can handle their growth well in terms of infra structure. But if it does become popular and they don’t do partnership deals with indian content providers(TV channels) we might end up seeing some legal hassles. BTW youtube like totally rocks. ROCKS.

  • http://www.zerocaffe.in suman

    Indian youtube huh! well i guess they can succeed given that they can handle their growth well in terms of infra structure. But if it does become popular and they don’t do partnership deals with indian content providers(TV channels) we might end up seeing some legal hassles. BTW youtube like totally rocks. ROCKS.

  • http://spaces.msn.com/krisdhingra Kris

    Personally I don’t think that an Indian Version of YouTube has much scope, as Indians aren’t as fond of making home videos as the americans.Anyways from the kind of videos that are currently posted ,they are available at most P2P sites and Indian forums, and also keep doing the rounds in Company Circles and Emails,I for one have seen most of the videos currently posted.
    Talking about Video Sharing the next hot thing is gonna be Video Sharing in 3G Mobile Networks,where 2 or more people can share a video during a regular voice conversation

  • http://spaces.msn.com/krisdhingra Kris

    Personally I don’t think that an Indian Version of YouTube has much scope, as Indians aren’t as fond of making home videos as the americans.Anyways from the kind of videos that are currently posted ,they are available at most P2P sites and Indian forums, and also keep doing the rounds in Company Circles and Emails,I for one have seen most of the videos currently posted.
    Talking about Video Sharing the next hot thing is gonna be Video Sharing in 3G Mobile Networks,where 2 or more people can share a video during a regular voice conversation

  • http://www.twentyonwards.com Jatin

    thanks bhai

  • http://www.twentyonwards.com Jatin

    thanks bhai

  • http://www.krishworld.com/blog/ Krish
  • http://www.krishworld.com/blog/ Krish
  • http://ileher.com/ Madhur Khandelwal

    Considering the level of Internet and broadband penetration, I do not think India is ready for a video site yet. More on this at:
    http://ileher.com/2006/11/12/15-million-funding-for-meravideo-joke-or-sign-of-boom/

  • http://ileher.com/ Madhur Khandelwal

    Considering the level of Internet and broadband penetration, I do not think India is ready for a video site yet. More on this at:
    http://ileher.com/2006/11/12/15-million-funding-for-meravideo-joke-or-sign-of-boom/

  • Bobby

    meravideo looks interesting. i came across a similar site called http://www.connectfilms.com . interesting thing about http://www.connectfilms.com is that it caters for both desi and international users. i heard it is backed by a famous UK media company.
    Bobby, Nasik

  • Bobby

    meravideo looks interesting. i came across a similar site called http://www.connectfilms.com . interesting thing about http://www.connectfilms.com is that it caters for both desi and international users. i heard it is backed by a famous UK media company.
    Bobby, Nasik

  • Karthik

    http://www.connectfilms.com looks interesting. The founder of connectfilms.com Mansoor Ahamed who is based in London U.K. claims it is one of the few sites in its class which connects Bollywood to Hollywood. He claims connectfilms.com is coming up with interesting competitions soon to give variety to its users. He said that http://www.connectfilms.com would like to focus on niche market as oppose to http://www.youtube.com . He declined to comment more on competitions. It will be interesting to watch what kind of new features connectfilms.com can bring into the market.

  • Karthik

    http://www.connectfilms.com looks interesting. The founder of connectfilms.com Mansoor Ahamed who is based in London U.K. claims it is one of the few sites in its class which connects Bollywood to Hollywood. He claims connectfilms.com is coming up with interesting competitions soon to give variety to its users. He said that http://www.connectfilms.com would like to focus on niche market as oppose to http://www.youtube.com . He declined to comment more on competitions. It will be interesting to watch what kind of new features connectfilms.com can bring into the market.

  • Sandeep

    There is a new one called bhidu.tv promoted by Bollywood star Jackie Shroff for exclusive Indian content.

  • Sandeep

    There is a new one called bhidu.tv promoted by Bollywood star Jackie Shroff for exclusive Indian content.

  • girish

    hi there is one more simmillar site which looks very fast, more colourful and lot of indian cultural videos i liked this site just try this out
    http://www.canaravideo.com

  • girish

    hi there is one more simmillar site which looks very fast, more colourful and lot of indian cultural videos i liked this site just try this out
    http://www.canaravideo.com

  • http://www.bollywoodtube.com Rajiv

    Hi,
    Thats a nice site. But have found a better desi video sharing site it has a large desi video songs collection, lyrics most important is it has no popup ads. Check this out http://www.bollywoodtube.com
    Rajiv

  • http://www.bollywoodtube.com Rajiv

    Hi,
    Thats a nice site. But have found a better desi video sharing site it has a large desi video songs collection, lyrics most important is it has no popup ads. Check this out http://www.bollywoodtube.com
    Rajiv

  • http://www.layfile.com Amit Khurana

    Here is another site which is similar to meravideo…..Looks like many people
    are jumping onto video website ship…..
    http://www.layfile.com

  • http://www.layfile.com Amit Khurana

    Here is another site which is similar to meravideo…..Looks like many people
    are jumping onto video website ship…..
    http://www.layfile.com

  • http://videochutney.com Kiran

    you should also see http://videochutney.com content owners can get lots of revenue from video downlaods on cellphones.

  • http://videochutney.com Kiran

    you should also see http://videochutney.com content owners can get lots of revenue from video downlaods on cellphones.

  • http://www.desidirectory.com sushil

    Hello,
    I am Sushil,and I would like to suggest one of the best and free Indian community portal, where you will get 1000’s Indian poems, jokes, stories, travel guide information, and festival website, also where you can publish your poems, jokes, stories, website will help you to gain more exposure on the Internet through promoting your Poems, Jokes, Stories on the website. You will retain copyright, and, interested publishers will contact you directly, and It is Free.
    http://www.desidirectory.com
    Thanks
    This is only for further information

  • http://www.desidirectory.com sushil

    Hello,
    I am Sushil,and I would like to suggest one of the best and free Indian community portal, where you will get 1000’s Indian poems, jokes, stories, travel guide information, and festival website, also where you can publish your poems, jokes, stories, website will help you to gain more exposure on the Internet through promoting your Poems, Jokes, Stories on the website. You will retain copyright, and, interested publishers will contact you directly, and It is Free.
    http://www.desidirectory.com
    Thanks
    This is only for further information

  • http://desidirectory.com/desi-indian-jokes/ shaan

    10 LAWS OF COMPUTING..
    1. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.
    2. When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, its probably obsolete.
    3. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where youd least expect to find it.
    4. When the going gets tough, upgrade.
    5. For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

  • http://desidirectory.com/desi-indian-jokes/ shaan

    10 LAWS OF COMPUTING..
    1. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.
    2. When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, its probably obsolete.
    3. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where youd least expect to find it.
    4. When the going gets tough, upgrade.
    5. For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

  • http://desidirectory.com/desi-indian-jokes/Default.asp Raghavan

    One afternoon, a wealthy lawyer was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw two men eating grass by the road side. He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.
    “Why are you eating grass?” he asked one man.
    “We don`t have any money for food.” the poor man replied.
    Thanking

  • http://desidirectory.com/desi-indian-jokes/Default.asp Raghavan

    One afternoon, a wealthy lawyer was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw two men eating grass by the road side. He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.
    “Why are you eating grass?” he asked one man.
    “We don`t have any money for food.” the poor man replied.
    Thanking

  • http://desidirectory.com/desi-indian-poems/ ravi

    Love Letter..
    I found a letter in the drawer in an old pile,
    buried in dust and lost in time,
    The ink and the words were faded,
    but the thoughts and feelings were molded.
    This may have been the first love letter I wrote,
    which my wife kept it with her for so many years,
    The promises of eternal love glowed from its engravings,
    The hopes of love lasting beyond our lives were shimmering in its etching.
    Hope u wud join n help me create a special place 4 Indian Desi online.
    Its real desi site!!! Just check it out!!!

  • http://desidirectory.com/desi-indian-poems/ ravi

    Love Letter..
    I found a letter in the drawer in an old pile,
    buried in dust and lost in time,
    The ink and the words were faded,
    but the thoughts and feelings were molded.
    This may have been the first love letter I wrote,
    which my wife kept it with her for so many years,
    The promises of eternal love glowed from its engravings,
    The hopes of love lasting beyond our lives were shimmering in its etching.
    Hope u wud join n help me create a special place 4 Indian Desi online.
    Its real desi site!!! Just check it out!!!

  • abhishek gupta

    tHIS IS ANOTHER INDIAN VIDEO SHARING WEBSITE OFFERING MONEY FOR EACH UPLOADED VIDEO.
    HTTP://WWW.VIDEOMARTINI.COM
    How to earn?
    This offer is valid for members from the Republic Of India. The members will be paid Rs 2.50 per video uploaded(This offer is valid for the first 5000 videos). This is not all ,if Videomartini is able to place and advertisement on your uploaded video , you will receive 10 Paise per view thereafter. All payments will be paid by cheque subject to the member has earned a minimum of Rs 50 or more.

  • abhishek gupta

    tHIS IS ANOTHER INDIAN VIDEO SHARING WEBSITE OFFERING MONEY FOR EACH UPLOADED VIDEO.
    HTTP://WWW.VIDEOMARTINI.COM
    How to earn?
    This offer is valid for members from the Republic Of India. The members will be paid Rs 2.50 per video uploaded(This offer is valid for the first 5000 videos). This is not all ,if Videomartini is able to place and advertisement on your uploaded video , you will receive 10 Paise per view thereafter. All payments will be paid by cheque subject to the member has earned a minimum of Rs 50 or more.

  • http://youtube richa oberoi

    it was rili helpfull n interesting too
    thanks….

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