| Type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Founded | September, 2007 |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
| Slogan | The Professional Video Platform |
| Website | http://vzaar.com |
| Type of site | Video sharing / Online Video Platform |
| Registration | Optional (required to upload) |
| Available in | English |
| Launched | 2007 |
| Current status | active |
vzaar is an online video for commerce site which launched in 2007. The site supports video streaming, embedding, sharing and video storage. Originally targeted at eBay sellers, the service now provides online video services to other commercial operations.
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The company, based in London, was founded in April 2007[1] by former eBay employees, providing video for eBay users.[2] The service went live in September 2007.[3]
Vzaar was originally founded to provide an online video hosting service to ecommerce merchant eBay. By 2008, Vzaar was offering its services to a wider range of businesses, but does not host entertainment videos; the service is focused on serving commercial video only.[4]
Vzaar’s framework is built in Ruby on Rails and is powered by a MySQL Database. The site runs on the Amazon Web Services platform. The company does not do its own encoding and uses a third party to encode videos to H264 MP4. Users can also select Flash Video as an option. The site supports various video and audio formats and a range of the video features.[5]
Vzaar initially ran a freemium model for users with restricted access to certain features. Vzaar has moved away from this freemium model and towards a more business-oriented model with a fully featured, but bandwidth restricted, trial package for users to test the service. Whilst Vzaar retains a restricted free package, it is no longer promoted and is only accessible by downgrading or letting the trial service expire.
Vzaar uses the eBay API to allow sellers to add videos directly to their listings. Once registered, the process is reported to take only two clicks to embed a video in an auction listing.[1]
In 2008 at the eBay Developer's Conference Vzaar were awarded the Runner's Up award for Best Design.[6]
In August 2009, eBay announced the launch of their Selling Manager Application storefront. Vzaar were announced as one of the launch applications which means their video service can now be accessed direct from within the My eBay environment.[7]
On the 23rd of November it was announced that Oliver Stone had invested in vzaar and become a shareholder. Whilst in London for the release of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Oliver Stone acted in (but did not direct) a promotional video for vzaar. [8]