Stickam

Stickam Worldwide, Inc

Type	Privately held company
Foundation date	2005
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California, US
Key people	Hideki Kishioka, James Johnson[1]
Owner	Stickam Worldwide, Inc
Website	www.stickam.com
Alexa rank	8,679 (March 2012)[2]
Available in	3 languages
Launched	February 2005 - (31 January 2013 at 11:59 pm for live cams) (28 Feb 2013 for other data)
Current status	Defunct

Stickam was a live-streaming video website that launched in 2005. Stickam featured user-submitted pictures, audio, video, and most prominently, live streaming video chat. The site quickly expanded to include live shows and produced content from MTV, G4 TV, CBS Radio, NATPE, CES, and many others, as well as live performances and shows with numerous musicians and celebrities.

In addition to streaming their live video on Stickam, the service allowed users to embed their streaming webcam feeds into other web sites via a Flash player.^[3] The name "Stickam" referred to this ability to "stick" a webcam feed onto another site.^[3][4][5]

Features

Go Live

Anyone could “go live” and broadcast live video on Stickam from their computer, iPhone or iPad within seconds. It was also possible to connect HD and other cameras, mixers, and audio feeds to send HD and professional broadcast streams out via Stickam. Stickam’s live video players come with built-in chat capabilities, allowing both text chat and optional video chat. Stickam's player and live stream abilities are recognized in a Variety Magazine article as a "more customizable player" that has the ability to engage fans in a powerful way using their virtual face-to-face interaction.^[6]

Social Media Login

Stickam launched its social login feature at VidCon 2012 (where Stickam had teamed with Maker Studios to live stream VidCon 2012).^[7] Broadcasters on Stickam can allow their friends and followers to log in to their chat rooms by using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, PeNis, Myspace, or Gmail. Broadcasters can further restrict their rooms by requiring viewers to Like their Facebook page, Follow their Twitter, or Subscribe to their YouTube channel in order to view the stream or in order to participate in the chat. Stickam calls this feature “fangating” and first deployed it on a concert event that was sponsored by Levi’s Jeans. ^[8] This feature was created to help stickam users increase their YouTube followers.^[7]

VIP Program

Stickam has as of August 2012 a VIP user program.^[9] The VIP program gives users ad-free usage as well as being featured on the "who's live" page, 25 coins from the shuffle marketplace and a VIP badge on the user's profile picture.^[10]

Stream API

The company also released a white label service called StreamAPI (formerly Stickam API) in 2008. StreamAPI was a customizable white label service that allowed customers to add live streaming to their website or application with no development experience required.^[11] StreamAPI customers include MTV, NATPE, and Travel Channel.^{[citation needed]}

Stickam iPhone SDK

In 2009, Stickam launched the first ^{[citation needed]} white label live video streaming solution for iPhone App Developers.^[12]

Content

Bands and musicians

Lots of musicians use Stickam to stream live performances and band chats. Artists to go live on Stickam include Andrew W.K.,^[13] Black Veil Brides,^[14] Christofer Drew,^[15] Allstar Weekend, Cypress Hill's B-Real, Boys Like Girls, Jimmy Urine, Chantal Claret, LMFAO, Wynonna Judd, Chad Brownlee, Cobra Starship, Metro Station, Ashley Purdy, and American Idol contestants Bo Bice, Katharine McPhee, Michael Johns, Danny Noriega, Engel, and Lakesha Jones.

Andrew W.K. has streamed weekly "Party Chats" on Stickam for over two years straight. On August 28, 2012 Andrew hosted the chat live from backstage at Conan O'Brien's TV show, Conan.^[16]

Christian hard rock band Underoath used Stickam to stream live from their recording studio for two months while they recorded their album Lost In The Sound Of Separation, racking up over 1.8 million live views.^[17] They returned to Stickam for a live listening party right before the album’s release.^[17]

Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan went live on Stickam to host Gothageddon, which was a live doll fight. There were very few survivors. Billy and friends voiced the dolls, which included dolls representing the members of Smashing Pumpkins, Robert Smith from The Cure, Amanda Palmer from Dresden Dolls, and many others.^[18]

Live Events and Partnerships

On November 7, 2012, Stickam officially launched its new Stickam Studio At Meltdown at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd. Stickam and Meltdown announced they had partnered to stream live shows from a new studio space in the store as well as from the store floor itself and from the NerdMelt Theatre behind the store. The studio programming launched with the premiere of IHEARTCOMIX LIVE with guests Andrew W.K. and Cherie Lily and a live video commentary show by NerdTerns.^[19]

Stickam partnered with Vans Warped Tour to stream live exclusive coverage of the 2012 tour as well as promotional fan chats with many the bands in the weeks leading up to the tour kickoff. Bands that participated included Breathe Carolina, Mayday Parade, Of Mice and Men, and Pierce The Veil. Stickam also provided live coverage of Warped 2011 through a deal with the band Gym Class Heroes streaming from every single tour date.^[20]

Stickam and Levi's partnered to stream MusicfestNW, the third largest indoor music festival in the United States.^[21]

Stickam teamed with Chevy Sonic for the live presentation "Sonic Live" featuring a performance and Q&A with reggae band SOJA on February 8, 2012.^[22]

Charity events

Since 2007, Stickam was home to the annual UNICEF fundraiser known as Stickaid hosted by YouTube vlogger Myles Dyer. This event is regarded as the worlds first webathon style fundraiser and has raised more than $100,000 over its lifespan. Since Stickams closure, Stickaid has moved to YouTube as its live streaming partner and still retains its name.

On May 27, 2011, Stickam organized the 14-hour webathon concert event Stickam Live For Japan to raise money to help those affected by the March 11, 2011 tsunami in Japan. The event streamed live from The Roxy nightclub in Los Angeles and featured emcee Stu Stone with performers Cypress Hill, Black Veil Brides, and Alex Lambert^[23] along with dozens more. Money raised benefitted the Red Cross, the Japanese Red Cross Society, and GlobalGiving.^[24]

Stickam heavily features and promotes the annual fundraising marathon to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities of Memphis Charities each year in partnership with Memphis radio station Rock 103.^[25]

A 12-hour webathon to benefit the Bob Hope Hollywood USO was hosted by and featured on Stickam. Popular Los Angeles DJ Gary Bryan emceed the event which featured live interactive chatting with US soldiers based in Iraq. The event was organized by several CBS radio stations in Southern California, including KRTH-FM (K-Earth 101), KTWV-FM (94.7 The WAVE), KLSX-FM (91.7 Niggin' FM), KFWB-AM (News 980) and KNX-AM (News 1070). Stickam featured the event on Stickam.com and provided players that were embedded on many additional sites, including MilitaryConnection.com, Newsblaze.com, TalkingWithHeroes.com and RealMilitaryFlix.com.^[26]

In July 2010 the company held another webathon to help raise money for 1-800-Suicide. The webathon featured live streaming and helped the charity win $100,000 from the Chase Challenge.^[27]

Social features

"Social users" refers to people who use Stickam primarily for its social features, including hosting their own videochats or participating in one of the site's group chat rooms.

Stickam shuffle

In February 2010, Stickam also launched Stickam Shuffle, where users can connect instantly to random people from all over the world. Stickam's policy promises violators of its terms of service will be permanently banned.^[28]

Video chat

Live chat allows the user to display their webcam live feed over the internet. The user has the ability to choose who can view their live stream. In the actual stream room, there are 7 camera spots. The largest one is for the owner of the chat. The other six spots are for six other people to stream their live webcam feed. The live chat also allows users to chat through a chat box similar to what you would see on any regular chat site. The main user can "kick" or ban people who are disruptive or threatening. The main user also has the power to make people moderators which are trusted people who can kick people if the main user is unable to do so.

Group chat rooms

Chat rooms are for many users to chat in, instead of a live with only 7 camera spots. It allows everyone the ability to stream live at once, but only 12 people to be seen at a given time. Chat rooms have many of the same properties that live chats do. If you encounter a group of chatters with similar characters preceding a user name it is considered a "crew tag". Group chats are organized by topic (like "Video gaming" instead of by a specific host broadcaster name the way the rest of Stickam is) and group chats stay active 24/7.

User advertising program

Starting in March 2012, Stickam launched a program that would allow users to purchase advertising space that would run during their broadcasts on-screen. Stickam's Executive Director Hideki Kishioka said in an interview about the subletting of overlay advertising space that "Among our 9.3 million registered users there are many musicians we especially want to help reach their fans in a cost-effective manner."^[29]

Closing

As of January 30, 2013, Stickam added a banner to the top of their homepage that linked to a blog post detailing the permanent shut down of their service.^[30] On February 1, 2013, Stickam prematurely terminated all live streams that were ongoing at that time, but kept the site open another month for people to access their data and recordings.

The following is a statement made from the owners of Stickam, which appeared on their main website:

A note from all of us at Stickam to our friends:

We were here. We did this. Actually YOU were here, and you did this. Stickam was always about you, not “about us,” like most websites. And we appreciate you all, so so much. After seven wonderful years we are incredibly sad to have to say goodbye. We did everything we could to keep this dream alive, but unfortunately you are reading this message. When Stickam launched in 2005 we were the very first website devoted to live streaming, user generated video and chat. There was no blueprint, no roadmap to follow. We didn’t know where you would take us.

From the early days of the live community, “Stickam stars” started to emerge… Ibot, RadioLive, Gay God, Kiki Kannibal… Scene kids and scene bands… And then the wonderful Stu Stone and Jamie Kennedy and others came in, and the first regular, produced, live weekly shows on Stickam— the first on the Internet—began and flourished.

We started producing our own content from clubs and venues all over LA whenever we could. We launched our own weekly show Streaming The Cube to celebrate our community. Daily and weekly shows from G4 TV, Andrew W.K., B-Real, Jake Fogelnest, DJ Rossstar, Allstar Weekend, Guys from Queens, Hank and Jim and so many others followed. We were privileged to present annual unprecedented live coverage of events like Vans Warped Tour, NATPE, SXSW and the Cinefamily telethons. We were honored to power six years of Myles Dyer’s incredible Stickaid and so many other worthy causes. We were also proud to produce and host “Stickam Live For Japan” to help raise money for victims of the tsunami with your help. So many community members came out to lend support to the broadcast that night at The Roxy, including Stu Stone, Cypress Hill, Black Veil Brides, Chantal Claret and James Urine, Mr. Let’s Paint TV, and Sam Proof, and so many more joined via remote.

Just late last year we launched the Stickam Studios at Meltdown with great friends and partners like TheOneRing.net, Iheartcomix, the NerdTerns and MeltCast. We were there for the special night with Die Antwoord and with Tavi Gevinson, and chats with Hollywood Undead and New Years Day and Escape The Fate. We continued to stream the cube. We are incredibly grateful to all the Stickam members and viewers, to all the bands and artists, the radio stations, the regular shows and the deer. Thank you for making this a wonderful place for seven years. Thank you all. We will miss the Stickam community. The site will remain alive here until February 28, 2013. We encourage you to log in and download any of your live recordings or other media you wish to save.

Sincerely, All your friends at Stickam

As of March the message was changed to:

Thank You and Farewell

We at Stickam are very sad to announce that stickam.com is now officially closed. We are incredibly grateful to all the Stickam members and viewers, to all the bands and artists, the radio stations and the shows, and the deer. Thank you all for making this a wonderful place for seven years.

Sincerely, Stickam Staff

Security

Stickam had a team of administrators who monitor site activity and deal with reports of abuse. To join Stickam one had to be at least 14 years of age. Stickam users created their own privacy settings.

In July 2010 Stickam Worldwide Chairwoman Pamela Day recorded a video addressing the problem of online bullies and predators, discussing the safety measures Stickam took after an incident involving an 11 year old who received death threats after making controversial postings laden with profanity and talk of violence, and noting that Stickam ultimately banned the minor from their service due to her underage status.^[31] Stickam subsequently adopted a "zero tolerance" policy that bans for life "any member who attempts to share nudity, cyber bully and harass other users, or is identified as an online predator."^[32]

Ownership

Stickam is owned by Stickam Worldwide, Inc.^[1]

The company was launched as a division of Advanced Video Communications (AVC), a company founded in 2004 and specializing in internet video streaming technologies.^[33][34] Stickam was launched by AVC in February 2005.^[35] In addition to Stickam, AVC's products and services include a video conferencing service and LiveLine, a low-cost home surveillance system based on IP camera technology.^[34][36] Advanced Video Communications is a privately held company^[35][37] owned and managed by Japanese entrepreneur Wataru Takahashi.^[38]

In 2007 and 2008, the New York Times reported that in addition to AVC, Takahashi was also owner of DTI Services, an amalgam of adult websites aimed at the Japanese market.^[38][39][40] DTI adult websites include DXLive, EXshot, and JGirl Paradise and contain content ranging from adult manga to sexually-explicit webcam shows to uncensored Japanese adult video.^[38][39] The 2007 article also reports that the sites were based in the US due to Japanese laws restricting certain types of nudity.^[38]

According to Alex Becker, who was a vice-president at Stickam for four months in 2007 before leaving the company, Stickam shares office space, employees, and computer systems with the DTI adult websites. Becker was critical of the practice of sharing employees between Stickam and the adult sites and states that he left because he thought the company was not doing enough to protect teenage users of the site from sexual predators and other dangers. A spokesman for Stickam denied Becker's allegations that Stickam was negligent about protecting its users, and also stated that Becker's claims were "retaliatory", motivated by a disagreement over a contract with the company, and the stating that after leaving AVC, Becker was working on a site that would be in competition with Stickam.^[38]

As a follow-up to the 2007 story in the New York Times, Bloomberg Business Week in 2012 published an article by the same reporter, Brad Stone, reporting how Stone had been tricked into writing the first story by a disgruntled former contractor who had falsely claimed to be an employee and who provided a lot of false information. The former contractor has also since served jail time in France and stands accused of forgery and murder and other crimes unrelated to his time at the company.^[41]

References