SAY Media

VideoEgg logo

Say Media (formerly VideoEgg) is a media and web advertising firm. The company claims that they reach more than 400 million people globally. Say Media is privately held.

History

videoegg mascot from company headquarters in San Francisco

VideoEgg was founded in early 2005 when Yale University graduates David Lerman, Matt Sanchez and Kevin Sladek were hacking video software. At the time, the three were involved in a social venture that was matching non-profit organizations that needed public service announcements with a nationwide network of filmmakers who would make video with their digital cameras and desktop editing packages.[1][2]

The three soon encountered a lack of simple, foolproof tools for people to get video on to the web from the diverse range of devices, editors, encoders, and players, people owned. They began to create tools to manage web video.

As their business matured they began to focus on monetization, and found an opportunity in video advertising in online video and online social networking services. In May, 2008 the company officially discontinued video hosting services to focus entirely on its online advertising network.[3]

In June 2008, VideoEgg and one of its partner websites, hi5, were sued in the United States by EMI recording labels and music publishers. The plaintiffs alleged that the services are liable for copyright infringement due to videos uploaded by hi5 users through the VideoEgg application, and sought injunctions against the allegedly infringing activity.[4]

VideoEgg acquired Six Apart in 2010, and renamed itself SAY Media.[5] It sold Movable Type and the Six Apart name to Infocom, a Japanese information technology company; SAY Media retained TypePad.[6][7] As a result of this transaction, the headquarters of Six Apart is now Tokyo, Japan.[8]

Say Media acquired the websites Dogster & Catster, ReadWriteWeb, and Remodelista over the past several years.[9][10][11] It has also launched xoJane, the fastest growing women's site, xoVain, its beauty-centric counterpart, and Gardenista, a sister site of Remodelista. On January 16, 2014, Say Media announced that it would shut down the community areas of Dogster and Catster on March 3, 2014.[12] On February 14, 2013, Say Media reversed this decision, announcing that the community areas will not be shut down, and stating that the company is working with a new partner to keep the community features running.[13]

Funding

Say Media is a privately owned company. As of 2010, VideoEgg had conducted four rounds of funding, raising over $30 million. Investors include First Round Capital, WPP Group, August Capital, Focus Ventures and Maveron.[14][15][16]

Products and services

VideoEgg provides an online advertising network. The company’s network comprises over 200 social, video and gaming sites, reaching over 80 million unique online users and more than one billion page impressions monthly.

VideoEgg has an in-house creative team to help create an ad unit. The company’s in-house design team creates the display ad unit and the custom overlay using advertiser’s creative assets.[17]

In July 2008, VideoEgg announced several new capabilities to their ad network. These include offering advertisers increased ad features and functionalities, such as:

Publishers are able to integrate VideoEgg’s AdPlatform. VideoEgg then serves the ads, which are designed to fit in any space and publishers receive payment every time a user engages with one of the VideoEgg ad units on the publisher’s site.

Use of Komodia library

According to a report by Facebook researchers [19] Software produced by SAY Media was used with the Komodia library. This software became known due to the Superfish incident.

The Komodia technology opens a severe security hole by installing a local root certificate into the browser that is shared across all installations.

References

  1. ↑ About.com, September 19, 2005.
  2. ↑ TechCrunch, September 21, 2005.
  3. ↑ VideoEgg Gets Rid of hosting, To Focus on Ad Network, March 3, 2008
  4. ↑ Complaint for Direct, Contributory, and Vicarious Copyright Infringement, Misappropriation, and Unfair Competition, Capitol Records, LLC v. VideoEgg, Inc., 611 F. Supp. 2d 349 (United States District Court for the Southern District of New York 2009) (No. 08 CV 5831).
  5. ↑ VideoEgg Will Acquire Six Apart And Rename Itself SAY Media
  6. ↑ "Six Apart Japan to be acquired by Infocom and assume responsibility for Movable Type and Six Apart brand".
  7. ↑ "Movable Type Finds a New Home at Infocom".
  8. ↑ "Six Apart Contact Us page".
  9. ↑ SAY Media Acquires Dogster (And Has More Acquisitions In The Works)
  10. ↑ http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/readwriteweb_acquired_by_say_media.php
  11. ↑ SAY Media Continues Acquisition Spree, Buys Home Design Website Remodelista
  12. ↑ Community Areas of Dogster and Catster to Close March 3
  13. ↑ Big News: Catster's Community Features Will Not Be Shutting Down
  14. ↑ "VideoEgg Gets a Jolt of VC", Business Week, September 27, 2006.
  15. ↑ "VideoEgg Receives $12 Million in Funding From Maveron, August Capital, and First Round Capital". redOrbit (VideoEgg). PR Newswire. 28 September 2006.
  16. ↑ "WPP acquires stake in VideoEgg, US-based video advertising specialists", WPP press release, April 16, 2007.
  17. ↑ AdFrames.
  18. ↑ VideoEgg Launches New Video Ad Units, July 9, 2008,
  19. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/notes/protect-the-graph/windows-ssl-interception-gone-wild/1570074729899339

External links