vzaar
 | |
| Type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Founded | September, 2007 |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
| Slogan(s) | The Professional Video Platform |
| Website | http://vzaar.com |
| Type of site | Video sharing / Online Video Platform |
| Registration | Required |
| Available in | English |
| Launched | 2007 |
| Current status | active |
vzaar is an online video hosting service, which launched in 2007. The site supports video streaming, embedding, sharing, and video storage. Originally targeted at eBay sellers, the service expanded in 2008 and now provides online video services designed for business and other commercial operations.
History
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]
In September 2012, the company expanded into the US opening both sales and support offices.[4]
The name vzaar is a contraction of "video" and "bazaar".[5]
Service
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.[6]
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. The site supports various video and audio formats and a range of the video features.[7]
Vzaar initially ran a freemium model for users with restricted access to certain features. Vzaar has moved away from this freemium model towards a business-oriented model with a fully featured, but bandwidth restricted, trial package for users to test the service.
eBay Integration
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.[8]
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.[9]
Notable Investor
On the November 23rd, 2010, 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.[10]
See also
- Comparison of video services
- List of video sharing websites
- Video hosting service
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lowensohn, Josh (11 March 2008). "Add free video clips to your eBay auctions with Vzaar". Cnet. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
- ↑ Kiss, Jemima (5 September 2007). eBay to offer video in listings "eBay to offer video in listings". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
- ↑ "The faces behind the company". Vzaar.com. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
- ↑ Troy, Dreier. "Low-Price Video Host Vzaar Opens North American Office". Retrieved 6 September 2013.
- ↑ Albrecht, Chris (5 Sep 2007). "Vzaar Brings Video to eBay Listings". GigaOM.
- ↑ Nagurski, Mark. "Vzaar – Bringing Video to eBay". iddictive.com. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
- ↑ Russell, Kate (23 November 2007). "Webscape". BBC News. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
- ↑ "eBay Developer's 2008 Award Winners". Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ↑ Brewer-Hay, Richard. "eBay SM App of the day: VZAAR". eBay Ink blog. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
- ↑ Butcher, Mike (23 November 2010). "Video is good Oliver Stone invests in online video platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 November 2010.