[Sweden] First they found a way to make music streaming legal and free, now they’re trying to bring more TV content online through an advertising platform. I’m talking about Swedish entrepreneurs of course. This week Swedish ad-server Videoplaza has signed another deal with a UK company, branching out into a wider European market.
They’ve signed on Myvideorights.com, a company that works as a link between video producers, publishers and advertisers. Videoplaza signed its first UK deals in June this year, with Factory Media and Incisive Media.
Videoplaza has already secured some pretty significant deals in Scandinavia and partnered up with several big media companies in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The company was picked by two of Sweden’s biggest business magazines Affärsvärlden and Ny Teknik as one of the hottest 33 Swedish tech companies of the year. Another big name on the list was of course Spotify. Interestingly enough both companies have received funding from venture capital investors Creandum.
I think one reason Swedish startups excel in this area is that as a country Sweden has been relatively lenient on online piracy.
I’m definitely not a “no copyright!” or “pirate everything” guy, but at the same time when government has been less active protecting the old defunct business models of old media, it has allowed creative destruction and creative uses to flow.
Swedish startups have a lot going against them in terms of taxation and employment laws, but this one goes in their favour (note: Spotify relocated its main incorporation locale to Luxembourg, as did Skype and many others before them).
Videoplaza seems nice, but the article lacks answers to all the relevant following question a VC/investor would like to have answered:
What is the business model of Videoplaza? Is it revenue-share, monthly fee, installation fee or all three?
How much does it cost to start using the Videoplaza platform? What is the minimum amount paid that could get me started using Videoplaza?
What is the main value-add of the Videoplaza platform? Statistics, Flash player, more?
What is the revenue projection for 2009? Will it beat the 2008 total revenue (36.000 EUR)?
What is the earnings projection for 2009? Will it beat the 2009 total earnings (-225.000 EUR)?
Founders, shareholders and partners, please fill in here in the comments. The Videoplaza team seems very competent, it is the sloppy coverage of the company that is a bit sad.