Kyte announces funding, new features

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Kyte just announced a B-round of funding from Telefonica, Nokia, DoCoMo, Swisscom, Holtzbrinck and DFJ of $15 million, adding on to an earlier round of $2.25 million. Whew, the video space is really heating up.

But more significant than the money is the distribution. Telefonica has 230 million users. DoCoMo has 52 million. Nokia has 39% of the cell phone market share. If the Kyte player is embedded on these three it brings a HUGE audience to Kyte.

Also, they showed me a channel that rapper 50 Cent is doing. It has, within a few weeks, passed my Kyte.tv channel to gain the #1 spot on Kyte. More celebrity deals are in the offing, CEO Daniel Graf told me. They also shipped a new iPhone version and demonstrated an even more feature rich version coming in January.

Kyte also has an API so that partners can integrate its technology into their own sites and my favorite new feature is that now you can produce video from the player itself without going over to Kyte.

How did he announce it? In a live video conference on Kyte, of course. We cover the new funding and the new feature set there. I did a separate video over on my Qik.com streaming channel with my cell phone first because that let me do it live and streaming. Graf told me they are working on a streaming feature like Qik has.

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/6118/84982&embedId=10030732&locale=en]

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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44 thoughts on “Kyte announces funding, new features”

  3. Kyte is a great company: Very little hype. A lot of hard work. The result if that they are incrementally creating a very valuable service. It is going to be interesting to see how Seesmic responds to this.

    Like

  4. Kyte is a great company: Very little hype. A lot of hard work. The result if that they are incrementally creating a very valuable service. It is going to be interesting to see how Seesmic responds to this.

    Like

  5. Pingback: Big Video Funding Week » Digital Podcast
  6. Pingback: throk.net » Kyte.tv Pretty Interesting Stuff
  7. Pingback: Kyte.tv Picks Up $15 Million VC and 50 Cent  »TechAddress
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  9. Scoble: “I know, I’m a content guy. Content is only worth something if you can get it distributed to a lot of people.”

    –You really got to get your head out of the 20th century model of content distribution. Eben Moglen is right. These so called web 2.0 companies intent on continuing the centralization of computing and content are just thermal noise on the path to totally decentralizing distribution. Centralized distribution will quickly die the death it deserves. No thank you privately controlled LAMP stacks, we will distribute OUR content OURSELVES.

    Like

  10. Scoble: “I know, I’m a content guy. Content is only worth something if you can get it distributed to a lot of people.”

    –You really got to get your head out of the 20th century model of content distribution. Eben Moglen is right. These so called web 2.0 companies intent on continuing the centralization of computing and content are just thermal noise on the path to totally decentralizing distribution. Centralized distribution will quickly die the death it deserves. No thank you privately controlled LAMP stacks, we will distribute OUR content OURSELVES.

    Like

  11. Content should also be worth something even if only a few people watch it. Sure we will all be broadcasting a lot of content online at some point, but there will still be more and more content that will interest large audiences. The mechanism to decide which content is worth more to whome, automatic recommendations engines, those things will determine more fairly which artists deserve a larger audience, and those more popular higher quality works of art or reports should provide more monetization to the creator behind it.

    Like

  12. Content should also be worth something even if only a few people watch it. Sure we will all be broadcasting a lot of content online at some point, but there will still be more and more content that will interest large audiences. The mechanism to decide which content is worth more to whome, automatic recommendations engines, those things will determine more fairly which artists deserve a larger audience, and those more popular higher quality works of art or reports should provide more monetization to the creator behind it.

    Like

  15. Gregg – I think, we as content PRODUCERS, will absolutely make decisions on which platforms to produce with/through based on potential reach. That means selections based in some large part on who has paved the way for maximum distribution. If Kyte just made a play for the deck on all those networks and their subscibers with capable devices… this is HUGE.

    The 20th century model of content distribution still applies (even in a long tail environment, maybe especially in the LT environ).

    It also doesn’t hurt that Kyte’s infrastructure can hold up under the likes of a 50 Cent’s popularity. Reach, ease of use, infrastructure… They’ve put together a lot of the necessary components early and articulated the business model going forward (pro features, paid channels, etc). Small wonder they nabbed the funding. Way to go guys!

    Like

  16. Gregg – I think, we as content PRODUCERS, will absolutely make decisions on which platforms to produce with/through based on potential reach. That means selections based in some large part on who has paved the way for maximum distribution. If Kyte just made a play for the deck on all those networks and their subscibers with capable devices… this is HUGE.

    The 20th century model of content distribution still applies (even in a long tail environment, maybe especially in the LT environ).

    It also doesn’t hurt that Kyte’s infrastructure can hold up under the likes of a 50 Cent’s popularity. Reach, ease of use, infrastructure… They’ve put together a lot of the necessary components early and articulated the business model going forward (pro features, paid channels, etc). Small wonder they nabbed the funding. Way to go guys!

    Like

  17. PS – Mr. Scoble… Trying to determine how to embed Kyte content in my own WordPress.com hosted blog… I think you must have a feature the general population doesn’t. Am I mistaken or perhaps just missing the method to embed?

    As always, thanks for super content and the walkabout in London. Glad that cab merely woke you up instead of creaming you on the photowalk (my adrenaline lasted a good while too) ~Gerald, Tulsa

    Like

  18. PS – Mr. Scoble… Trying to determine how to embed Kyte content in my own WordPress.com hosted blog… I think you must have a feature the general population doesn’t. Am I mistaken or perhaps just missing the method to embed?

    As always, thanks for super content and the walkabout in London. Glad that cab merely woke you up instead of creaming you on the photowalk (my adrenaline lasted a good while too) ~Gerald, Tulsa

    Like

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  24. Congratulations Kyte! Thanks Robert for scooping the exciting developments in this brave new frontier. I agree that new distribution patterns are emerging and it has incredible implications from the microbroadcast perspective. The video and audio quality will continue improve as well as the interactive features. I think it’s time to upgrade my mobile plan.

    Like

  25. Congratulations Kyte! Thanks Robert for scooping the exciting developments in this brave new frontier. I agree that new distribution patterns are emerging and it has incredible implications from the microbroadcast perspective. The video and audio quality will continue improve as well as the interactive features. I think it’s time to upgrade my mobile plan.

    Like

  26. I just started using kyte last week, I’m finding that this thing has some great potential. I think in the future Kyte can really become a force on the web. Nice Post!

    *opens Kyte in a new tab*

    *scrambles to play with new features*

    Thanks!

    Like

  27. I just started using kyte last week, I’m finding that this thing has some great potential. I think in the future Kyte can really become a force on the web. Nice Post!

    *opens Kyte in a new tab*

    *scrambles to play with new features*

    Thanks!

    Like

  28. The one thing that has been missing frmo kyte has been live streaming – good to see they are working on it. I agree if they get this software embedded then they are onto a winner.

    You say iPhone support ? Hang on .. the iPhone can’t record video? I guess this is just for lifebloggin?

    Nige

    Like

  29. The one thing that has been missing frmo kyte has been live streaming – good to see they are working on it. I agree if they get this software embedded then they are onto a winner.

    You say iPhone support ? Hang on .. the iPhone can’t record video? I guess this is just for lifebloggin?

    Nige

    Like

  30. Hi Robert..

    I’d be interested to hear your take on Facebook’s new way of showing your friends list.

    It’s slow…buggy… opens at recently updated – instead of Everyone.. usually bombs by the time your half way down the first page.

    The old version was bad – but it worked.. I was personally hoping for a Listview (what else is new ;)that would show everyone on one page

    Just thought youd go ballistic on what they’ve done in there.. as it doesnt work

    jamie

    Like

  31. Hi Robert..

    I’d be interested to hear your take on Facebook’s new way of showing your friends list.

    It’s slow…buggy… opens at recently updated – instead of Everyone.. usually bombs by the time your half way down the first page.

    The old version was bad – but it worked.. I was personally hoping for a Listview (what else is new ;)that would show everyone on one page

    Just thought youd go ballistic on what they’ve done in there.. as it doesnt work

    jamie

    Like

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