A screenshot of the Fliqz.com homepage
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Before he launched Fliqz (www.fliqz.com) in 2005, Benjamin Wayne was no more of a videophile than your average fan. By vocation, he was a successful customer acquisition/retention executive. During his off-hours, he enjoyed watching movies just like everyone else. He occasionally made documentaries for fun, like one on the temples, monuments and eateries of Seoul, Korea, where he once lived. But his aspirations could hardly be described as Spielbergesque.
Fast forward – if you will – four years later, and Wayne is overseeing an enterprise that delivers online video content to thousands of customers worldwide.
“We knew that every business out there with any kind of presence on the Web would need to tell their story via video,” says Wayne, CEO of Fliqz, now a 22-employee operation run out of an old brick warehouse in Emeryville, California. “With us, they don’t need to deal with any of the logistics or technical complexities of getting it out there online. We do that for them.”
Fliqz provides video-content packages to customers, allowing for businesses, bloggers and other Web denizens to craft their own customized streaming presence to draw traffic, promote projects and establish their brand, among other needs. The free “basic” package provides an ad-supported Fliqz player, 25 uploads and 500 streams. The platinum package, at $999 a month, provides a wealth of additional goodies, like multiple player sizes, customized work flows, playlists, custom share email, 5,000 uploads and 250,000 streams.
Streaming video has always presented a bit of a puzzle. At first, it was such a chore to download and view the stuff that the effort was hardly worth it. Then, the true believers started getting the infrastructure/tech thing right and, suddenly, we could watch anything we wanted at our desktops. Movie studios posted previews. Music labels posted videos. Porn sites posted, well, they did their thing. And a wonderful site called YouTube put it all under one irresistible circus tent: Extended game clips of Resident Evil 5. Joni Mitchell performing with Johnny Cash four decades ago on Cash’s old TV show. Shaquille O’Neal playing basketball in high school. Robert Kennedy’s assassination. Not to mention the barrage of homemade videos featuring grainy footage of garage bands, graduations and America’s Funniest Videos-styled depictions of men getting hit in the groin with footballs.
Yet, for all of it’s a-list quality and sheer fun, YouTube is heavily in the red, expected to lose $470 million this year, according to published reports. The reason cited: There simply isn’t enough ad revenue to cover the considerable operating costs. Google almost certainly has long-term aspirations for the property, but at the moment, the YouTube model is more than a much smaller organization could bear.
Wayne realizes this. And Fliqz isn’t an attempt to be the next YouTube.
“They’re losing money because they’ve already monetized everything they can monetize,” Wayne says. “When there’s nothing left, it’s a tough sell in this economy. They’re a free site with novelty content, supported by ads. We serve only businesses and 100 percent of them are paying customers. That’s a big difference.”
Fliqz allows for mostly medium-sized businesses to build their online video content in a way that’s more affordable than traditional methods. It buys bandwidth from telecom companies and content-delivery networks, and resells that to customers through its video-applications packages. The customer is seeking a “no muss/no fuss” approach here. They aren’t asked to download software or otherwise deal with issues of coding and infrastructure. As a result, Fliqz now has more than 35,000 customers, including the Automobile Association of America, the Texas Golf Association, Spafinder.com, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and even the rock group, The Bangles. Aside from those who rank Walk Like an Egyptian at the top of their iPod playlist, few would reason that there’s a ton of star power among this crowd. Neither would Wayne. And that’s the way he prefers it. While there are some boldfaced names, including Major League Baseball and VH1, the vast majority of customers are lower-key players who are looking for a more affordable way to post its streaming content.
“Of all of our customers, only 250 would be considered major brands, like WebMD and T-Mobile,” Wayne says. “We are interested in both kinds of companies. But from a sales and price-point perspective, the vast majority are going to be in that smaller- and medium-scaled category.”
The business isn’t profitable yet, but Wayne expects it will break into the black sometime this year (he politely declines to reveal sales numbers). As for the ROI for customers, he says video is clearly now a tool for business needs such as search-engine optimization, and will continue to grow in that regard. By hiring Fliqz, a business is buying into the concept that a moderately priced video content distribution partner is simply the cost of doing – and growing – business these days.
“Our company offers packages that are really no different than what the cell phone companies offer, with packages priced according to tiers,” he says. “Video is just another tool in the toolbox of marketing that all companies need to pursue. We give them a cost-effective way to do it.”
Since Fliqz launched, Wayne has added advertising applications from players such as Atlas Solutions, DoubleClick, Google and Adap.tv, as well as self-serve video creation kits and cut/paste Flash tools for his customers to provide to users of their sites. Peak Web Hosting is the managed hosting provider for core needs, which aren’t excessive — Wayne keeps Fliqz simple because he strives to make the multimedia experience as streamlined as possible for the potentially skittish customer prospect. For content delivery, the site depends upon partners such as Akamai Technologies, Panther Express and EdgeCast. “There are geographical challenges,” Wayne says. “Friendster is one of our customers, and it has clusters of customers in Asia and the Philippines. So we need to work with a content-delivery partner who can get what we need to those regions. Or we work with the region’s local telecom companies to do that.”
One growing customer target, of course, is the hosting community. While he estimates that there are 50 hosts among his customers, Wayne says he’s constantly seeking more by going to conventions and setting up one-on-one meetings.
“Customers now are signing up for hosting accounts and asking, ‘how can video be part of the package?’” he says. “But many hosting companies don’t want to get involved with that. So they can white-label our platform and resell it, to add another value-added service to their total range of offerings.”
