MyToons: Youtube of Cartoons? In wonderland!!!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Few days back an interesting site launched its Beta version: Mytoons It looks like a great idea becuase Text, Audio, Video, Pictures...all these types of contents have been completely gobbled up by Internet sites. Noone needs introduction to Youtube, Flickr or Blogs. The only untapped item in the content list is "Animation". On top of that, I think that the content sharing websites will become "vertical". So we will see more and more proliferation of websites specializing in one particular category. MyToon seems to be following the same trend and it is trying to capture the Cartoon/animation segment of the data.
It seems to be a good idea, but I would refrain from putting my money on the site. Some ideas look good on paper but lack the mass appeal because of poor understanding of the market.
Youtube and Flickr are widely popular, primarily because of the fact that the users can generate content for these websites. Digital cameras and Video creating devices are readily available in the marketplace. Most videos and pictures on these websites are home-made. That is the real strength of youtube and flickr. I fail to understand how I can create an animated film by readily available devices in my home/marketplace.
Some Issues with Mytoons:
1. Users will not be able to create content and this will make it extremely hard for the website to reach its critical mass.
2. If users start putting Animated films from Hollywood studios on Mytoons, then it will be in deep trouble because of pending lawsuits.
3. "Barriers of Entry": How will Mytoons compete against giants: Youtube/Flickr if they decide to enter this market segment?
4. Technology: Mytoons supports only Firefox and Flash 9. A lot of users will be disappointed if they are unable to visit the site first time. I had a hard time seeing the product myself. My opinion is that they released the product a bit early. Its not even BETA ready yet.
My two cents: Good luck and make some changes to the business model very fast. In its present form, I am not ready to put my money on it.
2 comments:
I hope you don't mind a little friendly counterpoint:
> 1. Users will not be able to create content ...
Stay tooned ... ;)
> 2. If users start putting Animated films from Hollywood studios on Mytoons ...
MyToons policies cover these scenarios, so we don't anticipate problems.
> 3. "Barriers of Entry": How will Mytoons compete against giants: Youtube/Flickr if they decide to enter this market segment?
MyToons founders come from a well established background in the animation field. Really, it would be difficult for find a more knowledgeable group in terms of understanding the realm and developing a great community.
4. Technology: Mytoons supports only Firefox and Flash 9.
Flash is ubiquitous these days, especially among animation affcionados. Explicit browser support now includes not only Firefox but also IE7 and Safari.
We continue to try to improve the user experience, of course, but we're *really* proud of the video quality (and appreciate the many kudos received on that score already.)
Thanks for this chance to address your concerns!
You should check out aniboom - it's a similar site aiming to be the "YouTube of Animation"
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