CNET News: Shelby.Tv: The video you and your friends care about
CNET News: Shelby.Tv: The video you and your friends care about
2012-03-12
hey everybody I'm Hollywood from cnet
com here at South by Southwest 2012 it
goes on the second market recovery
lounge yeah Brian Fallon was seeing it
as well and joining us today we have
reached my co-founder and CEO of shelby
TV a video product that really kind of
collects the videos that appear on your
social networks but for people that
don't know about you guys can you
obviously describe it and tell us what
is it all about sure um you know I love
video first of all my whole team were
just like we watched a lot of video yeah
you know there's so much great content
out there but it's a it's a little hard
to get through all that right how do you
find the good stuff and so we look at
the people around you is the best
curators for you so i looked i think is
shelby is my place for my video and we
start by looking at my friends on
twitter and facebook and we pull the
videos that they share all into shelby
and it's both a web app an iphone app
ipad app and we're on mobile web but our
real goal is to get smart about what you
like and don't like we want to basically
understand your preferences as a video
watcher and say hey you know what you
might like more of these videos from
Molly you might like more videos from
Reese or you have an interest here how
about some more stuff here and be able
to recommend great video for you in a
number of ways but the goal is not to
create more noise it's to create more
signal there's tons of content out there
so it's about getting the good stuff to
you so well so at first what do you tell
me you are just get you're seeing like
all the video that your friends on these
networks posts yeah exactly right now
you know at first and right now and just
the way the product works right now you
sign in you're gonna see videos from
Twitter Facebook and Tumblr if you
authorize with those services our goal
in the next few months it start to build
out sort of our social video graph where
we're going to understand what you like
and be able to say hey you know what
you're you're looking for more video in
this certain area here's how you can
find more so then you start to see video
that wasn't just my friend yeah exactly
exactly but always with the social
relevance of some sort you know this is
coming through your friend of a friend
yeah or this is coming through because
you like this video from your friend
here you might also like videos like
these for me I never go to youtube and
hunt and peck and click videos right
like yeah neither do i
no I mean like there's there's a lot of
great content there and and but for me I
don't want to go just explore you too
now one of the things also as the
practice of all veena I'm sure you guys
are finding new ways to kind of tweak
the algorithm what's working with people
what's not what are some of the
challenges with that with you know how
are you guys really targeting it into
what's the video that someone like me
wants to see sure it's tough because you
know people try to do recommendations
before and a lot of people will say that
doing recommendations you have to
improve by 10 x in order to really have
an impact on the user we find that the
social filter by looking at videos that
users have shared that's a great
improvement because it filters out a lot
in the crap you know the after you watch
a video those suggested videos we're
usually kind of not more of what you
want like if I went to watch you know
charlie bit my finger I don't
necessarily want to watch 30 more baby
videos is because I wanted to have that
one conversation with my friend and I
mean a laugh about that one thing so
it's trying to figure that out so for us
it's it's it's looking at all the data
that we can collect collect as much as
we can try and get smart about it and
then try and make sure we message a user
correctly when we presented I think the
great example is that target article
recently did you guys see that yeah
about a girl was being marketed to as if
she was pregnant and the father came in
and yelled at the targets or said yeah
it was like how dare you market to her
and they were lay there like sorry our
bad and it turns out she actually was
pregnant because that's how smart target
is about their users so how is this a
better experience because right now on
my facebook I see the videos that my
friends are posting sure how do you say
to these or this is better than getting
a video one at a time so our big thing
is we think that video deserves its own
space deserves its own place right it's
a different consumption then text or
then photos I can be online in my email
and scan my news feed and Facebook
really quickly I can pay attention to
twitter just with a quick scan but once
you commit to a video you're committing
your full band was to watching that
usually and so that's when once i get
that mode i want to be there so Shelby's
creating that experience I think that
there's power and just being focused on
video so making sure that one we do it
right for the user who is in facebook
and maybe wants to get through all their
Facebook stuff but not commit to three
videos but giving them a way to watch
that later so video play
exactly we have a lot of users who love
to open it up on a Sunday morning we
have a couple features that help with
that one is a watch later button so it
was a bookmarklet that if you're on a
YouTube page or a vimeo page or any of
the supported video players we have you
click that and it then pulls that video
into your shelby feed and later on when
you're on your iPad your iPhone you're
like okay cool I got time to watch us
now and then we also we took that a
little bit further and built in what
we're calling the video radar which is a
Chrome extension that we launched last
week and it basically picks up that
video for you on a page automatically so
as soon as you're on a page with video
says hey I want to add this year watch
later or do you want to watch it here
and like it right there so Shelby's now
collecting your video for you all over
the place but getting you that spot to
to watch it later so what are the
economics of that because obviously
sites monetize their video how are you
grabbing that video and do the ads run
so right now as a small start-up we
don't want to pick fights with the big
guys so what we do but want to pick the
right fights so right now we pull the
ads through so for pulling a youtube
video you will see the YouTube ad and
we're not getting any cut of that we
just say we want to create an experience
we think there's a lot of value in this
space so we're going to do what we do
and we have a few ideas around revenue
models for later but right now anybody
who's got an ad it plays and we just
kind of deal with it so you know your
hair South by Southwest what would be
maybe some of those Reb models like that
you know that that are curious for you
that you know that you would try with
this I mean I I look at you know the
video space is still really nation still
really young still growing and I look at
content is changing so I see you know
advertising in video evolving right i
think you know we've seen a couple
recent changes in how ads are displayed
in video and i don't think they're great
i think they're clever i'm talking about
likely the salt thing you know instead
of watching pre-roll you can now enter
in a word to get past to get past it
right you're still interrupting the
experience with me watching that video
how about trying to bring me more
relevant advertising which is
essentially content if you look at a lot
of big brands they're shifting ad
dollars to content creation so you're
thinking of you got a bunch of users
you have a pretty good idea what you
like yeah you can do better exactly I
mean there are some ads that I love I
mean there are certain stuff it's really
great and that's because they create
great stuff so is that imply that Shelby
would want to potentially create content
that serves as an ad generator for these
videos you watch is that what you're
implying so so our last part of the
model we've joked that if all else fails
Wilkos go into video production and like
creative services consulting because we
have ideas like that but no that's not
the goal I mean really we think we're
building this valuable technology that's
going to help marketers understand users
better and understand how to get
relevant video to the right people
whether it's a cool movie trailer that
you can't fit on TV or it's you know all
twice's latest campaign which crazier so
how do you encourage that kind of viral
video if what the most of the video that
you're getting is from your friends like
are you it seems like the sharing gets a
little bit more limited right if the
universe gets smaller the universe gets
smaller the sharing yeah sure what's the
video you see is not you're not going to
stumbleupon as much video there's a
chance thank you there's a chance that
you're not going to see the most popular
video on YouTube but that's okay I mean
there's stuff that I miss that that's
okay that I miss it but at the same time
there's stuff that I love when I find
that early stuff and my friend share its
means like oh cool you know honey badger
is a great example from last year right
honey badger blew up just before South
by I remember seen that video really
early on and I was so cool so that's
where I wanted to share it and then I
became part of that early viral trend
and if you are you are and if you're not
you're too late and so be it right is
what it is yeah all right well good luck
with anything are you announcing
specific things here at South by the
smile you guys are so obvious you can
you like oh sorry that little short
sleeves a little nugget we can't keep
the secret you can keep this well it
looked the cats out of the bag now
actually no good so so we can we can
tell you what's going on so we didn't
thing called Project goats com sounds
ridiculous because it is but there's a
Twitter a character named fake Grimlock
and he's a great start of personality
and we actually were able to get him to
come to South by Southwest and do these
really selective interviews with great
startup people we filmed it all and
we're going to be showing it on Shelby
and it'll be a project goats calm so
that will like training Chris Hansen
I referred but it was marketing you know
all right good luck with everything I'm
a fan so thank you I'll be watching
google thanks Reese thanks you can find
all these interviews and much much more
of course as seen on TV com
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