VentureBeat

While many an entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley imagine their start-ups replacing established media companies, fast-growing mobile video startup MyWaves is instead working with the big companies.

Today, for example, it is announcing a deal with MTV, where MTV will — for the first time in its history — license its content to a third party mobile site that is not related to a carrier.

MTV will also sell advertising on the MyWaves site and the two companies will split revenue from any sale either company makes for ads that appear on MyWave’s MTV content.

Yes, all this is happening even as MTV’s parent company, Viacom, continues to try to sue Google’s YouTube for $1 billion in damages, due to YouTube publishing copyright-infringing clips of Viacom-owned videos. More context: Viacom is so serious about hording its content that it’s even refusing to work with Hulu, the online video startup supported by Fox and other large media companies that is publishing these companies’ premium content, hoping to make it profitable on the web.

Previously to this MyWaves deal, if mobile users wanted to watch an MTV video they would have to pay a carrier a flat monthly fee to access it. (Note: Sprint, my former carrier, offered this service, and I stopped checking it out as soon as I hit the paywall.)

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based MyWaves’ advertising services will allow it, and MTV, to sell ads based on user demographics, such as country location. On the one hand, MTV works with a large number of major advertisers, on the other hand, MyWaves works with a lot of companies experimenting in mobile advertising. For example, Microsoft is running an ad campaign on MyWaves, advertising Office to MyWave’s users in India. The revenue-share agreement isn’t disclosed, chief executive Rajeev Raman tells me, except that revenue is split in part based on which partner made the sale.

One big issue with video distribution — both online and mobile — is that they have yet to become profitable businesses. The mobile advertising market is worth $100 million in its entirety, Raman estimates, and that’s not just video, its also text message and voice advertising, and other formats. That number won’t get most investors excited at the moment, but mobile web services are growing fast, and new forms of advertising are being developed. For example, Raman says that on MyWaves, users don’t mind 15-second ads that play before a video (pre-roll ads, in industry lingo), even though they dislike pre-rolls on web videos: The reason is that any user who’s willing to use their mobile device to watch a video is willing to put up with the 15-second hassle to watch the video for free.

Meanwhile, advertisers want to have their products paired with professional content because they know what it will be, whereas they don’t want to be paired with user-generated content (as seen on YouTube) because it may not be up to the quality and taste of the advertiser’s brand.

In fact, high-quality content has already led to MyWaves seeing a sharp spike in traffic: The site had more than five million unique visitors last December and has been growing at a monthly rate of 15 to 20 percent since then, Raman says. The average MyWaves users comeback seven times a month, watches five clips and stays on the site 19 minutes, he claims.

So MyWaves seems to be doing well by working with content-creating companies — stay tuned for a post later today that explores how this strategy has been implemented.

Leading video-sharing web site YouTube may have just launched a new mobile web version of its site, but startup mobile video site Mywaves doesn’t seem to care, because its growing fast around the world.

Mywaves launched towards the end of 2006, and is now getting around five million unique visitors a month, with the average user spending 24 minutes per session. A total of 18 million phones have been used to watch videos on Mywaves, it claims.

The Sunnyvale, Calif. company offers both a mobile-compatible web site and a mobile download application that lets you watch user-submitted videos, or watch professional videos provided by partners like Fox, CBS and other big media companies. The site includes user profiles, email and text messaging, a way to rate videos, and a channel for your favorite videos. It uses demographic information about users to serve them relevant videos, based on where they are in the world.

It has just released versions mobile download application for Palm Treo 680, 700p, 755p, Palm Centro and BlackBerry Pearl 8130. Windows Mobile compatibility is slated to be introduced later this year. It otherwise works on 3G, EDGE, BREW and EV-DO carriers, and other most video-capable mobile phones,

It has received funding from here).

Updated

Mywaves, the Sunnyvale start-up that lets people view video clips on their mobile phone, is offering a new way to search for videos.

Update: It is looking for employees. See VentureBeat JobBoard entries here and here.

(Updated with substantial clarifications from Juice co-founder Nick Desai)

Juice Wireless, the New York mobile video-sharing start-up, is still on hunt for financing, raising questions about its prospects amid a retrenchment hitting the video sharing industry in the new year.

Juice is raising a roughly $3.5 million round of financing, now calling it a “bridge” to raise even more capital — in recognition that competition has raised the stakes, and will require more resources.

A month ago, the company told GigaOm it was wrapping up the funding, but VentureWire reports today (sub required) it is still in the process of doing that. Moreover, even after soaking up $5.5 million in previous funding, and raising this next $3.5 million, Juice now plans to raise an additional $7.5 to $12.5 million.

Even after the gigantic success of YouTube (sold to Google for $1.65 billion), it isn’t clear just how these video companies will make money. Some even question whether YouTube would have survived without Google. Granted, video-sharing on the mobile phone, where Juice is more active, is a somewhat different market, but YouTube and others are already expanding there. It isn’t clear how Juice Wireless’ product, JuiceCaster is doing. It also isn’t clear whether its delay in raising venture capital is due to the lack of takers, or a search for venture backers willing to give it money on better terms.

Casualties are mounting. Last month, Mojungle, a site that lets you deliver photos and video to blogs and web sites from your mobile phones, listed itself on ebay for $60,000 (scroll down). It let users deliver video via SMS, MMS and email, but that wasn’t enough to lift it above all the competitors doing similar things (Shozu, Veeker, Mywaves, etc).

Guba, a San Francisco video-sharing start-up that bootstrapped itself and so doesn’t need to answer to investors, has hit rocky times too — even after signing several deals with Hollywood and boasting 300,000 subscribers paying $15 a month. Chief executive Tom McInerney (pictured left) has just stepped down, with the astonishing admission: “I think we can all acknowledge that YouTube has won the big prize….Guba is at a crossroads, and we’re deciding whether to look for funding or to sell. I think we’re inclined to sell.” He said other execs might follow his exit as the company figures out its future. “The billion-dollar opportunity has kind of passed,” McInerney said. “(The executives) are bright, and they’re interested in going for the gold.”

Just a few days ago, we reported the departures of two co-founders of Revver, another video competitor.

As for Juice, the company now says the $3.5 million round will close in late January and will come mainly from existing backer and angel investor group 21Ventures. The continued announcements suggest the company is fishing for other investors (a very public approach, when compared to YouTube’s secretive fund-raising).

21 Ventures’ David Anthony said Juice Wireless has signed deal with AOL in the U.K. and Cricket Communications in the U.S., and has a number of deals with other carriers being finalized, according to VentureWire.

[Update: Co-founder Nick Desai tells VentureBeat that VentureWire's reporting was misleading, and that David Anthony did not say -- or at least did not intend to say -- that the $3.5 million round would be raised by the end of this month. It will close this week, and was easy to raise, Desai said. Moreover, he said Juice is attempting to raise as little capital as possible each time, to be efficient. The $3.5 million will last through most of 2007, he said, and the additional round of capital will only be raised if the company can not find a buyer sometime this year. By raising less cash, Juice can ensure its primary investors a solid return, he said. He said 21 Ventures' Anthony referred to the additional financing in response to a question from VentureWire about what Juice will do if it takes longer than expected to find a buyer. Finally, Desai said he concurs there' s retrenchment underway in video sharing, but that Juice considers itself in a different industry, letting people upload photos and videos to their channel on Juice, but also to friends and other sites. Juice does not seek to be a destination site.]

Mywaves, a Sunnyvale start-up that delivers video to your mobile phone, launched in September, but we didn’t give it much coverage.

Mywaves has since grown quickly, however, and now is boasting one of the largest mobile video services.

Large, at least, when compared with YouTube’s mobile offering, which is selecting on high-quality specific videos for you to see on your mobile phone, or with MobiTV, which is cutting deals to deliver mobile TV programming. Mywaves is free, the others aren’t. The downside is, it doesn’t have premium movies or programming offered by MobiTV, which has negotiated the rights to that content. Mywaves is betting that most users will • like YouTube users • be more interested in shorter, free, user-generated videos. It plans to make all videos anywhere on the web available for view.

There are other services, such as Eyespot and Radar, which let you share video clips on your mobile phone, but they aren’t focused on delivering comprehensive web video content to your phone.

Mywaves is delivering the video to your phone over regular cellular networks, which isn’t trivial. There is a slight buffering time before the videos start playing, but not intolerably long.

Specifically, Mywaves says it is adding between 15,000 to 20,000 users a week, and now has about 100,000 users.

VentureBeat tried out the service, and it is user-friendly. You register by providing your mobile number, and your email, and then you can choose to browse various videos from default channels, such sports or comedy. It is not compatible with some phones, such as the Treo. You can upload videos, and create your own “channel” and then share that channel with friends. Users across Mywaves rate and comment on all videos. Mywaves gives you the option of showing favorites or most recent in the various channels.

So far, Mywaves says it has 10,000 channels • many of those created by individuals who open their channels for sharing (there is a private option, or semi-private option for sharing with certain friends). It does carry some branded sources, such as ESPN, and “Ask a Ninja”

It plans to make money by rolling out advertising, some time in 2007. It has already built the advertising technology • it plans to show advertising to users based on their known preferences, such as geography and tastes. It is also serving videos for companies like Nike, Puma and Adidas, and hopes to make money from those companies.

We last wrote about the company here. Chief executive Rajeev Ramen says it has 17 employees, he boasts some high-profile recent hires, including Scirocco Six, former lead architect of Napster, and former VP of marketing for TiVo (Susan Cashen) and VP of sales for Danger (Brian MacDonald).

It has a web interface, where you can choose and rate channels. See screenshot below.

MyWaves, a Sunnyvale start-up that lets you shoot video with your mobile and email it to an online account where others can see it, has raised $6 million from Menlo Ventures.

VentureBeat may write more about this company next week, but for now, we point to their latest gimmick: Pitch your start-up idea to a panel of high-profile venture capitalists in a competition than runs through Feb. 15. The winning entrepreneurs will be flown to Silicon Valley to present their business plans to partners from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. The winning plan is guaranteed 6 months of free office rent startup incubation facility Plug&Play. There are lots of these competitions happening all over the place, but time is short. CRV limited pitches to 60 seconds. MyWaves is limiting it to 30 seconds.

Your mobile phone obviously has to be video-enabled, and you’ll have to download the MyWaves software. MyWaves has plenty of competition these days, Juicecaster, Veeker and Eyespot to name just a few.