Photobucket Launches Real-Time Video Uploader, Nears Exit

Bilal Hameed | 5 Views

Photobucket has launched a real time video uploader. The uploader allows Windows users to instantly upload clips using the drag and drop functionality and share the moment it is uploaded without any time lag. This is really a great achievement and will spur growth as there is nothing that users love more than “instant gratification”. Users could also trim and slice the beginning and end of videos before uploading and upload directly from the webcam using their new real-time encoding client.

Another new enhancement is Remixing. Users can now mashup any videos or photos from their album, add captions, bubbles and party favors like hats, noses and eyeballs. Photobucket initially has 500 songs in there collection and a selection of videos to remix from.

A whole day hasn’t passed since we reviewed Fliptrack, a service that lets you make slideshows synced with music, and we have competition. I mentioned in the Fliptrack review that any existing service could easily add this feature to squash fliptrack and it has been accomplished already. Sometimes I wonder how fast this strange world of internet moves.

Another news related to Photobucket is their stats. Photobucket has 36 million registered users and is adding 85,000 by the day. At this rate it will have 60 million users by year end. 300,000 unique websites link back to Photobucket, in a nutshell they are kicking ass. Fortune has also taken note of Photobucket and there are speculations that the company is in acquisition talks with a number of interested parties for a valuation of around $300-$400 million or more.

Photobucket´s success is yet another case study in favor of the argument that any service that positions itself as a platform/infrastructure for existing services has a huge potential of success. Instead of competing with Flickr, Zoomr and the likes Photobucket became a photo host for social networking sites like MySpace, Bebo, Facebook etc. For those who are reading there are lessons to be learned here.

While you are at it also see how Tailrank has switched strategy and has now positioned itself as a platform and infrastructure for others to build upon.

Photobucket Upload Menu