Joost (almost) Launches

Updated: It won’t be for another few days before anyone can join Joost, but the company has officially announced that it is launching commercially. Starting today, existing beta testers can now invite anyone to join Joost. Beta testers visit the “Invite Friends” widget in the “My Joost” area, and will be able to invite anyone they know to the Joost community. Both new and existing users can download a new version of Joost today.

Joost is the latest start-up by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, who had previously started Kazaa and Skype. Joost, earlier known as The Venice Project, is based on the same core P2P technology. However, the big picture of Joost is that it will lead to the development of highly personal TV channels. (Joost:It’s the meta data stupid.)

In an interview this morning, Yvette Alberdingkthijm, Joost’s EVP, Content Strategy & Acquisition told us that by the end of May 2007, Joost will be available to everyone.

She also pointed out that most of the content on the network is currently in English — the US and UK are the top two sources of Joost traffic. Canada, Asia and Western Europe are next. Joost currently has over 100,000 beta testers. (Joost executives said, 100’s of thousands, which typically means 100,000. Chalk that to hearing same line from different companies for about a decade now.)

Alberdingkthijm expects the company to have millions of users, though I think it is easier said than done. There are some practical limitations – the number of people with really high speed connections and the latest laptops/computers is a finite one. In fact, most of the true broadband countries — Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, South Korea and Japan — are non-English speaking nations, and Joost will have to boost its content offering for those nations before getting to the millions-of-users-mark.

The company is looking to add more content and plans to grow in these non-English speaking countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Though English-speaking viewers are also getting more content as well.

The latest to join the Joost party is Turner Broadcasting, so now you can watch Sports Illustrated Swimsuit videos anytime you want. Ice hockey fans can also watch NHL games, while there are plans to add CNN to the Joost mix.

Last week, Joost announced that it had signed more than 30 blue-chip brands, including The Coca-Cola Company, HP, Intel and Nike, as advertising launch partners. Of these 30, 20 are US only advertisers and 4 are international advertisers. These ads will start showing up on the platform starting today, though won’t be in full display till end of May 2007.

78 comments

Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. Read More

78 thoughts on this post

  1. Om, how do you define a true broadband country? I think UK has more boradband subscribers than dialup now. So 50%? 60% 70%??

  2. Any country where 256 kbps or 384 kbps isn’t sold as broadband, and nearly 25% people are using connections that are faster than 6 megabits per second. That would be my definition.

    I think true broadband leaders are the ones where 25-50 megabits per second is standard.

  7. Hello Om,
    If it is possible, could you please send me an invite?

    Thank you!

    (P.S. Should I have included my email address in this comment or can you see the one that I used to post this comment?)

  10. Would also very much appreciate an invite. Thank you in advance.

    dave [dot] winfield [at] gmail [dot] com

  11. Hello,

    Could you please send me an invite ?
    Thank you very much

    ccc01 at hotmail.fr

  13. Om,
    Can you give us any idea of when they will open this up to indie filmmakers, as Joost would be a great transport for our show.

  15. Hi
    Read the article and it aroused my curiosity. I have never written an comment to a blogg before but now my desire for an joost invite has deflowered me. I am no longer a blogg comment virgin.

    Om, if You could pleeeeease send me an invite I would be really happy.

    Oh by the way, great article. I do want to raise a point concerning the content to non-english speaking contries. In sweden, most young people (younger than 40 and older than 10) speak good english. Swedes tend to be very confortable with english only content. The only obstacle is what the content is about. It does not appeal to us to see commercials about products and services only sold in the states. The only exeption is movies, tv shows and music since we download that from the net anyway. Why wait two years before it reaches our local tv stations.

    Best regards from an ex blogg comment virgin

  18. Definitely one for me would be much appreciated. joeshmoeypeter (AT) yahoo. Thanks Om!

  19. I have access to Joost, but the service itself seems to be down. It won’t boot up because of an error. I will also send out invites when the service comes back up.

  20. Hi Amit Chowdhry,
    when the service comes back up will you be able to send me an invite, and also, will I be able to send out invites to anyone as soon as I get an account?

    Thanks!

  24. If anyone has an extra invite, please send it to veytsel at gmail dot com.

  25. Hi,
    I would like to be invited if you have any left!

    Here is my email:

    popopenacanofspamandeatit[AT]gmail[DOT]com

    Thx!

  27. could you please send an invitation to me as well?
    my address is

    tural16 att yahoo dott com

    thanks in advance…

  28. I know I’m not the fastest to reply but I’d be very happy about an invitation, too.

    toeb /at/ gmx.net

  30. I just saw (20 – 30 minutes ago?) on Reuters that Joost added 2 more content partners. I think that it may have said Sony and Turner?

  32. I hate to sound like ‘one of the crowd’ but I would be gratefully appreciative of an invite too!

    matt.harwood [at] yahoo.co.uk

    Thanks in advance to whoever sends one! 🙂

  37. I only 5 invites, and I have given them all away. Are more coming? I have tons of requests. Later,

    Mark

  39. I’m an olde guy 67. I would like to be young and cutting edge again. I don’t do much w/ computer except email and google. But I love to explore stuff in the wee hours of the morning. I would love to have a whack at joost if somebody would let me have an invite….tks; dorr

  41. Guys,

    If you are looking for invites, by 11 am I should have something all organized for you – it be relatively simple and we should all have as many invites as we need –

  44. May I too have an invitation for Joost please?? Thanks for the initiative OM.

  45. Untill now I was actually pretty satisfied with Dataone’s 256kbps. But now I want 1 mpbs 🙁
    Anyway, if anyone is looking for invites – I am giving them away at my blog.

  48. I would love an invite if that’s at all possible.

    Many thanks in advance,
    DL

    david [dot] lerman [at] gmail [dot] com

  50. Hey,

    If you want an invite mail me at

    andy (dot) scott12 (at) gmail.com (dot) com

    cheers

    Andy

  52. hi!

    i know i’m late, but if there’s a possibility to get an invitation i really would be very pleased.
    michael|dot|brantner|at|gmail|dot|com

    michael

  57. I know you’ve gotten so inundated, but could you please send me an invite?

    Thanks so much!!! I’m a big fan!!

    PS. What happened to your podcast? I dont get updated anymore. did you change the link?

  73. Hey There, if still available an invite to joost would be excellent, Many thanks. isn’t technology great. Ali