For those unfamiliar with "Wallstrip," it has been the "pop culture meets stock culture" (as described by the site) video site that examined "hot" stocks and attempted to provide a down-to-earth explanation of why they were so hot.
What makes this story significant is that "Wallstrip" was one of, if not the first, online video original-production success story. Launched in 2006 with little more than some industry buzz and promotion by noteworthy financial and technology bloggers and about $500,000 in funding, it was acquired less than a year later for a rumored $5 million by CBS Interactive. See my first post, dated March 31, about it here.
There's been little released about why "Wallstrip" is being shuttered, but clearly difficulty in monetizing a site about hot stocks during the worst stock market since the Great Depression was the major reason.
While this is disappointing, we can probably learn a few good lessons from the "Wallstrip" story. CBS probably agrees, as they plan to use the “Wallstrip model” for their BNet property.
What is the “secret” of Wallstrip? In short, it "got it," at least from a viewer perspective. The creators took a fun, educational approach to what is a difficult to understand or even boring topic and built a following among a coveted audience (higher income financial enthusiasts). Episodes were relatively short, averaging 3-4 minutes at most, always entertaining, and came out three times a week due to the low production costs involved. Finally, users were kept engaged long after the clip ended with discussion boards and voting tools.
Why did it prove to be so difficult to monetize Wallstrip? The economic environment has no doubt been a factor -- perhaps the biggest one. Traffic has had to be a factor, too. According to Quantcast, "Wallstrip" only reached 14,000 users a month at its peak. Finally, advertising didn't seem to be the biggest focus -- original content was -- and this was compounded by the fact that repurposed content ala Hulu is still an advertiser medium of choice.
I very much hope that Wallstrip’s demise doesn't dampen the enthusiasm from other niche web video producers!
Cybercast credit: YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment