So it finally happened – the video site Bubblare.se has sold part of their company to Eniro. Anyone following the current web affairs in Sweden saw this coming a mile off.
As Jonas from LK9 points out, this doesn’t make it the right decision. Bubblare.se have had a lot of media hype, living well off the recent sale of YouTube. For journalists out of the loop, the easiest way to find the next big thing is to find the same thing, locally. But Bubblare.se is not YouTube.
Eniro had no video presence up until now. The interesting question is not why they bought Bubblare.se, but why they weren’t in the market already. And even if they missed the first train (intentionally or not), it’s far from too late to enter it now.
Video is here to stay. You just have to present it in a different way, or add on features that will enhance the experience. Revenue sharing, like Revver or Metacafe for instance. It’s just a matter of time before it’s implemented on a few of the larger sites. Add on innovation and leverage the current Eniro traffic and you’ll have a nice little video site of your own.
Buying hyped up sites like this when you’re a major player like Eniro is playing it safe. Perhaps it’s a Swedish thing – I just wish more companies went for their own projects instead of anxiously looking at the others.
Update: The exact figure is 48,1% with an option to buy the rest within 24 months. And here’s tons of interesting ways to use videos other than just playing them.