Oggi ho ricevuto una email dallo staff di DivX.com, che riporto di seguito.
In pratica mi informano (in quanto utente registrato) che dal 28 febbraio il loro servizio Stage6 cesserà definitivamente.
Di fatto gli upload sono già stati bloccati e fino alla data sopra indicata saranno consentiti solo la visualizzazione e i download.
Giustamente fanno notare come ultimamente ci sia stato il boom di questo ed altri siti che pubblicano video, anche ad alta definizione, e che questo ha richiesto da parte loro di focalizzare le risorse sui principali obiettivi di business, quali il consentire l'acccesso a video ad alta qualità su qualsiasi tipo di dispositivo.
Sarà, ma come spiegazione non mi convince troppo....
Chiudono un servizio perchè va troppo bene e richiede troppe risorse per la gestione?
Un servizio destinato ai creatori di video e a chi voleva godere di una "video experience", ma che nemmeno tanto velatamente intendeva fare concorrenza a piattaforme come YouTube?
Secondo me invece non sono stati in grado di monetizzarlo a dovere.
Probabilmente era lecito da parte loro tentare, ma i mezzi non erano certamente quelli della concorrenza.
IMHO, a sfavore di Stage6 ha giocato il fatto che i contenuti si basano su un formato proprietario (a differenza delle altre piattaforme di video sharing) e che DivX.com di gratuito fornisce solo il lettore di questo formato (il software per la creazione è a pagamento).
Forse con una strategia di marketing che avesse favorito la creazione e la diffusione del formato Divx, chissà....forse in questo momento starei scrivendo un altro post.
E' un dato di fatto che questo formato abbia avuto i suoi momenti di gloria PRIMA che i masterizzatori di DVD (e relativi software di masterizzazione) si diffondessero tra l'utenza di massa.
Oggi non so quanto abbia ancora senso creare video in un formato nato per comprimere video e audio (con relativa perdita di qualità).
Che il DivX sia al tramonto?
| I'm Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc., the company behind the service. I'm writing this message today to inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you'll be able to view and download videos until Thursday. I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I'd like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision. We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed. In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it's possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC. So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it's really as simple as that. Now, why didn't we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the first place, you may ask? That's a good question. When we first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true high-quality video experience online because other video destinations on the Internet simply weren't providing that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it. As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an explosion of other sites delivering high-quality video), it became clear that operating the service as a part of the larger DivX business no longer made sense. We couldn't continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high-quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down. I won't (and can't, really) go into too much detail on those first two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service. So that's where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to deliver high-quality video to a wide audience, and we'll continue to offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the DivX format. It's been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6 everything that it was. --Tom |
link: http://www.stage6.com/, http://www.divx.com/
