4 ms·

YC Startup Justin.tv hits Alexa 160

37 points by justin 18y ago

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/justin.tv

justin 18y ago
We're also hiring: Ruby engineers: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312684 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312684 Python engineers: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312675 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312675
- felixmar 18y ago
  Hi Justin, could you comment on why you use both Python and Ruby? It seems odd for a small company to use two languages that are very similar.
  - jfarmer 18y ago
    Python for back-end (see: Twisted) and Ruby for front-end (see: Rails), I imagine.
    - abstractbill 18y ago
      Exactly. We use languages more for the libraries they offer, than for any other consideration.
    - webwright 18y ago
      We do the exact same thing at RescueTime, FWIW.
- globalrev 18y ago
  How are you making money? Google ads? Blockbuster movie ads? Are you making money or you only have revenue so far? Do you have any funding besides ycombinator?
  - emmett 18y ago
    We're currently running ads from a couple ad networks, but we're just getting started on monetization projects. We've raised both angel and VC rounds (google for it if you want the amounts and people)
- debt 18y ago
  Yeah, you have lots of pedophiles on your channels. Curb that shit.
  - emmett 18y ago
    We're working on it, believe me.
- foobar2k 18y ago
  I'd not checked out justin.tv since Justin's 24h lifestreaming event ended, but the other day I was round my brother's house (my brother is a non-techy person) and we were talking about the US Open tennis and where we should go to watch it. "Oh I know this great site which has all the sports" he says as he loads up Justin.tv. So basically justin.tv has loads of traffic because it is the hub of illegal sports rebroadcasting. I think the site is great though, so I hope after all the copyright lawyers break down your doors and you are forced to go back to "legitimate" streams only, that your growth is still strong.
  - wensing 18y ago
    This happened to me too when I discovered a relative watching Major League Soccer and then noticed justin.tv in the address bar. I asked him what "PSN" (the logo plastered all over the channel) was all about, and when he didn't know I had to conclude that either: 1) it was illegal or 2) PSN was somehow paying ESPN to re-broadcast MLS games. I guess I was wrong in believing it was #2?
jbyers 18y ago
Any comment on the nature of what looks like a very large recent traffic spike (at least, per Alexa's graph)? What's being watched, who's watching it, any triggering events?
- emmett 18y ago
  Our traffic is spiky, but not as much as the Alexa graph suggests. In reality our growth is much more steady; every now and then Alexa seems to "catch up". It's weird, and we're not sure what would cause that effect.
  - nickb 18y ago
    How close are Alexa traffic estimates to the actual traffic volumes? I've heard from numerous people that Alexa is almost always wrong and wrong by several orders of magnitude. It could be better for big sites, not sure. Just wondering what you guys see..
    - jamesjyu 18y ago
      I've always found quantcast to be much more accurate, although their number for justin.tv looks low: http://www.quantcast.com/justin.tv http://www.quantcast.com/justin.tv
    - emmett 18y ago
      Alexa's numbers are crap. Total crap. They only reflect your traffic in the loosest way. There was a period of time where our traffic doubled and the alexa actually declined. It eventually catches up though....think of a random distribution around the true value. Just so you don't get the idea I'm picking on Alexa, estimating this stuff is hard (or the people doing it are incompetent, but that seems unlikely with so many entrants). Quantcast and Compete.com are even worse, and ComScore is expensive but no better than Alexa.
  - biohacker42 18y ago
    Alexa's totally crazy way of data collection?
loumf 18y ago
Could someone here (who likes it) give a pitch for it?
- lemonysnicket 18y ago
  watch illegal sporting events, tv shows, etc. -- free & live
  - migpwr 18y ago
    it's especially helpful if you're a boxing fan like i am ;-)... I saw a chipin.com widget on there during the last event... to help cover the cost of the broadcast(50$). Worked out pretty well...
mdolon 18y ago
Amazing job guys, congrats
axod 18y ago
Congrats :) Looks like the competition is pretty much nowhere to be seen.
- jacobbijani 18y ago
  http://siteanalytics.compete.com/justin.tv+ustream.tv/?metric=uv http://siteanalytics.compete.com/justin.tv+ustream.tv/?metri...
  - emmett 18y ago
    Since ustream is "quantified" on Quantcast, I know the actual traffic numbers for both sites. And believe me when I say, Compete doesn't even resemble reality.
    - jacobbijani 18y ago
      But alexa does?
      - abstractbill 18y ago
        It's certainly a lot closer.
ryanspahn 18y ago
awesome! congrats ... was a great place to launch
kobs 18y ago
Great job :-)
alex_c 18y ago
Congrats guys! It looks like traffic really started to pick up around March. Did anything drastic happen around then?
- norman 18y ago
  I think that's when they stopped worrying about copyright law and letting people re-broadcast telelvision.
  - colinplamondon 18y ago
    Worked for YouTube.
tlrobinson 18y ago
Anything in particular the recent spike in traffic can be attributed to?
- jacobbijani 18y ago
  alexa being total garbage
  - emmett 18y ago
    Indeed. Our growth doesn't have a big spike at the end, it's just gradually doubling up every month or so.
cmos 18y ago
Please forgive me for being a bit out of it. But I write this as my ignorance might be helpful insight. I thought justin.tv was this site that tracked a guy named Justin 24/7. I seemed to recall him having a camera crew with him all the time, and that was the shtick. I had heard about them from the early days of this group, and I think had read about the camera crew and such on some web site. So when I saw this post, I read through the comments and was confused about the "stop worrying about copyright law" statement. I decided to check it out. Now, looking at the front page, it seemed like either I was completely mistaking justin.tv for another web site, or it has changed it's goals, or the 'follow justin around' was a publicity ploy to get attention, and that indeed could be one of the 'channels' I see on the front page ("create your own channel"). (if the latter is actually correct, kudos to a great ploy as the name stood out to me) Either way, I still didn't really 'get it' from the front page. It looked cool, and I was able to surmise what was going on from all the activity (there was a video of someone playing doom) that it was about video sharing. I finally found the 'about us' section which turns out to be brief bio's of the founders and key employees. And there was a guy named Justin who looked like he might have been the guy who had the 24 hour camera crew with him. But his Bio didn't refer to this. So perhaps I was imagining the whole thing. That's cool. I've done it before. But if not, and the 'follow justin' thing really happened, then at least mention it somewhere so a out of touch lad like me doesn't check himself in somewhere. But I still don't know what makes justin.tv special. It's description is "Justin.tv is the leader in live video and the place to broadcast and share video online." I thought that's what youtube was. So it justin.tv the more hip version of youtube? Or, as I think about this more, is it the word LIVE that separates it from youtube? Are all the feeds 'live'? Like in real time? If so, that should get a bit more attention than some text at the bottom of the page. And so as I review the front page, indeed it looks as though the video on the top could be live. And the video on the bottom are highlights. Aha. Previous recordings. Ok. Now I get it. That's pretty cool. How about we rewrite the description to be "Justin.tv streams LIVE video.". But seriously, it took me a while. Live streams should have an icon in the bottom right that say "LIVE!" that doesn't get into the recording. The concept of 'time' should be more involved in the navigation + searching. The front page should be like TV guide, and I can click on a row, at the 'current time', and see a live recording of that channel. As it plays the TV guide scrolls to the left slowly to mark the passing of time. The length of a show is depicted with width, and I can click anywhere to see the past. And since it's realtime let me sort the channel rows by poularity, ratings etc. Sorry to be out of it. I'm a little surprised it took me so long to get the 'live' part.

37 points by justin 18y ago

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/justin.tv

We're also hiring: Ruby engineers: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312684 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312684 Python engineers: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312675 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=312675

felixmar 18y ago
Hi Justin, could you comment on why you use both Python and Ruby? It seems odd for a small company to use two languages that are very similar.
- jfarmer 18y ago
  Python for back-end (see: Twisted) and Ruby for front-end (see: Rails), I imagine.
  - abstractbill 18y ago
    Exactly. We use languages more for the libraries they offer, than for any other consideration.
  - webwright 18y ago
    We do the exact same thing at RescueTime, FWIW.
globalrev 18y ago
How are you making money? Google ads? Blockbuster movie ads? Are you making money or you only have revenue so far? Do you have any funding besides ycombinator?
- emmett 18y ago
  We're currently running ads from a couple ad networks, but we're just getting started on monetization projects. We've raised both angel and VC rounds (google for it if you want the amounts and people)
debt 18y ago
Yeah, you have lots of pedophiles on your channels. Curb that shit.
- emmett 18y ago
  We're working on it, believe me.
foobar2k 18y ago
I'd not checked out justin.tv since Justin's 24h lifestreaming event ended, but the other day I was round my brother's house (my brother is a non-techy person) and we were talking about the US Open tennis and where we should go to watch it. "Oh I know this great site which has all the sports" he says as he loads up Justin.tv. So basically justin.tv has loads of traffic because it is the hub of illegal sports rebroadcasting. I think the site is great though, so I hope after all the copyright lawyers break down your doors and you are forced to go back to "legitimate" streams only, that your growth is still strong.
- wensing 18y ago
  This happened to me too when I discovered a relative watching Major League Soccer and then noticed justin.tv in the address bar. I asked him what "PSN" (the logo plastered all over the channel) was all about, and when he didn't know I had to conclude that either: 1) it was illegal or 2) PSN was somehow paying ESPN to re-broadcast MLS games. I guess I was wrong in believing it was #2?

jbyers 18y ago

Any comment on the nature of what looks like a very large recent traffic spike (at least, per Alexa's graph)? What's being watched, who's watching it, any triggering events?

emmett 18y ago
Our traffic is spiky, but not as much as the Alexa graph suggests. In reality our growth is much more steady; every now and then Alexa seems to "catch up". It's weird, and we're not sure what would cause that effect.
- nickb 18y ago
  How close are Alexa traffic estimates to the actual traffic volumes? I've heard from numerous people that Alexa is almost always wrong and wrong by several orders of magnitude. It could be better for big sites, not sure. Just wondering what you guys see..
  - jamesjyu 18y ago
    I've always found quantcast to be much more accurate, although their number for justin.tv looks low: http://www.quantcast.com/justin.tv http://www.quantcast.com/justin.tv
  - emmett 18y ago
    Alexa's numbers are crap. Total crap. They only reflect your traffic in the loosest way. There was a period of time where our traffic doubled and the alexa actually declined. It eventually catches up though....think of a random distribution around the true value. Just so you don't get the idea I'm picking on Alexa, estimating this stuff is hard (or the people doing it are incompetent, but that seems unlikely with so many entrants). Quantcast and Compete.com are even worse, and ComScore is expensive but no better than Alexa.
- biohacker42 18y ago
  Alexa's totally crazy way of data collection?

loumf 18y ago

Could someone here (who likes it) give a pitch for it?

lemonysnicket 18y ago
watch illegal sporting events, tv shows, etc. -- free & live
- migpwr 18y ago
  it's especially helpful if you're a boxing fan like i am ;-)... I saw a chipin.com widget on there during the last event... to help cover the cost of the broadcast(50$). Worked out pretty well...

mdolon 18y ago

Amazing job guys, congrats

axod 18y ago

Congrats :) Looks like the competition is pretty much nowhere to be seen.

jacobbijani 18y ago
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/justin.tv+ustream.tv/?metric=uv http://siteanalytics.compete.com/justin.tv+ustream.tv/?metri...
- emmett 18y ago
  Since ustream is "quantified" on Quantcast, I know the actual traffic numbers for both sites. And believe me when I say, Compete doesn't even resemble reality.
  - jacobbijani 18y ago
    But alexa does?
    - abstractbill 18y ago
      It's certainly a lot closer.

ryanspahn 18y ago

awesome! congrats ... was a great place to launch

kobs 18y ago

Great job :-)

alex_c 18y ago

Congrats guys! It looks like traffic really started to pick up around March. Did anything drastic happen around then?

norman 18y ago
I think that's when they stopped worrying about copyright law and letting people re-broadcast telelvision.
- colinplamondon 18y ago
  Worked for YouTube.

tlrobinson 18y ago

Anything in particular the recent spike in traffic can be attributed to?

jacobbijani 18y ago
alexa being total garbage
- emmett 18y ago
  Indeed. Our growth doesn't have a big spike at the end, it's just gradually doubling up every month or so.

cmos 18y ago

Please forgive me for being a bit out of it. But I write this as my ignorance might be helpful insight. I thought justin.tv was this site that tracked a guy named Justin 24/7. I seemed to recall him having a camera crew with him all the time, and that was the shtick. I had heard about them from the early days of this group, and I think had read about the camera crew and such on some web site. So when I saw this post, I read through the comments and was confused about the "stop worrying about copyright law" statement. I decided to check it out. Now, looking at the front page, it seemed like either I was completely mistaking justin.tv for another web site, or it has changed it's goals, or the 'follow justin around' was a publicity ploy to get attention, and that indeed could be one of the 'channels' I see on the front page ("create your own channel"). (if the latter is actually correct, kudos to a great ploy as the name stood out to me) Either way, I still didn't really 'get it' from the front page. It looked cool, and I was able to surmise what was going on from all the activity (there was a video of someone playing doom) that it was about video sharing. I finally found the 'about us' section which turns out to be brief bio's of the founders and key employees. And there was a guy named Justin who looked like he might have been the guy who had the 24 hour camera crew with him. But his Bio didn't refer to this. So perhaps I was imagining the whole thing. That's cool. I've done it before. But if not, and the 'follow justin' thing really happened, then at least mention it somewhere so a out of touch lad like me doesn't check himself in somewhere. But I still don't know what makes justin.tv special. It's description is "Justin.tv is the leader in live video and the place to broadcast and share video online." I thought that's what youtube was. So it justin.tv the more hip version of youtube? Or, as I think about this more, is it the word LIVE that separates it from youtube? Are all the feeds 'live'? Like in real time? If so, that should get a bit more attention than some text at the bottom of the page. And so as I review the front page, indeed it looks as though the video on the top could be live. And the video on the bottom are highlights. Aha. Previous recordings. Ok. Now I get it. That's pretty cool. How about we rewrite the description to be "Justin.tv streams LIVE video.". But seriously, it took me a while. Live streams should have an icon in the bottom right that say "LIVE!" that doesn't get into the recording. The concept of 'time' should be more involved in the navigation + searching. The front page should be like TV guide, and I can click on a row, at the 'current time', and see a live recording of that channel. As it plays the TV guide scrolls to the left slowly to mark the passing of time. The length of a show is depicted with width, and I can click anywhere to see the past. And since it's realtime let me sort the channel rows by poularity, ratings etc. Sorry to be out of it. I'm a little surprised it took me so long to get the 'live' part.