5 ms·

The Many Pivots of Justin.tv

112 points by ryanb 14y ago

Gring 14y ago
"Many"? Article only mentions 2: from life broadcasting to web broadcasting, then to twitchtv (specialized game broadcasting).
- ryanb 14y ago
  If you count Socialcam and Exec as pivots of some sort, that makes it at least 4.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - kanamekun 14y ago
    I thought Exec was a separate company?
- corin_ 14y ago
  Calendar -> Self-streaming -> Streaming site for others -> esports (Twitch)
- timr 14y ago
  There were a huge number of smaller pivots that didn't make the article. They didn't go into the period where JTV had its own internet talk show, for example. There was also a ton of strategic pivoting behind the scenes concerning the business model and revenue -- but that's not the sort of thing that's going to make a FastCompany article. The most amazing thing about JTV is that everyone just kept going, even when the circumstances made you want to roll over. Twitch and SocialCam are an object lesson in tenacity.
  - justin 14y ago
    We had a lot of ideas / pivots that were released or almost released and never made it: leaving video messages for your friends on Facebook (when the first platform came out in '07), a live streaming API, a gaming site for live video streams (yes, we actually pivoted to TwitchTV twice), CamTweet (a way for you to share live video on Twitter), and more that I probably can't remember. As Tim noted, props are due to the JTV team, who stuck around and kept building things where reasons to continue were scant, which was often.
- Gring 14y ago
  Moderators should note that I'm commenting on a disparity between the article contents and its title. If you know that there are more pivots that's all fine and dandy, but the article only mentions 2 and that's not enough not warrant the "many" in the title, imho.
  - corin_ 14y ago
    It mentions the three I commented about, or three and a half if you include SocialCam.
    - Gring 14y ago
      Good point, I missed the calendar app.
iag 14y ago
Props to Justin. This guy carries himself like a true startup veteran despite being only 28 years old. He has a level of tenacity that will make him succeed 9/10 times regardless of the idea, that's what differentiates Justin from rest of the wantrapreneurs.
- ryanb 14y ago
  Startup stories where things don't go as planned but the founders find a way to persevere anyway (like Justin.TV) are way more inspiring to me as an entrepreneur than the overnight successes of companies like Instagram, etc.
  - Domenic_S 14y ago
    Meh, I don't know that I'd call Instagram an overnight success. It was Burbn pre-pivot. A lot of people think Pinterest was an overnight success, too. Know how long they've been around? Edit: That comment sounded snarkier than I meant it to. I guess in relative terms, Instagram is an overnight success when compared to Justin.tv.
    - fufulabs 14y ago
      Kevin Systrom interned at a couple of high profile startup pre-Burbn too. Pinterest had a product called Tote before Pinterest so theres a not insignificant time of preconditioning there too.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
6ren 14y ago
So that's where those starcraft posts reaching the reddit frontpage are coming from... they do seem to have gotten into something big. I'm surprised that YouTube isn't already the "instagram of social video". I guess it just shows there's opportunity everywhere.
- JacobAldridge 14y ago
  Does YouTube have any real time abilities? (Genuinely don't know). Photos are a snapshot of the past, but the time between shooting and sharing can be seconds; videos that aren't streamed in real time can't be shared until they have finished - so any video is therefore at least as old as it is long.
linguaphobe 14y ago
The article seems to imply that Justin was the first to do "lifecasting". But Jenni and Ana preceded him by almost 10 years: http://www.jennicam.com/ http://www.jennicam.com/ , http://www.anacam.com/ http://www.anacam.com/
- Alex3917 14y ago
  Jennicam was only in her bedroom, so I'm not sure whether it's really fair to call that lifecasting.
cheatercheater 14y ago
TL;DR: 1. Justin.tv started as a lifecasting experiment. You could see the guy take a piss and sleep and stuff. 2. they started selling it to others. Soon enough, someone hacked it to rebroadcast pay tv (especially sports) 3. they decided it ain't worth it and started closing up shop, but then figured out they could use it to broadcast Starcraft games. Why did I have to read fifty pages for this amount of actual content?

112 points by ryanb 14y ago

Gring 14y ago

"Many"? Article only mentions 2: from life broadcasting to web broadcasting, then to twitchtv (specialized game broadcasting).

ryanb 14y ago
If you count Socialcam and Exec as pivots of some sort, that makes it at least 4.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- kanamekun 14y ago
  I thought Exec was a separate company?
corin_ 14y ago
Calendar -> Self-streaming -> Streaming site for others -> esports (Twitch)
timr 14y ago
There were a huge number of smaller pivots that didn't make the article. They didn't go into the period where JTV had its own internet talk show, for example. There was also a ton of strategic pivoting behind the scenes concerning the business model and revenue -- but that's not the sort of thing that's going to make a FastCompany article. The most amazing thing about JTV is that everyone just kept going, even when the circumstances made you want to roll over. Twitch and SocialCam are an object lesson in tenacity.
- justin 14y ago
  We had a lot of ideas / pivots that were released or almost released and never made it: leaving video messages for your friends on Facebook (when the first platform came out in '07), a live streaming API, a gaming site for live video streams (yes, we actually pivoted to TwitchTV twice), CamTweet (a way for you to share live video on Twitter), and more that I probably can't remember. As Tim noted, props are due to the JTV team, who stuck around and kept building things where reasons to continue were scant, which was often.
Gring 14y ago
Moderators should note that I'm commenting on a disparity between the article contents and its title. If you know that there are more pivots that's all fine and dandy, but the article only mentions 2 and that's not enough not warrant the "many" in the title, imho.
- corin_ 14y ago
  It mentions the three I commented about, or three and a half if you include SocialCam.
  - Gring 14y ago
    Good point, I missed the calendar app.

iag 14y ago

Props to Justin. This guy carries himself like a true startup veteran despite being only 28 years old. He has a level of tenacity that will make him succeed 9/10 times regardless of the idea, that's what differentiates Justin from rest of the wantrapreneurs.

ryanb 14y ago
Startup stories where things don't go as planned but the founders find a way to persevere anyway (like Justin.TV) are way more inspiring to me as an entrepreneur than the overnight successes of companies like Instagram, etc.
- Domenic_S 14y ago
  Meh, I don't know that I'd call Instagram an overnight success. It was Burbn pre-pivot. A lot of people think Pinterest was an overnight success, too. Know how long they've been around? Edit: That comment sounded snarkier than I meant it to. I guess in relative terms, Instagram is an overnight success when compared to Justin.tv.
  - fufulabs 14y ago
    Kevin Systrom interned at a couple of high profile startup pre-Burbn too. Pinterest had a product called Tote before Pinterest so theres a not insignificant time of preconditioning there too.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

6ren 14y ago

So that's where those starcraft posts reaching the reddit frontpage are coming from... they do seem to have gotten into something big. I'm surprised that YouTube isn't already the "instagram of social video". I guess it just shows there's opportunity everywhere.

JacobAldridge 14y ago
Does YouTube have any real time abilities? (Genuinely don't know). Photos are a snapshot of the past, but the time between shooting and sharing can be seconds; videos that aren't streamed in real time can't be shared until they have finished - so any video is therefore at least as old as it is long.

linguaphobe 14y ago

The article seems to imply that Justin was the first to do "lifecasting". But Jenni and Ana preceded him by almost 10 years: http://www.jennicam.com/ http://www.jennicam.com/ , http://www.anacam.com/ http://www.anacam.com/

Alex3917 14y ago
Jennicam was only in her bedroom, so I'm not sure whether it's really fair to call that lifecasting.

cheatercheater 14y ago

TL;DR: 1. Justin.tv started as a lifecasting experiment. You could see the guy take a piss and sleep and stuff. 2. they started selling it to others. Soon enough, someone hacked it to rebroadcast pay tv (especially sports) 3. they decided it ain't worth it and started closing up shop, but then figured out they could use it to broadcast Starcraft games. Why did I have to read fifty pages for this amount of actual content?