6 ms·

Justin.TV is bigger than Hulu...overseas

40 points by jrbedard 18y ago

mustpax 18y ago
Comparing global traffic for Justin.TV and Hulu borders on being idiotic since Hulu is, um let's see, not accessible outside the US. How can TC write a whole article about this and not even mention this pretty pertinent fact? Edit: It's been pointed out that the article does mention that Hulu is only available in the U.S. Sorry, totally missed that. The article still seems trollish though.
- profgubler 18y ago
  I agree they could mention it, but i think they are trying to show a trend. The trend is what is important in this story. It shows live video on the web has an audience. Personally i use justin.tv to watch European cycling races that you can't watch in the US.
- dtap 18y ago
  Of course, Hulu is only available in the U.S., where it is fourth most popular video site
- drusenko 18y ago
  The title is very misleading. It is not saying that Justin.TV outside the US is bigger than Hulu outside the US. The article is saying that Justin.TV (global, including the US) is bigger than Hulu (only available in the US). That is a true statement, even if it is also worth pointing out that Hulu only reaches US consumers, so in percentage terms, it reaches a larger percent of its audience, even though it is smaller on an absolute scale to Justin.TV.
jonknee 18y ago
What about in terms of advertising dollars? That's what matters, otherwise you're just losing cash on unmonetizable streams. I'd wager Hulu is far and away the leader in monetizing their traffic.
andr 18y ago
In other news, TechCrunch has a bigger audience than The Bold and the Beautiful amongst male programmers that do not own a TV.
johnrob 18y ago
Does anyone know how much of that is essentially pirated content? The reason I ask is that I have trouble imagining there are 15 million people watching live streams of random people (i.e. the original stream of Justin's). It's more believable that they watch stuff like sporting events that have no local coverage. I could obviously be wrong though!
- usrsbin 18y ago
  Look at viewer count in the directory. I'd guess 95% illegal or more.
- tomjen 18y ago
  The same can be said for youtube. I doubt that justin.tv have more pirates that youtube.
josefresco 18y ago
http://www.justin.tv/officecam http://www.justin.tv/officecam - thrilling tv
startingup 18y ago
This is a company that I am just very uncomfortable with. Just so much pirated content. If they get anywhere close to popular, they are going to get sued. I hope they have a big war-chest. I know the immediate answer - YouTube. Just because they got rich (Google still doesn't seem to have made money on the deal) doesn't make what they did right. Right and wrong, yeah, I know, very "quaint" notions. After all, Wall Street investment bankers got very rich creating toxic waste and ultimately unloading it on the tax payer. I met a dude recently who was in that line of business, and he said it wasn't like they didn't know what they were doing. They all along knew what the game was, but their attitude was "I am getting mine, so who cares."
rokhayakebe 18y ago
These two are not even in the same business.
zhyder 18y ago
Guys, the main point Erick is making is that live video is significant, not that Justin.tv is kicking Hulu's ass. Despite the title, that's an interesting observation. I for one didn't think live video would be as big. So most of its audience and growth is global, with particular strength in Spain, Brazil, Germany, and the UK. I'm pleasantly surprised Brazil has that much broadband penetration.
- jacoblyles 18y ago
  That's because the lawyers haven't adjusted yet. They go combing the internet for their content after it airs, but by that time its already gone from justin.tv. For that reason, you used to be able to watch MMA events on justin.tv until only a few months ago, but those events have long been scrubbed from youtube, Dailymotion, and the other video services not based in Russia. However, it does seem that the lawyers are catching up. UFC is now blocked on justin.tv, for example.
mynameishere 18y ago
I have a question about justin.tv's architecture. I always avoided the site because I made public denunciations of its stupid name, but I eventually went to it and was shocked by its similarity to blogtv.com I grabbed these randomly: http://www.justin.tv/poshvixxxen http://www.justin.tv/poshvixxxen http://www.blogtv.com/People/whiteboy712 http://www.blogtv.com/People/whiteboy712 There're some obvious similarities here. Did they both just pick off-the-shelf components and host them?
- abstractbill 18y ago
  I can't speak for blog.tv, but I personally wrote the justin.tv video player, chat client, and chat server software. So the answer would be, no ;-)
anthony_barker 18y ago
global is not equal to overseas (hulu is not available from canada or mexico)

40 points by jrbedard 18y ago

Comparing global traffic for Justin.TV and Hulu borders on being idiotic since Hulu is, um let's see, not accessible outside the US. How can TC write a whole article about this and not even mention this pretty pertinent fact? Edit: It's been pointed out that the article does mention that Hulu is only available in the U.S. Sorry, totally missed that. The article still seems trollish though.

profgubler 18y ago
I agree they could mention it, but i think they are trying to show a trend. The trend is what is important in this story. It shows live video on the web has an audience. Personally i use justin.tv to watch European cycling races that you can't watch in the US.
dtap 18y ago
Of course, Hulu is only available in the U.S., where it is fourth most popular video site
drusenko 18y ago
The title is very misleading. It is not saying that Justin.TV outside the US is bigger than Hulu outside the US. The article is saying that Justin.TV (global, including the US) is bigger than Hulu (only available in the US). That is a true statement, even if it is also worth pointing out that Hulu only reaches US consumers, so in percentage terms, it reaches a larger percent of its audience, even though it is smaller on an absolute scale to Justin.TV.

jonknee 18y ago

What about in terms of advertising dollars? That's what matters, otherwise you're just losing cash on unmonetizable streams. I'd wager Hulu is far and away the leader in monetizing their traffic.

andr 18y ago

In other news, TechCrunch has a bigger audience than The Bold and the Beautiful amongst male programmers that do not own a TV.

johnrob 18y ago

Does anyone know how much of that is essentially pirated content? The reason I ask is that I have trouble imagining there are 15 million people watching live streams of random people (i.e. the original stream of Justin's). It's more believable that they watch stuff like sporting events that have no local coverage. I could obviously be wrong though!

usrsbin 18y ago
Look at viewer count in the directory. I'd guess 95% illegal or more.
tomjen 18y ago
The same can be said for youtube. I doubt that justin.tv have more pirates that youtube.

josefresco 18y ago

http://www.justin.tv/officecam http://www.justin.tv/officecam - thrilling tv

startingup 18y ago

This is a company that I am just very uncomfortable with. Just so much pirated content. If they get anywhere close to popular, they are going to get sued. I hope they have a big war-chest. I know the immediate answer - YouTube. Just because they got rich (Google still doesn't seem to have made money on the deal) doesn't make what they did right. Right and wrong, yeah, I know, very "quaint" notions. After all, Wall Street investment bankers got very rich creating toxic waste and ultimately unloading it on the tax payer. I met a dude recently who was in that line of business, and he said it wasn't like they didn't know what they were doing. They all along knew what the game was, but their attitude was "I am getting mine, so who cares."

rokhayakebe 18y ago

These two are not even in the same business.

zhyder 18y ago

Guys, the main point Erick is making is that live video is significant, not that Justin.tv is kicking Hulu's ass. Despite the title, that's an interesting observation. I for one didn't think live video would be as big. So most of its audience and growth is global, with particular strength in Spain, Brazil, Germany, and the UK. I'm pleasantly surprised Brazil has that much broadband penetration.

jacoblyles 18y ago
That's because the lawyers haven't adjusted yet. They go combing the internet for their content after it airs, but by that time its already gone from justin.tv. For that reason, you used to be able to watch MMA events on justin.tv until only a few months ago, but those events have long been scrubbed from youtube, Dailymotion, and the other video services not based in Russia. However, it does seem that the lawyers are catching up. UFC is now blocked on justin.tv, for example.

mynameishere 18y ago

I have a question about justin.tv's architecture. I always avoided the site because I made public denunciations of its stupid name, but I eventually went to it and was shocked by its similarity to blogtv.com I grabbed these randomly: http://www.justin.tv/poshvixxxen http://www.justin.tv/poshvixxxen http://www.blogtv.com/People/whiteboy712 http://www.blogtv.com/People/whiteboy712 There're some obvious similarities here. Did they both just pick off-the-shelf components and host them?

abstractbill 18y ago
I can't speak for blog.tv, but I personally wrote the justin.tv video player, chat client, and chat server software. So the answer would be, no ;-)

anthony_barker 18y ago

global is not equal to overseas (hulu is not available from canada or mexico)