Ad-Supported Services at Gnip, Brightcove Shutting Down - Low eCPM

Gnip Says XMPP Ecosytem Too Half-Baked, Pulls the Plug

There's no more riding through the transit station on roller blades - the rental shops aren't keeping them in good enough repair. That could be an analogy for a decision announced today by Gnip, a startup aiming to become the ultimate ping server for social media.

XMPP/Jabber, the Open Source real-time communication protocol popularized by Instant Messaging that many have hoped would serve as foundation for a real-time web of the future, has become too much trouble to support and will no longer be a supported protocol at Gnip. More than just one protocol, it's a story of long tail developer communities and the ambitious startups forced to make resource decisions.

Gnip founder Eric Marcoullier told us that the company really wants to support XMPP but that it's taking up an inordinate amount of support time, in many cases just because data consumers are using Google Talk or Jabber.org servers and are being throttled...

Video Site Brightcove Shuts Down Free Services

Brightcove was once considered to be a formidable challenger for YouTube. However, just about a year ago, it became clear that the company had given up on this dream when it announced that it would no longer accept direct consumer uploads to its service. Since then, Brightcove only featured content from its roughly 40,000 publishing partners on the Brightcove Network, though its main business has been its white-label video platform. Today, Brightcove announced that it will also close the free Brightcove Network and completely focus on its premium services.

Not Enough Revenue

According to a blog post by Adam Berrey, Brightcove's Senior VP of Marketing and Strategy, the advertising financed Brightcove Network only drove about 1% of Brightcove's revenue, so from a purely financial perspective, it must have been an easy decision for Brightcove to shutter the free version of its service...

Strapped For Cash, Web TV Startup Mobuzz Starts Panhandling

Mobuzz, one of the more popular online shows to come out of Europe, has run out of money. But instead of bowing out, the site is turning to its users and asking for a €5 donation (or the equivalent in your local currency). The goal? 120,000 Euros by next week, which Mobuzz says should be enough to sustain the site until it can get more funding. If it doesn’t make the cut, the site will be shut down and any donations will be returned...