Blog.Photobucket.com

Photobucket Launches Mobile Web Experience

Photobucket Goes Beyond the Desktop:
Leading Photo Site Launches Mobile Web Experience

Photobucket Mobile Recreates the Site’s Web-based
Uploading, Browsing and Searching Capabilities

PALO ALTO, Calif., January 15, 2008 – Photobucket, one of the Web’s most popular hubs for managing personal media, today announced the launch of Photobucket Mobile, giving its millions of users access to Photobucket features on web-enabled mobile devices. Users can access Photobucket Mobile by visiting http://m.photobucket.com on their mobile device.

Through Photobucket Mobile, users can:

• Browse existing personal and public Photobucket content directly from mobile devices
• Upload photos and videos to Photobucket from mobile devices
• Share photos and graphics with individuals via email from mobile devices
• Search Photobucket’s billions of photos and graphics
• View a variety of featured photos and images every day from the Photobucket Mobile Home page

The demand for Photobucket Mobile has steadily increased among its user base. An internal survey of thousands of Photobucket users conducted by Fox Interactive Media’s Research and Strategy Solutions in August 2007 found that 80 percent have a camera phone, 36 percent use the camera in their mobile phone every day and more than half (52 percent) have access to the Internet from their mobile phone.

“The growing demand for Photobucket Mobile proved to us that now was the perfect time to unveil a fully-functional mobile platform,” said Alex Welch, President of Photobucket. “Photobucket Mobile offers a great destination for our avid users to upload, search and share their digital media, wherever they are. As photo sharing continues to move beyond the desktop, our users look to share their digital life moments instantly. Recreating the Photobucket experience on a mobile platform is a critical part of meeting this need.”

Holiday Photo Greetings 'Go Green' with Photobucket and Nature Conservancy Slideshows

Contact:
Bryan Pope
LEWIS PR for Photobucket
415-992-4400
photobucket@lewispr.com

Holiday Photo Greetings 'Go Green' with Photobucket and Nature Conservancy Slideshows

For Every Holiday Style Slideshow Sent from Photobucket Between December 11th and December 25th, 10 Cents Goes to The Nature Conservancy for Forestry Conservation

PALO ALTO, Calif., December 12, 2007 – Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) one of the Web’s most popular hubs for managing personal media, has teamed up with The Nature Conservancy for Forestry Conservation (http://www.nature.org) to motivate its users to ‘go green’ during this year’s holiday season. Photobucket will donate 10 cents to The Nature Conservancy for every holiday greetings style slideshow created on Photobucket’s site.

If you love Photobucket, vote for us!

It's the Open Web Awards, with voting for your favorite photo sharing site. We'd love your vote. Please go to http://mashable.com/2007/12/10/owa-voting-photos/ and click on Photobucket.

It takes just a couple of seconds to vote, and no registration or anything like that is required.

The Open Web Awards is a distributed contest to find the best sites on the Web. We'd love to be one of them, so thanks for your vote.

Beautiful eStarling Digital Frame Works with Photobucket

This week we got to test drive the new eStarling Digital Frame from http://www.eStarling.com. This frame has some very nice features. It's easy to set up and use, and you can hook it up directly to your own Photobucket album. It'll automatically display all the photos from your albums.  You can even email photos to the frame!

Discount to Photobucket Users

eStarling is offering a $10 discount to all Photobucket users, so be sure to connect with them at http://www.estarling.com. When you checkout at eStarling.com, use the discount code PH06734523 to get the discount. You have to buy it at http://www.estarling.com to get the discount.

Otherwise, the frame is available at http://www.amazon.com. Click here to go directly to the listing on Amazon.

Photobucket Hosts Online Celebrity Look-a-Like Contest

Photobucket Hosts Online Celebrity Look-a-Like Contest

Best Entries to be Included in Official Online Music Video for New Ludacris Single, “Celebrity Chick”

PALO ALTO, Calif., September 11, 2007 – Photobucket, the Web’s most popular creative hub, today launched a “Celebrity Chick” Look-a-Like contest in conjunction with Disturbing Tha Peace (DTP) Records to promote the music label’s latest single, “Celebrity Chick.” Starting on September 10, participants are encouraged to log-in to their Photobucket accounts and submit photos and / or videos of themselves, indicating what female celebrity they think they look like. The winner will be selected based on creativity, originality and resemblance to the “celebrity chick” they’ve imitated.

The winning look-a-like will receive a spot in the Photobucket / “Celebrity Chick” "remix" fan music video. The grand-prize winner will also receive a Disturbing Tha Peace (DTP) Records prize pack including t-shirts, posters and an autographed CD.

The “Celebrity Chick” single, featuring Ludacris, Chingy, Steph Jones and Small World, is part of a compilation album, “Strength in Numbers,” which will be released later this year. The single will also be available on Photobucket for users to create remixes of their photos and videos with music from the popular single.

“I’m really excited about this single because it is Chingy’s re-introduction to the world as a member of DTP and it also allows two of my very talented new artists, Steph Jones and Smallworld, a chance to shine,” said Ludacris. “I love feeding off the energy of my fans, so I’m excited to see what they bring out for Photobucket’s ‘Celebrity Chick’ Look-a-Like contest.”

“Teens are all about using digital media to inject a real sense of personality into online activities,” said Alex Welch, President of Photobucket. “This is the latest example of entertainment brands using new sponsorship models to reach key social networking demographics. This contest is a great way for DTP Records to interact with this highly engaged audience.”

The contest will run on http://celebritychick.photobucket.com from September 10 to October 1, 2007 and the “Celebrity Chick” winner will be announced the week of October 8th.

Photobucket CEO wins in Denver!

We're all pretty proud of our Alex at Photobucket today! Alex won Entrepreneur of the Year in the "emerging company" category at the Ernst & Young awards ceremony in Denver last night.  He couldn't have done it without an amazing team at Photobucket, and an even more amazing community of users.  You keep us all on our toes, and we love that. Thank you all!

Here's a photo of Alex with his award. Love the suit, Alex! How come you don't wear that every day to work?

Alex Welch, CEO, Photobucket, Inc.

Photobucket CEO & Co-Founder named finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year!

Photobucket CEO and Co-founder, Alex Welch,
Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2007 Award Finalist in the Rocky Mountain Region

DENVER, June 19, 2007 – Photobucket, the world’s largest personal media site, today announced that CEO and co-founder, Alex Welch, is a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2007 Award in the Rocky Mountain Region. According to Ernst & Young, the awards program was designed to recognize outstanding entrepreneurs on a regional, national and global level who are building and leading dynamic, growing businesses. Alex Welch was selected as a finalist from over 65 nominations by a panel of independent judges.

Photobucket Postcards on Facebook!

Exciting news for our many Photobucket users with Facebook accounts -- check out our new Photobucket Postcards application.

Send a Postcard to your Facebook friends with a favorite photo, image, slideshow, mashup or video along with a friendly greeting.  Pick something from your own Photobucket album or from our huge online library of images and videos.  Check it out.

See how it works after the jump.

Important Photobucket Announcement

Dear Photobucket Friends:

As you may have already heard, today Photobucket announced that it has accepted an offer to be acquired by Fox Interactive Media (FIM), a division of News Corporation. This is a really big piece of news for us at Photobucket.

First and foremost, we expect nothing to change in our day-to-day operations. After the transaction is closed and finalized, the plan is to operate Photobucket as an independent, standalone company within FIM.

We plan to continue developing innovative tools that enhance self-expression and give you the best media sharing, linking and searching experience on the Web. Partnering with FIM will give us added resources and support to deliver on this vision, as well as the ability to offer new features for you -- our most important audience.

If you have questions or just want to drop us a line, write a comment here on the blog, or email us at pbsupport@photobucket.com. We read all your emails and messages. Keep them coming. And most importantly, keep all the great ideas coming.

I thank you for your support, and for all the ways you teach us what is truly meaningful about the Photobucket experience. We are extremely excited about Photobucket’s future, and look forward to continuing to bring you the very best personal media site in the world.

Regards,
Alex Welch, CEO, co-founder, Photobucket, Inc.

Photobucket users go pub crawling!

We’ve partnered with the Internet’s first online pub, CherryTAP.  Not only will users be able to plug in images, videos, or slideshows into their profiles on CherryTAP, they can also import these items directly into their Cherry Stash (a visual library of bookmarks) to share with the community:

With the launch of the Internet’s first Happy Hour in February of this year, CherryTAP is quickly becoming a popular destination for the 18 and over crowd with almost 900,000 members to date.

Photobucket adding some Snap!

Want to add some snap to your blog or website that shows off your Photobucket album in a fun new way? Check out our latest partnership with Snap that makes it easier than ever to preview your media to your site visitors. 

Simply adding a small snip of Javascript to your site makes links to your photos and graphics come alive.

What used to be an ordinary link now has a nifty thumbnail "SnapShot" that lets people browse through your Photobucket album.

Here's an shot of how it works.

But it's really best to see it in action.

(mouse over the link to see how it works!)

For more details, read our full press release.

It's an award winning day!

It's looking like a good week at Photobucket as we're pleased to announce that we've won both the OnHollywood 100 Top Private Company Award  as well as a  Hitwise  #1 winner for the Entertainment/Photography category.  That means that Photobucket.com ranked No. 1 by visits among all U.S websites in the Hitwise Entertainment - Photography category.  Thanks to all our users for making us a winner! Official Press Release for OnHollywood 100 is just below the jump.

Photobucket on USA Today

Photobucket snaps a portrait of success

By Jack Dempsey for USA TODAY Photobucket co-founders Alex Welch, left, and Darren Crystal are reflected in a window of their Denver facility. Making sure the site can handle its massive traffic is "a constant challenge," Crystal says. Photobucket has 1,000 servers spread across the country.

By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Photobucket is by far the No. 1 online photo-sharing site. But if you're not a MySpace user, you've probably never heard of it.

Denver-based Photobucket provides a one-stop shop for uploading pictures and videos all over the Web at sites such as Craigslist, eBay and, most prominently, red-hot social network MySpace. So many teens and young adults use it that the site has more than 40% of all online photo-sharing traffic, considerably more than longtime photo leaders Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly and Yahoo Photos, according to measurement service Hitwise.

Photobucket serves up 3 billion online images and videos daily for its 41 million members; 85,000 new members sign up every day.

Full article here

 

 

Photobucket hits the big Four-O

We're pretty excited here in Denver and Palo Alto. We just hit 40 million users. This is a great milestone for us -- we've come a long way since 2003. Not only that, but ComScore (the leading Web site that measures visitor numbers) puts us at the #1 spot in the US for photo sharing sites, and #4 in the US for the multimedia Web sites.

Mandy Moore Video Remix Contest!

Contest announcement! Want to have Mandy Moore sing at your high school graduation this year? We're working with Mandy to promote her new hit single "Extraordinary" with a video remix contest that lets high school students showcase their schools, their stories, and their "extraordinary" lives to win a free performance by Mandy Moore!

This promotion is geared at the graduating class of 2007 and is in conjunction with our friends at MyYearbook.com

It's easy to enter:

1. Go to MyYearbook.com to read about the contest, and see if your high school is eligible.
2. Create a Photobucket Remix Video using your own videos and images.
   • Use the Mandy Moore Remix bin of images and videos to add Mandy images if you wish
   • Add Mandy Moore's hit "Extraordinary" as your remix video's soundtrack.
   • We encourage you to be creative and have fun with showing how your school is "Extraordinary" and why you should win!
3. Publish and submit your entry at MyYearbook.com.
   • Use Photobucket's built-in linking to copy and paste a link to your remix into the contest entry page.
4. View and Vote for your favorite videos.  If you create a great video, you'll want all your classmates to vote for your creation!

Voting starts from May 1st - May 10th with the official winner being selected by Mandy Moore herself. 

Winners will be announced on May 15th.  See the latest entries here.

Detailed information and FAQ can be found at http://www.photobucket.com/mandymoore and on the Contest Details page.

Photobucket on CNN Money!

"The biggest Web site you've never heard of." We know you all know us. But now someone at CNN Money does too. Nice article. We wanted to share it.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Photobucket is the most important site on the Internet that hardly anybody understands. Unpretentiously, it has built an essential service that didn't need to shout out for attention, the way MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, or other related sites have. Yet it's built an audience of 38 million members, a figure now growing more than 80,000 per day. That's up from just 50,000 members at the end of 2003. More.

Photobucket Hitwise#1 award winner

We were thrilled to hear today that we're now a Hitwise #1 award winner for year ending December 2006.  The Hitwise award recognizes websites from over 160 industry categories that are leaders in their industry. A nice way to end the week!

Photobucket Doubles Bandwidth Connections to Cogent Communications

Cogent Communications Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CCOI) announced today that Photobucket has doubled its bandwidth connections with Cogent. Photobucket, the online personal media company where over 37 million people create, manage and share their personal digital media, continues to experience explosive growth. The site is adding over 85,000 new users each day, which is resulting in significantly increased IP traffic demands.

Cogent has been Photobucket's primary provider of Internet bandwidth since 2005 and continues to support Photobucket's goal of reliable performance and uptime for their users. Part of that experience is making sure there is always enough capacity to handle traffic growth. This has resulted in several capacity upgrades for Photobucket and Cogent over the years, to keep in line with this continued user growth.

"We turned to Cogent for their pricing, we stay with Cogent for the quality and performance of their network combined with their superior customer support," said Darren Crystal, CTO and Co-Founder of Photobucket. "Our users are the trendsetters when it comes to social media -- their demands continue to grow as they upload more images, videos and remixed content. We are relying on Cogent to help us keep pace with the resulting bandwidth demand."

"Social networking is on the rise and so is the popularity of integrating media formats such as photos, graphics and video which all drive increased demand for bandwidth. Cogent is perfectly positioned to handle this bandwidth explosion by having ample capacity at the most attractive pricing in the industry," said Dave Schaeffer, CEO Cogent Communications. "Photobucket exemplifies how Web applications are able to advance and keep pace with user demands, with the availability of more and more bandwidth."

Photobucket is the Web's largest personal media site, with more than 37 million users. Photobucket's users store their photos, videos, remixes and images on Photobucket, and link from Photobucket to all their online profiles, personal Web sites and blogs. It serves over one billion content calls a day to the MySpace community alone. In the January 2007 ComScore rankings, Photobucket is the #6 most popular entertainment site in the US, and #35 most popular Web site overall.

About Cogent Communications

Cogent Communications (Nasdaq: CCOI) is a multinational, Tier 1 facilities-based ISP ranked by Ovum-RHK as the largest provider of Ethernet services in the United States. Cogent is also ranked as the 56th fastest growing company in North America on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 List for 2006. Cogent specializes in providing businesses with high speed Internet access and point-to-point transport services. Cogent's facilities-based, all-optical IP network backbone spans 14 countries and provides IP services in approximately 90 markets located in North America and Europe.

Since Cogent's inception, Cogent has unleashed the benefits of IP technology, building one of the largest and highest capacity IP networks in existence. This network enables Cogent to offer large bandwidth connections at highly competitive prices. Cogent also has the ability to offer superior customer support through end-to-end operation of the network, enabling Cogent to control all aspects of service delivery and network monitoring.

Cogent Communications is headquartered at 1015 31st Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20007. For more information, visit http://www.cogentco.com. Cogent Communications can be reached in the United States at +1-202-295-4200 or via email at info@cogentco.com.

Information in this release may involve expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Cogent Communications Group, Inc. as of the date of the release, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Some of the factors and risks associated with our business are discussed in Cogent's registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in its other reports filed from time to time with the SEC.

Web site: http://www.cogentco.com

Pump Audio and Photobucket Deliver Legal Music for Online Video Creations

Pump Audio and Photobucket Deliver Legal Music for Online Video Creations

Tens of millions of consumers gain access to copyright-cleared independent music to synchronize with their personal media on the Internet

Hudson Valley, NY – March 6, 2007 – Pump Audio, the leading provider of quality independent music to content creators globally, today announced that it has reached an agreement with Photobucket to provide copyright-cleared, independent music to the tens of millions of Photobucket users who create and share remixes of their photos and videos using the Adobe® web-based video remix technology integrated on Photobucket’s site. Photobucket users can now easily add music from Pump Audio to their mashups.

Photobucket is the online personal media company where over 35 million people create, manage and share their personal digital media, and is the third largest video hosting site behind YouTube and MySpace. Pump Audio provides a proven, legal music solution with original songs perfectly suited for synchronizing to online productions. Photobucket has licensed hundreds of songs across dozens of genres from Pump Audio’s catalog of more than 75,000 tracks.

“Music truly brings a video creation to life, and it was important to us that our users be able to incorporate music into their remixes,” said Alex Welch, CEO, Photobucket. “Pump Audio’s independent music solution helps Photobucket offer our users a wide selection of music that does not violate copyright infringement laws.”

Photobucket recently launched a web-based video remix and editing service, powered by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Using this remix service, Photobucket users can combine images, videos, text, and music provided by Pump Audio to create content mashups from their Photobucket albums, without requiring any additional downloads.

“User generated content, such as photo slideshows and video mashups, has created a significant opportunity for independent music,” said Steve Ellis, founder and CEO, Pump Audio. “Photobucket is an innovator in helping consumers bring their personal media to life, and shares our position that personal media communities can respect copyright law and also expose their users to high-quality independent music.”

Unlike stock music, Pump Audio’s catalog consists of real songs by thousands of independent artists worldwide. Because Pump Audio works directly with independent artists, it can offer a unique licensing system for managing and delivering the rights to use tracks in online productions. Pump Audio’s licensing model already has attracted major media customers, including MTV Networks, NBC Studios, HBO, New Line Cinema and advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. Under its artist-friendly system, Pump Audio splits licensing revenues with musicians, and the artists retain complete ownership over their music.

Working together, Pump Audio and Photobucket also are creating a new venue for participating artists to gain additional exposure to Photobucket’s massive user base. Pump Audio artists will receive a visual credit with information about the music being used in Photobucket mashups, creating a new promotional opportunity to directly reach potential fans. Photobucket users can embed their mashups into any web page, blog, or social network profile, and also share with family and friends, so artists will have the potential for broad exposure.

About Pump Audio

Pump Audio licenses the world's best independent music to content creators worldwide. Founded in 2001, Pump Audio has established itself as a leading provider of digital music for TV and advertising producers. Now Pump Audio is becoming the soundtrack of the Internet, opening Web access to its catalog of tens of thousands of songs so creators of all types can build music into their video and interactive productions. With Pump Audio, artists can license their music into productions without giving up any ownership, while content creators can discover new music ready for use. Based in the
Hudson Valley, Pump Audio can be found at http://www.pumpaudio.com.

CNET - Adobe will offer ad-supported Photoshop online

Adobe will offer ad-supported Photoshop online
Hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, Adobe Systems plans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application within six months, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday ...

More at:
http://news.com.com/Adobe+to+take+Photoshop+online/2100-7345_3-6163015.html

Freewebs Teams With Photobucket

Freewebs Teams With Photobucket

Freewebs Members Can Now Instantaneously Add Photos, Slideshows and Videos Directly to Their Freewebs Sites and Blogs from Photobucket

SILVER SPRING, Md., and DENVER, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Freewebs, www.freewebs.com  the world's easiest place to create multimedia websites and blogs has joined forces with Photobucket - the online personal media company where over 35 million people create, manage and share their personal digital media. Now, Freewebs users are able to add photos, slideshows, videos, and remix videos from existing Photobucket accounts directly to Freewebs' publishing platform.

"This is just the first step in what's going to be a strong partnership," said Freewebs' President Shervin Pishevar.  "Our 14 million members expect unprecedented ease of use from Freewebs to create multimedia sites and blogs. Photobucket's partnership and deployment of its JWidget allows members access to extensive libraries of still images and videos -- from their own albums and from publicly available content on Photobucket."

This relationship involves Photobucket's JWidget partner program along with Freeweb's soon-to-be released Remote Publishing API.  Freeweb's API will allow users to post content directly to their Freewebs accounts from Photobucket and other popular online destinations.

"The online, engaged, and creative youth that are core to Photobucket's customer base want simple tools for self expression, and easy ways to share their content with their communities," said Alex Welch, CEO of Photobucket. "Freewebs is a great partner destination for that."

About Freewebs.com

For everyone with an Internet connection and something to share, Freewebs www.freewebs.com provides the toolkit to express their voice on the web through its versatile publishing platform.  To date, Freewebs members have created more than 14 million comprehensive websites including blogs, photos, videos, music, e-commerce and more.  Founded in 2001, Freewebs is privately held and based in Silver Spring, Md.

About Photobucket

Photobucket is the easiest and most reliable way for people to create, manage and share their personal media online. With more than 35 million users, Photobucket is a creative hub linking billions of personal photos, graphics, slideshows, and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of web sites -- including MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, eBay, Craigslist, Blogger and Xanga. In addition to linking, Photobucket users share their personal digital media by email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. Photobucket users upload more than 7 million personal photos, graphics and videos to Photobucket every day, and the site is growing at a rate of 85,000 new users a day. Photobucket currently serves over 70% of all content links to social networking web sites and serves over 3 billion images and video requests every day.  The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners, and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in Palo Alto, California and Denver, Colorado and is located online at www.photobucket.com

Additional News Coverage re: Photobucket and Adobe

February 20, 2007

Adobe and Photobucket remixing video

Karyn Johnson,

Peachpit

Commons

The No. 3 video sharing site behind YouTube and MySpace, Photobucket has teamed with Adobe to bring its users a Web-based video remix and editing tool, allowing them to combine images and video with text, frames, effects, transitions, and music.

More at:

http://www.peachpitcommons.com/?p=518

---

February 21, 2007

Adobe, Photobucket Bring Video Tools to the Web 

Patrick Hoffman, eWeek

Adobe Systems announced Feb. 21 that it has formed a partnership with Photobucket to bring its Web-based video remix and editing technology to the Web, enabling Photobucket users to access Adobe's video editing tools for free.

Adobe's Web-based video remix and editing technology lets Photobucket users customize to drag and drop music, effects, transitions and titles to videos while also allowing users to reorder, trim and split clips.

"Our Web-based video remix and editing technology is just one of the many ways that we are evolving our business to satisfy the incredible demand for Web-based applications," said Geoff Baum, group product manager at San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe.

More at:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2097379,00.asp

February 21, 2007

Photobucket Offers Online Video Mashups

Mike Sachoff, Web Pro News

Photobucket has launched a new service that will allow its 35 million users to do video editing online with technology powered by Adobe. The Adobe Web based video remix and editing technology is currently in Beta. Users can now combine photos, videos, text, and music to create videos or mashups of content from their Photobucket albums.

“At Photobucket we’re committed to helping our users get the most out of their personal media, and have fun doing so,” said Alex Welch, CEO, Photobucket. “Collaborating with Adobe gives our millions of users a simple way to create mashups that showcase their personality and creativity. Users can either broadcast these mashups widely, or share with a small group of friends and family.”

Photobucket users can combine images and video with captions, bubbles, frames, transitions, and music by dragging and dropping content to a sceneline. Users can work with content from their albums or they can choose from the publicly shared images and videos on Photobucket.

More at:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/02/21/photobucket-offers-online-video-mashups

February 21, 2007
Photobucket teams up with Adobe to offer free online video mashups
Staff, Graphic Exchange Network

Photobucket has announced the launch of a new service that lets users combine images, videos, text, and music to create personalized videos or “mashups” of content from their Photobucket albums.

The Adobe video remix and editing technology which drives Photobucket's new service is a Flash-based application built using Adobe Flex. Adobe says that the Photobucket toolset, currently being offered as a beta application, offers "a simplified interface, introducing consumers to video editing they can quickly master."

Adobe’s video remix and editing technology, which requires Adobe Flash 9, opens directly in the browser on Photobucket’s website. It is initially available via limited public beta to Photobucket Pro users, and will be available for free to Photobucket’s entire user base of 35 million members by early March 2007. For more information, visit http://blog.photobucket.com

February 21, 2007

Photobucket introduces web-based video editing tools

Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica

Adobe and Photobucket announced a partnership today that will allow Photobucket's 35 million users to do basic video editing online through the web. The tools will be implemented in a browser using Flash and will enable users to remix their photos and home videos with other elements, such as music, video captions, and transitions—all without the use of dedicated video editing software.

More at:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070221-8891.html

February 21, 2007

Adobe Brings Premiere to the Web

Ed Oswald, BetaNews

Adobe is bringing its video editing tools online through multimedia storage site Photobucket, which would make them available for free. The application would be based on technologies used in Adobe's Premiere product, it said.

"We aim to simplify the powerful editing and compositing capabilities that make Adobe software the undisputed creative leader, so that anyone can post eye-catching compositions online," Adobe creative solutions senior vice president John Loiacono said in a statement.

More at:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe_Brings_Premiere_to_the_Web/1172077086

February 21, 2007

Adobe Cuts Print Spending, Turns Focus to Online Ads

Editor, Adotas

Creative software developer Adobe Systems, makers of popular tools like Photoshop and Flash, will be cutting its spending on print advertising to spend more on online advertising, says Marketing Week.

According to the publication, Adobe has seen a lot of success with print advertising, but has decided to pay more attention to the Web. Today, the company announced that it would be working with Photobucket to provide the online photo sharing service with a suite of online video-editing tools based on Adobe Premier and powered by Flash. Adobe acquired Flash when it purchased Macromedia in 2005 for $3.4 billion in stock.

More at:

http://www.adotas.com/2007/02/adobe-cuts-print-spending-turns-focus-to-online-ads/

February 21, 2007

Adobe & Photobucket - Video Editing for the Masses

Scott Fegette, Scott Fegette

Well, it's been speculated for some time, but Adobe just announced it's partnership with Photobucket, to integrate Flex-based video editing capabilities into the popular photo and video hosting site. As noted in the release, this should be the first of many such partnerships over the coming months, and I'm really looking forward to digging into the Adobe RIA-powered editing experience, myself.

More at:

http://weblogs.macromedia.com/sfegette/archives/2007/02/adobe_photobuck.cfm

February 21, 2007
Adobe’s Video Editing Tools Online at Photobucket
Staff, Killer App

Consumers can now edit their home movies online using Web-based video remix and editing tools from Adobe. Adobe’s tools -- which let users add music, captions, bubbles, transitions and titles to videos, as well as reorder, trim and split clips -- are available at Photobucket, a digital media site with 35 million users.

The Photobucket announcement is just the first of many, Adobe says. The company expects to announce more partnerships with Internet companies and media properties over the coming months. All of the online services will be free and ad-supported.

More at:

http://www.killerapp.com/content/publish/article_309.shtml

February 22, 2007

Photobucket to Introduce Web-based Video Editing Capablities
Staff, Tech Buzz

Yesterday, Adobe and Photobucket announced a partnership to introduce basic online video editing capabilities into Photobucket. Once the flash based video editor is implemented, users can perform rudimentary functions like remixing their photos and home videos with music, video caption and transition. The web-based video editor is also said to have clip trimming and splitting features as well.

More at:

http://tech-buzz.net/2007/02/22/photobucket-to-introduce-web-based-video-editing-capablities/

February 21, 2007

Free Web-Based Video Editing by Photobucket

Staff, A Free and Decent Blog Host

Photobucket an online personal media company where over 35 million people create, manage and share their personal digital media, today announced the launch of a new service, featuring lightweight, web-based video remix and editing technology powered by Adobe Systems Incorporated. The Adobe web-based video remix and editing technology is available online as part of the Photobucket user experience, and is currently offered as a Beta application. Photobucket users can now combine images, videos, text, and music to create personalized videos or “mashups” of content from their Photobucket albums, without requiring any additional downloads.

More at:

http://dnoviceblogger.blogspot.com/2007/02/free-web-based-video-editing-by.html

---

February 22, 2007

Are you Photobucket-ing?
Marianne Young Ledesma, CSdeSigns

Today, I was pleasantly surprise to read a press release that Adobe has partnered with Photobucket to deliver a new lightweight remix and video editing tools right into Photobucket's site.  The same useability concepts taken from Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are applied, and I am so excited to try it out myself. Premiere Elements is so much fun, easy to use and very intuitive, I sometimes even forget the complexities of the science behind video editing.  If you're only starting out, the idea gallery is a good place to start.

More at:

http://blogs.adobe.com/CSdeSigns/2007/02/are_you_photobucketing.html

---

February 22, 2007

Win/Mac: Adobe Adds Video Editing Tools to Photobucket Site
Staff, Graphics.com

Adobe's video remix and editing technology will be directly available to Photobucket users.

Photobucket lets its users create, manage and share their personal media online and has racked up some impressive numbers. Founded in 2003, the site has more than 35 million members, and serves an astonishing 3 billion media items daily, via members links from such sites as MySpace, eBay, Craigslist and Blogger. Adobe's Premiere line of video editing tools includes both Elements and Pro, and with the upcoming integration Photobucket users will be able to make use of a Flash-driven implementation that lets them add drag and drop music, effects, transitions and titles to their videos, as well as reorder, trim and split clips. Users can work with content from their own albums or access over 2.5 billion publicly-shared images and videos on Photobucket.

More at:

http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3521

 

---

February 22, 2007

Adobe and Photobucket team for online video editing tools

Adobe transforms its video editing solutions into online hosted services

Jonny Evans, Macworld

Photobucket users can now edit video they upload to the service using a suite of online tools, thanks to a deal with Adobe.

Adobe has launched its Flash-based online video remix and editing technology in partnership with Photobucket. The free service will be driven by advertising revenue, the partners hope.

The plan extends of Adobe's existing video editing products — including Premiere, which will soon return to the Mac platform — as online services.

More at:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=17297

---

February 22, 2007

Adobe puts video-editing online

Video-hosting site integrates Adobe's tools

Zoe Mutter, PC Advisor

Adobe’s web-based video-editing technology will be delivered online when it’s integrated into the free image and video-hosting service, Photobucket.

Adobe’s web-based video editor will launch directly in the browser on the Photobucket website and allow users free and direct access to video-editing tools to perform a variety of operations such as dragging and dropping music, effects, titles and transitions to videos. It will be delivered as a lightweight Adobe Flash application and will therefore be accessible to more than 700 million computers that support Flash Player software.

More at:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=8499

 

---

 

February 22, 2007

Photobucket Offers Free Adobe Video Editing

Walaika Haskins, TechNewsWorld

Photobucket users will soon have access to Adobe video editing tools online. The utilities will enable Photobucket Pro subscribers to remix, create effects and add music to content uploaded to the social networking site. The software offered by Adobe is the "lite" version of the company's editing tools -- a move likely intended to entice users to buy enhanced versions.

Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) and Photobucket have teamed up to give the site's 35 million subscribers free access to basic video remixing and editing technology online. With the first-of-its-kind offering, users can incorporate music, effects, transitions and titles into their videos.

More at:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/55921.html

February 23, 2007

Photobucket Debuts New Video Remixer

Michael Calore and Scott Gilbertson, Wired Blogs 

Earlier this week Adobe and Photobucket announced a partnership to bring some Adobe Premier-like editing and remixing capabilities to Photobucket users. The new tool lets users take video clips and images, and remix, caption and enhance them to create new movies which can then be shared with the world at large.

More at:

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/02/photobucket_deb.html

February 21, 2007

Adobe to release video editing tools online
Sourav Dutta, Digital Media

Asia

Adobe Systems plans to deliver its software technologies online, with the launch of its web-based video remix and editing technology. Adobe and Photobucket have announced a partnership to integrate Adobe web-based video remix and editing technology directly into Photobucket, giving Photobucket users direct, free access to digital video editing tools. The agreement reportedly marks a new stage in Adobe's delivery of its video software technologies that underpin flagship products such as Adobe Premiere Elements and Adobe Premiere Pro.

The company expects to announce more partnerships with internet companies and media properties over the coming months. These free services are expected to be driven by advertising revenue – and by offering customers upgrade paths to Adobe Premiere Elements and Adobe Photoshop Elements software.

 

More at:

http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?ArticleID=22305

February 21, 2007

Adobe To Launch Ad-Supported Web 2.0 Video-Editing Tools

The online versions of Adobe's Premiere Element and Premiere Pro products are augmented by a partnership with Photobucket.

Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb

Adobe Systems on Wednesday unveiled plans to supply online video-editing tools to Web sites in return for sharing ad revenue, and said Photobucket would be its first partner in the new venture.

The maker of software for creative professionals said it was entering a "new stage" in offering over the Web capabilities found within its flagship Premiere Element and Premiere Pro products. In making portions of these tools available on Web sites, Adobe hopes to grab a piece of the booming online advertising market, and introduce its products to people who may eventually decide to upgrade to the desktop software versions.

Photobucket plans to make Adobe's tools available in March to all of its more than 35 million users. The tools are currently available in beta only to Photobucket Pro customers. The site lets registered users edit and upload video or photos, and share them with others. They can also broadcast them publicly and post their creations on other sites, such as EBay, online classified ad site Craigslist, and social networks MySpace and Facebook. Photobucket claims to have 17.6 million visitors a month.

More at:

http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3I1ZQQ3KW43CKQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=197007906

February 21, 2007

Adobe To Launch Ad-Supported Web 2.0 Video-Editing Tools

Antone Gonsalves, Dr. Dobb’s

The online versions of Adobe's Premiere Element and Premiere Pro products are augmented by a partnership with Photobucket.

Adobe Systems on Wednesday unveiled plans to supply online video-editing tools to Web sites in return for sharing ad revenue, and said Photobucket would be its first partner in the new venture.

The maker of software for creative professionals said it was entering a "new stage" in offering over the Web capabilities found within its flagship Premiere Element and Premiere Pro products. In making portions of these tools available on Web sites, Adobe hopes to grab a piece of the booming online advertising market, and introduce its products to people who may eventually decide to upgrade to the desktop software versions.

More at:

http://www.ddj.com/dept/webservices/197007915

February 21, 2007

Photobucket Adds Free Online Video Editing

Geoff Duncan, Digital Trends News

Photo sharing site Photobucket has just added a new tool to its online arsenal: free lightweight video editing tools from Adobe.

Online media hosting company Photobucket has announced a limited beta trial of lightweight online video editing tools from Adobe. The video editing tools are offered as a Flash-based application built with Adobe Flex, and aims to offer video editing capabilities Adobe first brought to market with Premier. The online tools offer a simplified, consumer-oriented interface enabling users to combine images and video with captions, bubbles, frames, transitions, music, and other effects via drag-and-drop. The tools enable users to re-order content and clips, trim elements, and split directly into the sceneline all from a Web-based interface. Via Photobucket, users have access to more than 2.5 billion public images and video clips they can use in their own productions.

More at:

http://news.digitaltrends.com/article12331.html 

AP - High-tech entrepreneurs grapple with build-or-sell dilemma

February 23, 2007
High-tech entrepreneurs grapple with build-or-sell dilemma

Michael Liedtke, Associated Press

Denver-based Photobucket also prefers to remain independent as it strives to nearly double its registered users to 60 million by the end of this year, said Alex Welch, who has raised about $15 million in venture capital since co-founding the site in 2003. Photobucket's 35 million members currently upload about 7 million photos and 35,000 videos per day – second only to YouTube and MySpace.

More at:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEXT_BIG_DEAL?SITE=MOCOD&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-02-23-13-12-00

Adobe Brings Video Editing Tools Online

Adobe Brings Video Editing Tools Online

Photobucket Relationship Highlights Strategy of Delivering Simple, High-Impact Creative Software to Millions             

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Feb. 21, 2007 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) is pioneering a new way to deliver its industry leading creative software technologies online, with the launch of its web-based video remix and editing technology. Today, Adobe and Photobucket announced a partnership to integrate Adobe web-based video remix and editing technology directly into the Photobucket user experience, giving 35 million Photobucket users direct, free access to world-class digital video editing tools. The agreement marks a new stage in Adobe’s delivery of its renowned video software technologies that today underpin flagship products such as Adobe® Premiere® Elements and Adobe Premiere Pro.

The company expects to announce more partnerships with Internet companies and media properties over the coming months. These free services are expected to be driven by advertising revenue - and by offering customers simple upgrade paths to Adobe Premiere Elements and Adobe Photoshop® Elements software, both market leaders in the home digital video and photo editing space.

“Making Photobucket ‘Adobe powered’ with web-based video remix and editing technology will radically change the user experience for millions of Photobucket devotees and also up-level the quality and variety of content being distributed by this passionate community,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe. “We aim to simplify the powerful editing and compositing capabilities that make Adobe software the undisputed creative leader, so that anyone can post eye-catching compositions online.”

Today’s agreement with Photobucket points the way to the kind of future partnerships and breakthrough user experiences Adobe anticipates. Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology is an easy-to-use video editor that allows consumers the creative freedom to infuse personality and dramatic impact into their stories before releasing them to a broader online audience. Users can drag and drop music, effects, transitions and titles to videos, as well as reorder, trim and split clips.

Delivered as a lightweight Adobe Flash® application and built using Adobe Flex™ software, Adobe web-based video remix and editing technology is accessible to the more than 700 million personal computers that today support Adobe Flash Player software. Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology launches directly in the browser on Photobucket’s web site, with no time-consuming downloads or platform compatibility questions to deter users from uploading and editing their videos. The new video editing capabilities in Photobucket are initially available via limited public beta to Photobucket Pro users, and will be available for free to Photobucket’s entire user base of 35 million members by early March 2007.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com

Photobucket Brings Free Web-Based Video Editing to Millions of Photobucket Users

Photobucket Brings Free We-Based Video Editing to Millions of Photobucket Users

New Adobe lightweight, web-based video remix and editing technology enables Photobucket users to quickly and easily add creative expression to their online personal media

February 21, 2007 – Palo Alto, Calif. – Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the online personal media company where over 35 million people create, manage and share their personal digital media, today announced the launch of a new service, featuring lightweight, web-based video remix and editing technology powered by Adobe Systems Incorporated. The Adobe web-based video remix and editing technology is available online as part of the Photobucket user experience, and is currently offered as a Beta application. Photobucket users can now combine images, videos, text, and music to create personalized videos or “mashups” of content from their Photobucket albums, without requiring any additional downloads.

“At Photobucket we’re committed to helping our users get the most out of their personal media, and have fun doing so,” said Alex Welch, CEO, Photobucket. “Collaborating with Adobe gives our millions of users a simple way to create mashups that showcase their personality and creativity. Users can either broadcast these mashups widely, or share with a small group of friends and family.”

“For the tens of millions of people who place their videos online, it is no longer good enough to simply post and share them – people want their videos to be compelling compared to other content,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president, of the Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. “Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology gives consumers an easy-to-use, ‘no experience required’ approach to web-based video editing that will help their stories stand out. We have fully integrated our tools into the Photobucket experience, enabling anyone who has Adobe® Flash® Player installed on their PC to use it.” 

Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology is a Flash-based application built using Adobe Flex™, and delivers high quality video editing capabilities pioneered by Adobe Premiere® Pro and Premiere Elements. Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology offers a simplified interface, introducing consumers to video editing they can quickly master. 

Using Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology, Photobucket users can combine images and video with captions, bubbles, frames, transitions, music, and other effects by dragging and dropping content to a sceneline. Clips and content can be reordered, trimmed, and split directly in the sceneline in a web-based environment.  Users can work with content from their own albums, or access over 2.5 billion publicly-shared images and videos on Photobucket.   

Once editing is complete, the resulting video mashup can be embedded into any web page, blog, or social network profile by copying and pasting a snippet of HTML code.  The mashup can also be shared with family and friends using Photobucket’s built-in sharing tools. Photobucket recently launched features to enable quick and easy posting to blog services and social networks such as Blogger, Xanga, LiveJournal, MySpace, Bebo, and Facebook directly from within a Photobucket album.

Photobucket launched video hosting as an integral part of its service offering in April of 2006. Now, more than 35,000 videos are uploaded to Photobucket albums every day, making Photobucket the third largest video hosting site after YouTube and MySpace.  Photobucket video is free to all its users, and members can upload videos in any standard video format (mpeg, avi, Divx, etc). 

Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology is a free, lightweight, Adobe Flash based web application. It opens directly in the browser on Photobucket’s website, and requires Adobe Flash 9 to operate.

Product Availability
Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology is initially available via limited public beta to Photobucket Pro users, and will be available for free to Photobucket’s entire user base of 35 million members by early March 2007. Users can access the product directly from their albums by clicking on a button in their album. For more information on the feature, users should visit Photobucket’s blog at http://blog.photobucket.com.

About Photobucket
Photobucket is the easiest and most reliable way for people to create, manage and share their personal media online. Photobucket is the web’s most popular creative hub, linking billions of personal photos, graphics, slideshows, and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of web sites, including: MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, eBay, Craigslist, Blogger, Xanga and others.  Photobucket’s more than 35 million users upload more than 7 million personal photos, graphics and videos to Photobucket every day, and the site is growing at a rate of 85,000 new users a day. Photobucket currently serves over 70% of all content links to social networking web sites and serves over 3 billion images and video requests every day.  The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in Palo Alto, California and Denver, Colorado and is located online at www.photobucket.com

Tags:

Photobucket photobucket.com Adobe flash flex video

AOL Money & Finance - YouTube faces some (real) competition

February 20, 2007

YouTube faces some (real) competition

Douglas McIntyre, AOL Money & Finance

The number of video-sharing sites seems to rise every day. MySpace, owned by News Corp. (NYSE:NWS), has gotten on board. So has photo site Photobucket. But Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube remains the largest.

More at:

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/02/20/youtube-faces-some-real-competition/

New TeeVee - Photobucket Adds Video Editing

Photobucket Adds Video Editing

Liz Gannes, NewTeeVee

Written by Liz Gannes- Posted Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 10:02 AM PT

Partnering with Adobe and using their Flex¹ software, Photobucket has added rich video editing tools². Currently run as a beta program available to paid Premium users, Photobucket CEO Alex Welch assured us in a phone interview that all 35 million users would have access in March.

More at:

http://newteevee.com/2007/02/20/photobucket-adds-video-editing/

Cnet Webware - Photobucket to launch Flash-based online video editor

February 16, 2007

Photobucket to launch Flash-based online video editor

Martin LaMonica, CNET Webware

Photobucket and Adobe Systems on Monday are expected to announce a Web-based video-editing tool available from Photobucket's media-sharing site. The free service will be in beta this month to its premium customers and rolled out to all customers in March.

The service lets people take existing media, including photos and videos, stored in a Photobucket account and remix them with captions, soundtracks and other effects. Like any video-editing package, people can drop items, like video snippets, and place them onto a timeline.

More at:

http://www.webware.com/8300-1_109-2.html?authorId=128&tag=blog

TechCrunch - Newest Flash Tools on Display at Photobucket

February 16, 2007

Newest Flash Tools on Display at Photobucket

Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

 

The latest Flash photo/video/sound editing tools that we mentioned last week are now enabled at Photobucket for premium users, and will go live for all users in March. Geoff Baum at Adobe confirmed that these tools are not yet available anywhere on the web except for Photobucket.

The new tool allows PhotoBucket users to mash up photos, video and stock music files into a single slide show/video and then display those mashups on any website. The screen shots below help describe some of what they are doing, but the key changes that make the tools better than what Motionbox, JumpCut (acquired by Yahoo), and Cuts are offering on the video side and Slide and RockYou on the photo side are just how fast and easy it is to make one of these. I stopped by the Photobucket offices earlier this week for a run through, and we created a photo and video mashup and added music in a matter of moments. An example:

More at:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/16/newest-flash-tools-on-display-at-photobucket/

Venture Beat - Photobucket, Cuts.com, and new video editing tools

February 15, 2007

Photobucket, Cuts.com, and new video editing tools

Matt Marshall, Venture Beat

Photobucket, a Silicon Valley start-up, has quietly become the third largest video hosting site after YouTube and MySpace — reporting more than 35,000 videos uploaded every day.

Next Tuesday, it announces some extensive image and video editing tools it hopes will help keep bringing people to the site. These users can post the edited versions to any of several popular sites, such as MySpace, Faceboo or Bebo.

These Photobucket editing tools, to be announced in a partnership with Adobe (the company that makes the popular Flash technology used for video editing), could take the wind out of the sails of smaller competitors.

Photobucket will let you edit by adding captions, bubbles, frames, transitions, music, and other effects — and by dragging and dropping the resulting content to a “sceneline” (you can get a sense of the editing dashboard in screenshots below). The service goes live shortly for paying Photobucket users, and then to the other regular 35 million users in March.

Denver Business Journal - Photobucket-Adobe form partnership

February 15, 2007

Photobucket-Adobe form partnership

Bob Mook,

Denver

Business Journal

Photobucket has formed a partnership with Adobe Systems Inc. that will give users the ability to combine images, videos, text and music to create personalized "mashups" of content from their Photobucket albums, the companies said Thursday.

The new tools will enable members of Photobucket, an image-hosting and photo-sharing Web site, to enjoy a "more full experience," CEO Alex Welch said.

More at:

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2007/02/12/daily42.html?jst=b_ln_hl

AlwaysOn - Engaging Contagious Behavior w/Digg Yelp Photobucket CEOs

January 31, 2007
AlwaysOn: Engaging Contagious Behavior w/Digg Yelp Photobucket CEOs
Allen Stern, Center Networks

AlwaysOn is holding a workshop about how to engage contagious behavior. The panel includes Jay Adelson, Digg CEO, Jeremy Stoppleman, Yelp CEO and Alex Welch, CEO Photobucket.

Panel workshop now completed. Comments below from the panel. If there is an interest, I can post audio and video from the session.

Img by Allen Stern

Moderator: What is the definition of contagious behaviour?

Jay - engaging consumers is contagious.

Alex - i think of external and internal for contagious behavior. Includes the team - we grew from 1 to 60 pretty quick and how do you gt the culture to come together as a team. And the outbound part with listening to your consumers.

Esther - teaching users how to take control. Esther starts right out by shilling her company.

Tags
photobucket photobucket.com alwayson digg yelp

Business Week - This Week's Cutting Edge Podcast with Photobucket's Alex Welch

This Week's Cutting Edge Podcast with Photobucket's Alex Welch
Heather Green, BusinessWeek

On the Cutting Edge Podcast this week, I chatted with Alex Welch, the CEO and co-founder of Photobucket, the very popular social media sharing site that is adding 80,000 new subscribers daily for a total of 35 million registered subscribers.

Welch talks about how they're tackling advertising, the importance of moderating content, and why he's not all that worried about whether MySpace wants to cut Photobucket out of the social network.

podcasting: http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/podcasts/podcasting/current.html

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2007/01/this_weeks_cutt_5.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_blogspotting

Tags
photobucket photobucket.com

Business Week - The MySpace Ecosystem: A Survival Guide

The MySpace Ecosystem: A Survival Guide
A slew of companies have sprung up to help kids decorate their pages—and many won't make it
Anastasia Goodstein, BusinessWeek

Teens love to make stuff their own—be it writing on a favorite pair of jeans, plastering notebooks with stickers, or decorating lockers with photos of friends or celebrities. It's a natural part of forming one's identity to tell the world, "Look at me. I have these friends, support these causes, and love these bands." And as social networking sites and blogging communities have become virtual spaces for adolescents to call their own, it's natural that kids want to decorate them, too.

More at:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070129_417133.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology

Press Release - 01.17.07 - Photobucket Selected by AlwaysOn Media as Top 100 Private Company Award Winner

Photobucket Selected by AlwaysOn Media as Top 100 Private Company Award Winner

Recognized for Leadership in Emerging Technology

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the online personal media company where over 32 million people create, manage and share their digital lives, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn Media as one of the Top 100 Private Company award winners. The AO Media 100 is a power list of the top private digital media companies. The AO Media editorial team selected winners based on a set of five criteria – innovation, market potential, customer adoption, media buzz and investor value creation.

Photobucket and the AO Media 100 will be honored at the AO Media executive summit January 29-31 at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. The summit will focus on the forces that are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the digital era, showcasing top innovative private companies that are revolutionizing the way media is created, distributed and consumed.

The AO Media 100 was selected from over a 1,000 companies, peer-nominated by leading venture capitalists, investment bankers and industry analysts. The AO Media 100 consists of private companies at all stages of development.

Photobucket, founded in 2003, has become the leading personal media hub delivering billions of personal photos, graphics and videos daily to over 300,000 different websites – including Bebo, Piczo, MySpace, Blogger, and LiveJournal – and enables sharing via email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. ComScore Networks reports that Photobucket is one the top 50 most visited websites, with 15.7 million unique visitors per month. Photobucket’s user base has grown 300% over the past year since September 2005, driven by consumer demand for a fast and easy way to share personal digital content using one central online hub. On December 1st, 2005, Photobucket reached the 30 million user mark.

“We scoured hundreds of applications we received to vote on the top emerging private technology companies,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “Selected are the companies we think are demonstrating significant market traction or pursuing game-changing technology. We expect these organizations to have a big impact for both New York and Silicon Valley.”

“We are honored to have been selected from over a thousand companies for this award. There are a lot of great, innovative technology companies out there today so we are very proud to be recognized as one of the elite few by AlwaysOn,” said Alex Welch, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Photobucket. “Our focus is providing our 32 million users with the creative control to manage and share their digital media content in new ways.”

A full list of all the AO Media 100 companies can be found on the AlwaysOn website at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/8813

About Photobucket

Photobucket is the easiest and most reliable way for people to create, manage and share their personal media online. With more than 32 million users, Photobucket is a creative hub linking billions of personal photos, graphics and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of web sites—including MySpace, eBay, Craigslist, Blogger, Bebo and Xanga. In addition to linking, Photobucket users share images and videos by email, instant messaging and mobile devices. Everyday over 7 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world. The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in Palo Alto, California and Denver, Colorado and is located online at www.photobucket.com

About OnHollywood 2006: May 2-4 @ The Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood

AlwaysOn Hollywood is where cutting-edge technology CEOs from the back streets of Silicon Valley meets the Hollywood digital entertainment and media elite. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the video, music, gaming, search, and mobile industries.

At AlwaysOn Hollywood, our editors will also honor the AO Hollywood 100 Top Private Companies. Fifty of the top CEOs from the AO Hollywood 100 will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in our “CEO Showcase.”

About AlwaysOn

ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (STANFORD SUMMIT, ALWAYSON HOLLYWOOD, ALWAYSON MEDIA and GOINGGREEN) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.

Those nice folks over at Aqua-Media...

... gave us a really nice shoutout the other day and we wanted to say thanks. Looks like they're doing some cool things too and it's worth checking out!

Where would myspace be without the perfect Photobucket.com ? this site really makes it easy for myspace users to post there images on the profiles.. all you need is an account, that you can get for free... then upload.. they give you a unique code to paste into myspace, and presto!... your done and your image is online for the world to see... photo bucket also has allot of other cool things to do, by the way you can also upload your videos and share them that way.. either way.. photobucket will beat any of them other sites out there.. it's fast, easy and FREE!.. Photobucket.com!

Thanks AquaJamz!

Bloggers Blog - Photobucket CEO Says MySpace Still Growing

Photobucket CEO Says MySpace Still Growing

Staff, Bloggers Blog

Photobucket Co-founder and CEO Alex Welch told CNNMoney.com's The Browser that MySpace's web traffic is still growing. Alex Welch also mentioned growth at niche social networks like VampireFreaks.com and scrapbooking websites like Two Peas in a Bucket.

Because subscribers use Photobucket primarily as a means to publish content elsewhere, Welch has a unique window into how traffic is moving around the Web. With a peek into the logs, he weighs in on the "death of myspace debate" rather definitively: Myspace "traffic is going up and to the right. It hasn't flattened at all." But at the same time, he's seeing fractionalization. Specialty networks like the goth site VampireFreaks.com are booming. And as Photobucket moves into the mainstream, its demographics are moving beyond the glitter set. Welch says users are starting to tend toward the 35/40 age range. "A lot of them have kids. Scrapbooking is huge. Two Peas in a Bucket is seeing a lot of traffic."

More at:

http://www.bloggersblog.com/cgi-bin/bloggersblog.pl?bblog=110071

Mashable - Photobucket, BuddyLube Snag Top MySpace Artists

January 8, 2007
Photobucket, BuddyLube Snag Top MySpace Artists

Pete Cashmore, Mashable
Photobucket announced today that over 100 of the world’s most popular musicians have agreed to use Photobucket as their preferred image and slideshow provider on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. The artists include Bow Wow, Anthrax, Hinder, Korn, Enrique Iglesias, Mudvayne, Chris Cornell, Deftones and others. They’ve also leveraged the relationship with Bow Wow to create a celebrity look-a-like contest through his MySpace page - the top two look-a-likes will receive an autographed copy of Bow Wow’s new album “The Price of Fame”, and the photos are being featured in a Photobucket slideshow.

More at:

http://mashable.com/2007/01/08/photobucket-buddylube/

Press Release - 01.08.07 - Celebrities Turning to Photobucket to Further Engage Fan Communities on Social Network Sites

Celebrities Turning to Photobucket to Further Engage Fan Communities on Social Network Sites

Music Industry’s Biggest Names Including Anthrax, Hinder, Korn, Enrique Iglesias, Bow Wow, Mudvayne, Chris Cornell and Otep Connect With Fans Using Photobucket for Images and Slideshows

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the online personal media company where over 32 million people create, manage and share their digital lives, today announced the launch of its community marketing relationship with Buddylube. Buddylube has introduced Photobucket to over 100 of the music industry’s biggest names, who now use Photobucket as their preferred image and slideshow sharing provider on social networking sites including MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo.

Many of today’s hottest artists, including Anthrax, Korn, Enrique Iglesias, Deftones, Chris Cornell, Army of Anyone, The Cinematics, and Otep, use Photobucket to share concert photos, album releases, fan contests, and more. Photobucket helped rap superstar and teen idol Bow Wow launch a celebrity look-a-like contest on his MySpace page to celebrate the release of his new album "The Price of Fame."

Photobucket currently serves over 70 percent of all image, slideshow, and video links to social networking Web sites, distributing more than 90 billion image requests per month. Photobucket members are currently adding over 7 million new images daily.

“We have always searched for opportunities to connect in meaningful ways with our fans and supporters,” said Otep, regarded by metal peers as the first Web 2.0 musical artist. “Photobucket allows us to do exactly that.”

“Our fans are everything to us so being able to connect with them online is huge,” said Aimee, with the rock band Dirtie Blonde. “It’s not just about selling music or doing shows. It’s about creating a community with our fans who share our love for great music.”

“We’re connecting with our fans using Photobucket on our profiles,” said Joe Garvey with the rock band Hinder. “Our fans are taking our slideshows and sharing them on their personal sites too. It’s mind blowing, to see how their support is popping up in new places.”

“Lacuna Coil’s success has always been defined by the fans,” said Cristina Scabbia, lead vocalist, Lacuna Coil. “It’s that diehard devotion that gives us the fuel to create this music and we are extremely humbled by it. These photos represent just how loyal our fan base is, and we wish that we could give more back to them as thanks for all of their support. Our fans are part of our family and we would not exist without them."

“Photobucket is an ideal partner and solution for musicians and celebrities who want to engage and activate their fan bases across a variety of social networking sites,” said John Eaton, CEO, Buddylube. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Myspace, Xanga, Facebook, Bebo, Tagworld, or Friendster. Photobucket is there. It’s cool. It’s viral. And the celebrities and the fans love it.”

The growing list of artists includes but is not limited to:
Anthrax
Army Of Anyone
BloodSimple
Bobby Valentino
Bowwow
Chris Cornell
Cinematics
Deftones
DirtyBlonde
EnriqueIglesias
GettyBoy
HellYeah
Hinder
Hustle
JimJones
Jordis
KORN
Labba
LacunaCoil
LilJohn
MistressJuliya
Mudvayne
Nothing Face
OTEP
Sanaz
ScottIan
About Photobucket

Photobucket is the easiest and most reliable way for people to create, manage and share their personal media online. With more than 32 million users, Photobucket is a creative hub linking billions of personal photos, graphics and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of web sites — including MySpace, Facebook, eBay, Craigslist, Blogger, Bebo, and Xanga. In addition to linking, Photobucket users share images and videos by email, instant messaging and mobile devices. Everyday over 7 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world. The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in Palo Alto, California, and Denver, Colorado, and is located online at www.photobucket.com

Press Release - 01.05.06 - ProfileLinker Launches Social Networking Aggregation Service

ProfileLinker Launches Social Networking Aggregation Service
Staff, dBusiness News

BOSTON -- Social Network Users Now Have Centralized Page to Manage Their Profiles and Discover New Networks. ProfileLinker today announced the launch of its service that gives Internet users the ability to aggregate their social network profiles on one centralized web page. The free service, currently in beta, supports over 70 social networks, including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Photobucket, Blogger, Xanga, YouTube and others, and gives users the ability to search over 250 million profiles to add friends, family, colleagues and fellow enthusiasts.

“ProfileLinker solves an issue that active social network users face everyday – the extensive amount of time it takes to check, change, update and manage multiple social network profiles,” says Alix Holder, co-founder of ProfileLinker. “We see ourselves as a My Yahoo! for social networking that can help supplement and drive traffic to existing networks, both mainstream and niche, by encouraging activity and repeat visits. Along with our partnership with Photobucket, we look forward to further discussions with other potential partners.”
With an estimated 173 million social network users in the U.S., research is showing significant profile crossover across the most popular networks. In a September 2006 report, comScore Media Metrix estimated that among the top social networking sites (YouTube, Facebook, The SixApart Network of blogging sites, Xanga, Hi5, Bebo, Friendster and Piczo) at least 51 percent of users in each of those communities are also MySpace users. In the case of Piczo, there is a 68 percent crossover of users. Another comScore Media Metrix report from July 2006 shows MySpace, Facebook and Bebo’s communities growing at rates of 157 percent, 117 percent and 85 percent, respectively, from the previous July.

ProfileLinker saves people both time and energy by providing a single page that alerts them to updates across all their profiles, whether it is a new message, uploaded video or changes to a friend’s contact details. Once notified of a change, a user then links to the respective social networking site for more details or to view messages.

For users that want to show off their multiple profiles and receive more attention, ProfileLinker’s Portable Profile feature gives the ability to bring a graphical, interactive mini profile wherever they go, such as other social networks, blogs, message boards, or personal web sites. Further, ProfileLinker’s dynamic format helps people discover new social networks as their interests change or they grow older. The platform also accepts user suggestions of networks to support.

To use ProfileLinker, users simply need to go to http://www.profilelinker.com, sign up for an account and then provide their username for each social network they currently use. ProfileLinker then pulls the profiles into a single Web page for easy management. Users never reveal to ProfileLinker information they do not choose to disclose or that is not already publicly available.

About ProfileLinker
Boston-based ProfileLinker is a social networking aggregation service that simplifies the daily management of multiple profiles. Currently backed by angel funding, the company’s founders – Alix Holder, Brian Dixon, Tariq Seifuddin, and Craig Dixon – bring to ProfileLinker a diverse and balanced background, including degrees in business, computer engineering, computer information systems, marketing and finance. Already recognized as a high-potential business, the team took second-place at last April’s InnovationFest, an annual open forum of business plan presentations held by Northeastern University.

http://boston.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=102177&type_news=latest

PC Mag - Top Ten Stories and Trends of 2006

January 2, 2006
Top Ten Stories and Trends of 2006
John C. Dvorak , PC Magazine
2006 was one of the oddest years in computerdom memory. What exactly happened? This week, let's look at the top stories and trends to see if any themes emerge that will help us figure out what's going to happen next.

More at:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2078274,00.asp

Gigaom - Year in Review

GigaOM Year In Review
Jackson West, GigaOM

It’s always fun to take a look at the stats at the end of a calendar year. For instance, it turns out approximately 86% of GigaOm readers visited using cable, DSL or corporate broadband connections, with only 7% using dial-up and 7% unknown. With an audience so thoroughly saturated with broadband access, it’s no surprise that the top three posts and three of the top ten search terms were related to video!

2006 was definitely the year that online video, gaming and productivity applications went totally mainstream. Below, we list the top ten companies or product search terms.
1. youtube1
2. stardoll2
3. videora3
4. photobucket4
5. amazon s35
6. guba6
7. meebo7
8. cyworld8
9. zillow.com9
10. skype symbian10

More at:

 http://gigaom.com/2006/12/31/gigaom-year-in-review/

Mashable - Bebo Launching Ad Widgets

Bebo Launching Ad Widgets
Pete Cashmore, Mashable
Mashable was the first to cover the launch of Bebo Widgets, the service that lets Bebo users put content from Photobucket, RockYou and Slide.com on their profiles. But now there’s a development to that story that’s worth mentioning: next year, they plan to add advertiser-supported widgets that act like interactive ads. The first of these will come from the American Legacy Foundation, allowing users to express their dislike of smoking.

More at:

http://mashable.com/2006/12/28/bebo-ad-widgets/

Web Host Industry Review - Functional Hosting Has Been a Hit; Could Situational Hosting Be Next?

Functional Hosting Has Been a Hit; Could Situational Hosting Be Next?
Isabel Wang, Web Host Industry Review

A few months ago, in response to Trinity Ventures' $10.5 million investment in Photobucket, Tier 1 Research wrote that "the growth in functional hosting represents a growing threat to shared hosting providers."

Photobucket has grown rapidly since then. It had 15 million users back in May but recently passed the 30 million mark. Other functional hosting services - such as YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn - have also enjoyed unheard of momentum (and valuations!) in traditional web hosting. In contrast, GoDaddy is just now entering the photo hosting market. I'm sorry to say that I don't think its Online Photo Filer will *ever* reach 30 million users. It offers too little, too late.

More at:

http://www.thewhir.com/blogs/Isabel-Wang/index.cfm/2006/12/28/Functional-versus-Situational-Hosting

Adweek - Bebo to Roll Out Ad Widgets

Bebo to Roll Out Ad Widgets
Brian Morrissey, Adweek

NEW YORK Bebo is readying the launch of its first advertiser widgets, small Web applications users can embed in their personal Web pages.

The social network last week began allowing users to embed miniature Web applications into their profile pages, letting them choose from three photo-sharing widgets from Slide, Photobucket and Rockyou. Bebo plans to build a collection of widgets users can choose to add to their profiles.

More at:

http://www.adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003525703

Red Herring - Photobucket: Picture Perfect

Photobucket: Picture Perfect

Alex Welch, powered more by intuition than experience, knows about photo-sharing.
Adena DeMonte, Red Herring

Alex Welch, 30, got his first taste of business at a rafting photography company in his hometown outside Denver, Colorado. “We took pictures of boats as they floated by, ran up the hill, jumped in our cars,” Mr. Welch begins. From there it was a case of speeding to the lab to process the pictures to get them to the rafters in hopes of selling them prints.

More at:

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=20355&hed=Photobucket%3a+Picture+Perfect#

Social Network Awards @ Mashable

Photobucket is proud to sponsor the Social Network awards @ Mashable.

Great Categories: Open Nominations: Hustle there now!

We think that several of our partners are good fits for these categories and we're looking forward to seeing the results!

The categories are:

1. Large Scale
2. Widgets and Add-ons
3. Social News and Social Bookmarking
4. Sports
5. Photo Sharing
6. Video Sharing
7. Startpages
8. Places and Events
9. Music
10. Social Shopping
11. Mobile
12. Niche and Miscellaneous Networks

Mashable - Bebo Launches Bebo Widgets - 100,000 Widgets Created in 12 Hours

Bebo Launches Bebo Widgets - 100,000 Widgets Created in 12 Hours
Pete Cashmore, Mashable!

Widget developers should be deeply interested in Bebo’s latest move. They’ve just launched Bebo Widgets, and they’re reporting 100,000 widgets created by users in the first 12 hours. What’s Bebo Widgets? In case you can’t guess, it’s a service that finally allows some selected developers to gain access to those valuable Bebo profiles.

For now, they’re supporting RockYou, Photobucket and Slide.com, with RockYou offering the most advanced options. Users have a special section in their profiles where these widgets are embedded, and multiple widgets can be added. The move explains why I spotted a Bebo logo appearing on RockYou on Sunday. Users can add the widgets to their profiles by typing their Bebo username and password on the partner site (this uses Bebo’s new widget API), or by returning to Bebo and pasting the code. They also have a viral element: if you see a widget on another profile that you want to post on your own - maybe a slideshow of a party all your friends attended - you can add it to your profile with two clicks.

More at:

http://mashable.com/2006/12/14/bebo-widgets/

Press Release - 12.12.06 - Photobucket Launches Mobile Uploads for Photos and Videos

Photobucket Launches Mobile Uploads for Photos and Videos

New Service Lets Photobucket's 30 Million Users Capture and Upload Photos and Videos from Their Mobile Devices

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the online personal media company where over 30 million people create, manage and share their digital lives, today announced the availability of its mobile photo and video service.

This latest Photobucket offering will allow users to send photos and videos from mobile devices directly to their Photobucket accounts. Photobucket's users range from music fans to gamers to independent journalists and bloggers. Now, they will be able to capture and share their experiences while in the moment -- effectively turning their photo and video-enabled phones into personal broadcast devices.

According to Gartner, nearly 48% of the total phones sold worldwide in 2006 -- or roughly 460 million -- have a camera built into them. Gartner projects that by 2010 this number will increase to a billion, or roughly 81% of the total phones sold.

"As people capture their lives on digital handheld devices, they want to share those moments immediately," said Alex Welch, CEO and co-founder of Photobucket. "Photobucket users are passionate about sharing events in their lives as they happen, and we are committed to making this real-time sharing simple and easy."

Each Photobucket user has a unique address and PIN number that allows them to send their photo and video clips via MMS. Once on Photobucket, the content can be shared and linked to various social networks, blogs, and message forums. Image and video albums may be public or private depending on user-elected preferences.

Web Hosting Industry Review - 0.1% of the Functionality for 99% of the Population

"0.1% of the Functionality for 99% of the Population"

Niel Robertson from Newmerix wrote a very insightful blog post last week about inversion as the cornerstone of the Web 2.0 revolution. (Niel used to be VP Research at Exodus.)

A successful web app, Niel says, looks like ZingFu, which puts a silly frame around photos that users upload. ZingFu offers about 0.1% of Photoshop's functionality, but it's instantly accessible to 99.9% of the population. In contrast, the other 99.9% of Photoshop's features might only be understood by less than than 0.1% of the population.

Following Niel's logic, a successful web hosting service might look like MySpace or YouTube or Flickr. Each of these sites offer a tiny % of the average web hosting package's functionality, but their simplicity appeals to an *enormous* audience. In contrast, the other 99.9% of web hosting features might not be widely understood among the general public. As a point of reference, none of my friends outside the industry have any idea what FTP is.

My favorite simplified web hosting case study is PhotoBucket, a company founded by Alex Welch, a former Level 3 exec. Wired reported a couple of weeks ago that PhotoBucket passed the 30 million user mark, and is signing up 80,000 new users per day. According to PhotoBucket's official blog, 30 million is also the number of (a) dog owners in the US, and (b) hot dogs consumed in baseball parks. Not coincidentally, neither activity requires HTML knowledge :)

http://www.thewhir.com/blogs/Isabel-Wang/index.cfm/2006/12/11/01-of-the-Functionality-for-99-of-the-Population

Mashable - Top 10 MySpace Add-On Sites of 2006

Top 10 MySpace Add-On Sites of 2006
Kelvin Beecroft, Mashable Labs

Kelvin Beecroft is the head of Mashable Labs, which conducts unique research into social networks, particularly widgets and other social networking add-ons. You can request research through the consulting form.

As the end of 2006 approaches, it’s clear that MySpace has spawned a cottage industry of sites supplying add-on content or media sharing services for profile owners. Many of these sites have seen phenomenal growth this year while at the same time questions loom around how to monetize. It’s interesting now to look at the top sites to see how they’re embracing such questions because for them this market is becoming big business.

So, who’s in the top 10 for 2006? The table to the right shows Photobucket way out in the lead as the top add-on site by hosting content (photos, videos and slideshows) for nearly 17 million MySpace pages. But there’s more to this statistic than meets the eye. The number three site, Freeweblayouts.net, interestingly uses Photobucket for hosting of their layout graphics such as backgrounds. The same thing is going on with ImageShack and other layout sites. These are mutually beneficial relationships because they indirectly increase the user base for photo sharing sites (thus increasing hits) while providing reliable image hosting for layout sites. This demonstrates the value of establishing good partners in fast growing markets and being able to identify who good potential partners might be.

More at:
http://mashable.com/2006/12/08/top-10-myspace-add-on-sites-of-2006/

Tech Chrunch - Piczo Announces Partnerships - Growth Still Strong

Piczo Announces Partnerships - Growth Still Strong
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

San Francisco based Piczo, a social network for young teenagers, continues to add 35,000 new registered users per day, and claims 2 billion monthly page views. We first covered them back in September, where we compared them with the other major social networks.
The UK continues to be Piczo’s biggest market, accounting for 40% of users and 50% of page views (see TechCrunch UK coverage of the company here).

Today at 5 am PST they will announce a number of distribution and other partnerships with major Internet companies, including YouTube, Flock, Photobucket and VideoEgg.

More at:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/06/piczo-announces-partnerships-growth-still-strong/

Press Release - 12.06.06 - Piczo Delivers Custom Multimedia Tools to More Than 10 Million Teen Users

Piczo Delivers Custom Multimedia Tools to More Than 10 Million Teen Users

Partnerships With Flock, Photobucket and VideoEgg Enhance Online Self-Expression

Piczo, Inc. (www.piczo.com ), an online social network that provides a safe and creative environment for teen self-expression, today announced partnerships with Internet multimedia companies Flock, Photobucket and VideoEgg, offering enhanced online multimedia tools to millions of teens worldwide.

The partnerships will give Piczo users more online creativity through video and photo-sharing and enhance online communication between friends. Users will now be able to browse and add videos to their Piczo pages with easy one-click access. They can also access existing photos and videos from their Photobucket accounts, and upload personal video content through VideoEgg's custom publishing tools. Users can download a custom Flock Piczo Edition browser for more personalized media sharing, online searching and instant connections to their friends online.

"Self expression is an important part of every teenager's life and it's our goal to provide users with the necessary tools to help them creatively show who they are to their online friends," said Jeremy Verba, CEO, Piczo. "Our new partners bring an expertise that allows Piczo users enhanced media sharing and better online searching, all while staying connected to their friends in a safer social networking environment."

When users download the Flock Piczo Edition browser, they will receive alerts when friends update their sites, providing an instant connection to their Piczo friends. Users will also be able to quickly and easily drag and drop content such as photos and videos into their Piczo Web page. Other features in the Flock Piczo Edition browser include access to bulk upload tools, uninterrupted login and web searching capabilities.

"With the new Flock Piczo Edition, users get the best features of Piczo and Flock in one experience," said Geoffrey Arone, founder and chief strategy officer, Flock. "Our users are saying they want easy media sharing capabilities and instant access to friends. Piczo is an ideal partner to help deliver this because of its strong relationship with more than 10 million teen users."

Piczo has also partnered with VideoEgg to offer a Piczo Edition of the VideoEgg video publishing solution to users. With this custom offering, Piczo users will be able to quickly and easily create, edit, and upload personal videos to their Piczo pages.

"By combining VideoEgg's customizable and user-centric video platform with Piczo's unique approach to virally building teen communities we've created an even more immersive self-expression environment for Piczo users," said Matt Sanchez, CEO, VideoEgg.

Through a partnership with Photobucket, Piczo users experience fast, reliable and efficient sharing and publishing of video and photo content online. Specifically, Piczo users with a Photobucket account can opt to paste videos and pictures directly from Photobucket when editing their Piczo site, enabling quick and easy access to their personal content.

Additionally, Piczo is partnering with video hosting companies to make it easier for teens to access a broad selection of video content to add to their Piczo pages. Through the partnerships, users will be able to add videos to their Piczo pages from Piczo as well as the video hosting sites via an easy one-click option.

"Increasingly, teens want to be able to share media and entertainment content online quickly and easily," said Ben Bajarin, principal analyst, Creative Strategies. "Through these partnerships, Piczo will be one of the first social networking sites to offer this level of media sharing and customization to its users."

The Photobucket features are available today. Users will be able to access VideoEgg content and download the Piczo Edition Flock browser in the coming weeks.

Wired - Photobucket Hits 30 Million Users

Photobucket Hits 30 Million Users
Michael Calore, Wired Monkey Bites

This morning, the image and video hosting site Photobucket hit the 30 million registered user mark.

Photobucket is used extensively by MySpace users, LiveJournal bloggers and sellers on CraigsList and eBay. It's an easy short-term solution for publishing photos to the web if you don't have a web hosting account or if you aren't a member of Flickr or Yahoo Photos.

More at:

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/12/photobucket_hit.html

30 Million! Wooo Hooo!

Astounding news today here in Photobucket land!
We've hit 30,000,000 registered users today.
That's HUGE!

How HUGE is that?
Approximately the number of heart beats you've had since last Valentine's Day
The amount of dollars that Romanian Villager's are trying to sue for the Borat Movie
The # of lines of code that are used to make Microsoft Office in Mac
The # of paperclips collected in 2004 by a school in Norway for a history project

The Population of Peru -- 28,302,603
Three times the population of Michigan -- 10,120,860
Six times the population of Colorado -- 4,301,261
Ten times the square mileage of Australia --2,978,145 square miles

So we're dancing a lot here at the Photobucket offices.
Enough to hike up the number of heartbeats we'll have until our next big milestone.

Congrats to Laura M. For being our 30 Millionth registered user.
We *heart* you. Each and every one of you!

*****
Updated stats from Mike our VP of Engineering!
30 Million is:
* the number of bags were "mishandled" by all airlines last year
* the total number of surveillance cameras in the US
* the number American adults meet standard diagnostic criteria for at least one personality disorder
* the total number of bloggers in China
* the total number of foreign visitors to the UK last year
* the number of dog owners in the US
* the population of Canada in 2000
* the number of cellular subscribers in Russia
* the total number of sheep in the US in 1950
* the total number of hot dogs consumed in baseball parks each year
* the number of cars in the UK
* the number of cars in 2005 in China

PC Pro - Silicon Valley touches down in Oxford

Silicon Valley touches down in Oxford
Alun Williams, PC Pro
Silicon Valley came to Oxford University yesterday, for the sixth time in this annual event, and two clear themes arose: the advisability for would-be entrepreneurs to Go West and plug themselves into the Silicon Valley network, and the threat posed by Google to the traditional funding strategies for online start-ups.

Among the West Coast attendees at the Said Business School were successful start-up founders, such as Reid Hoffman, CEO and founder of Linked in and formerly of PayPal, and Alex WelchCEO and founder of Photobucket, technologists such as Chris Sacca, Google's Head of Special Initiatives, and venture capitalists, such as Allen Morgan, MD of Mayfield, one of Silicon Valley's oldest VC firms.

More at:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=98451

Photobucket Review @ bloggertalk.net

So http://www.bloggertalk.net did a very nice review of Photobucket and the recent changes that we've been working on.

Thanks to Rose DesRochers for the shout out!

"Photobucket named the fastest growing site of 2005 according to Nielsen/Netratings and now ranking as a top 100 site by traffic with 28 million users growing by over 65,000 users per day offers a reliable and wonderful service for hosting and sharing your photos and videos.

They offer both a free account and a professional account. For 25 dollars a year users have the option to upgrade from a free account to premium offering 5 GMB of storage and unmetered bandwidth, Ftp uploads plus other benefits.

Photobucket is perfect for the novist computer user as there is no need to know html.

...

Photobucket is not only a reliable service, but it is free and easy to use. On a scale of 1-5, I rate Photobucket a five."

Full Review after the jump:

Hitwise - Social Networking Sites Recover from September Decline, Facebook visits up

Social Networking Sites Recover from September Decline, Facebook visits up 16%

Today we released the Hitwise US Consumer Generated Media Report, which examines trends in social networking, photo hosting and sharing, and online video. According to the report, the market share of visits to the top 20 social networking sites accounted for nearly 1 in 20 internet visits in September 2006 (4.9% of all Internet visits). That number remained the same in October 2006.

More at:

http://weblogs.hitwise.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/366

Press Release - 11.07.06 - Level 3 Selected by Photobucket to Provide High Capacity Network Solutions

Level 3 Selected by Photobucket to Provide High Capacity Network Solutions

Multi-Year Agreement Supports Global Growth of a Leading Personal Media Site for Image and Video Sharing

BROOMFIELD, Colo., November 7, 2006 ¾ Level 3 Communications’ Content Markets Group today announced a multi-year agreement with Photobucket to support the company’s growing online personal media sharing service. Under the terms of the agreement, Level 3 will provide Photobucket with network solutions including Level 3® High Speed IP service via Multiple 10 gigabits per second (10GigE) ports.

"With over 28 million global users and adding 80,000 new users per day, Photobucket needs a robust, reliable and highly scalable network provider," said Darren Crystal, chief technical officer and co-founder of Photobucket. "Photobucket has worked with Level 3 since our company’s founding, and we are confident that they will continue to meet our needs."

"Photobucket, an online personal media site that enables users to manage and share their digital lives, delivers billions of images and videos across nearly 250,000 different websites every day. An additional 7 million personal images and videos are uploaded to Photobucket.com daily. This relationship gives Photobucket direct access to Level 3’s Tier 1 global network," continued Crystal.

"Photobucket’s needs are unique based on their significant scale and rate of growth," said Brady Rafuse, president of Level 3 Content Markets. "We feel confident that our network will effectively support their continued success. This agreement demonstrates Level 3’s commitment to address the business needs of today’s digital media providers."

Eight of the top-10 Internet destinations trust Level 3 to deliver network solutions. With one of the world’s largest IP backbones, Level 3 also provides reliable high capacity solutions to meet the rapidly growing demand for rich media content online. With Internet connectivity in 82 key markets, and a comprehensive suite of network services that serve as customizable building blocks, Level 3 has the scalability, performance, and service portfolio to help its customers meet their customers’ demands.

About Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT), an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world. Through its customers, Level 3 is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers. The company provides a comprehensive suite of services over its broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, voice services and voice over IP services. These services provide building blocks that enable Level 3’s customers to meet their growing demands for advanced communications solutions. The company’s Web address is www.Level3.com.

"Level 3 Communications,” "Level 3" and the Level 3 Communications logo are registered service marks of Level 3 Communications, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Any other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Level 3 services are provided by wholly owned subsidiaries of Level 3 Communications, Inc.

Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements made by Level 3 in this press release are forward-looking in nature. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Level 3 believes that its primary risk factors include, but are not limited to: increasing the volume of traffic on Level 3's network; developing new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; successfully completing commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; stabilizing or reducing the rate of price compression on certain of our communications services; integrating strategic acquisitions; attracting and retaining qualified management and other personnel; and the ability to meet all of the terms and conditions of our debt obligations. Additional information concerning these and other important factors can be found within Level 3’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this release should be evaluated in light of these important factors.

GigaOm - Live Widgets!

Live Widgets!
Liz Gannes, GigaOM

We’re here at Widgets Live1, the first GigaOM conference, in San Francisco. A year ago, the rare time I heard the word “widgets” was usually in a business reporting scenario (“Say Company X wants to sell its widgets business to Company Y; when the sale is announced the stocks of the companies often…blah blah blah). Now, any company we talk to has a “widget strategy,” while some companies, such as Teqlo2 and Slide3 (both here today) are centered entirely on widgets.

More at:

http://gigaom.com/2006/11/06/live-widgets/

IMedia - User-Generated Revolution

User-Generated Revolution

Rebecca Weeks, iFilm

 Whereas Revver's strategy is to let anyone affiliate with its technology and distribute content anywhere they want, the CEO of Photobucket, Alex Welch, is betting on his destination. He added, "The average consumer has multiple online identities that he or she maintains each day. They want a central place to publish their content. Users are getting the reach for us by sharing with their friends."

More at:

http://www.imediaconnection

Reuters - Facebook touts new Web surfing scrapbooks

Facebook touts new Web surfing scrapbooks
Eric Auchard, Reuters

Want to show your friends what you're reading or watching on the Web? Facebook says you can now do it "in two clicks."

Initial partners include news sites like The New York Times, WashingtonPost.com, Dow Jones' Wall Street Journal Online and gaming sites like GameSpot.com (owned by CNET Networks, the publisher of News.com) and IDG Entertainment.

There are also links to sports sites like Time Warner's SI.com and NBC Universal's NBCSports.com, video sites such as Brightcove and PhotoBucket, StupidVideos.com and eBaum's World, and humor sites like The Onion and CollegeHumor.com.

More at:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-10-31T131056Z_01_N31457998_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-FACEBOOK.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-C2-NextArticle-1

 

·         Also located at:

§         CNET News: http://news.com.com/Facebook+touts+new+Web+surfing+scrapbooks/2100-1025_3-6131016.html

§         PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2047918,00.asp

§         Reuters UK : http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-10-31T112923Z_01_N31457998_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-MEDIA-FACEBOOK.XML&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-C2-NextArticle-1

§         Reuters Canada : http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-10-31T112439Z_01_N31457998_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MEDIA-FACEBOOK-COL.XML

Press Release - 10.26.06 - Blogging Leader Six Apart Launches Vox, the Next Step in Personal Blogging

Blogging Leader Six Apart Launches Vox, the Next Step in Personal Blogging

Free service provides unprecedented privacy control, ease of use,
and the richest media and web services integration available today

San Francisco, CA – October 26, 2006 – Six Apart, the world leader in blogging software and services, today launched Vox in the U.S., Japan, and France. Vox, a free personal blogging service for sharing experiences with friends and family, had been in private beta since June. Six Apart also announced an agreement with MRM Worldwide, a full-service direct and interactive marketing agency, to develop and implement creative advertising and integrated sponsorship programs on Vox.

"Vox is the big next step in the evolution of personal blogging,” said Six Apart co-founder and president Mena Trott, who is the lead designer of Vox. “It has powerful privacy control and is easier to use, more accessible, and fun.”

Vox’s rich privacy filters give members granular control over who views their stories, photos, videos or audio. Members can easily set any of five levels of privacy on any piece of content they share on Vox.

Rich media integration means members can insert audio, video, photos and web content into posts by connecting with popular web services people already use such as Amazon.com, YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket , iStockphoto, and iFilm. Generous storage - two gigabytes total uploads per month - assures members that they never have to worry about deleting an important memory.

"Vox has integrated an elegant and seamless way for Photobucket’s 27 million users to add images and personal video content to their blogs,” said Alex Welch, Photobucket CEO. “The integration makes it ideal for our mutual users to take their personal media with them, and publish it using Six Apart's Vox platform."

Hundreds of beautiful designs from the award-winning designers at Six Apart and Vox members offer a multitude of choices for a look that can be changed with just a few clicks to suit mood, locale, activity, or whim.

Vox also includes mobile features that are currently in beta, such as the ability to share photos with a single click from Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian mobile phone platforms. Vox is the only service that allows members to apply privacy settings and tags to photos and video from their phone before sharing them on Vox.

“Vox is a place to meaningfully connect and share interests and experiences with the people we care about,” according to Vox general manager Andrew Anker. “In just four months, response from early members has been extremely positive, not only from experienced bloggers who feel rejuvenated by this fun and unique space, but also from new bloggers who feel comfortable in Vox because of the privacy options and easy-to-use features.”

Groundbreaking Advertising Partnership
Six Apart and MRM Worldwide, a full-service direct and interactive marketing agency within the McCann Worldgroup network, have inked a pioneering agreement to research, develop and implement next-generation advertising and integrated sponsorship programs on Vox. The deal, which was facilitated by the Interpublic Emerging Media Lab, will create an advertising experience as rich, relevant and unique as the experience Vox delivers to its bloggers. With MRM Worldwide as a partner, Vox will be a space where advertisers can participate in conversations with consumers and provide value to the thriving social community of Vox members.

"Vox gives people the power to create their own, highly personalized web environment in ways not previously possible. By empowering its users, Vox makes meaningful community-building possible by individuals," said Reuben Hendell, CEO, MRM Worldwide. "We are thrilled to be the agency leader working with Vox on new ways for advertisers and consumers to interact with each other.”

Vox World Tour
Six Apart is celebrating the launch with a Vox World Tour Promotion that will send two lucky couples on a trip to see and experience the three cities where Vox was born - San Francisco, Paris, and Tokyo. Anyone who registers for Vox before December 31st, 2006 at 11:59:59 PM and posts an entry about what they like best about the service will be automatically entered into the drawing. A panel of judges will review the entries and vote on the best submission. Please go to http://www.sixapart.com/vox/voxworldtour.html for more information.

Press Release - 10.25.06 - Photobucket Adds Divx Media Format to Let Users Share and Publish High-Quality Video

PHOTOBUCKET ADDS DIVX MEDIA FORMAT TO LET USERS SHARE AND PUBLISH HIGH-QUALITY VIDEO

Partnership to bring superior video quality, device portability to Photobucket’s 27 million users

October 25, 2006 – Palo Alto, Calif. – Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the online personal media company where over 27 million people create, manage and share their digital lives, today announced a partnership with DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), a leading digital media company. Photobucket’s users will be able to upload and share personal videos using the high quality DivX video format, and enjoy the flexibility of playing their personal videos on one of the millions of DivX Certified consumer electronics devices in the market today.

Photobucket users upload over 30,000 new personal video clips each day, and with DivX they have additional choice and flexibility. Photobucket enlists an editorial staff of over 50 to review and moderate content so that partners have confidence that users’ personal media is safe for their community and advertisers.

DivX is one of the most popular video formats used by consumers today around the world. DivX is already shipping on 46 million consumer devices, and has been downloaded over 180 million times in the last four years, including over 50 million times during the last twelve months. The format is popular among videophiles largely because of the high quality experience it produces while preserving file sizes small enough to transfer online and playback across a wide variety of DivX Certified consumer electronics devices from leading brands.

“We’re committed to giving our users the creative power to publish and share their lives online,” said Alex Welch, Chief Executive Officer of Photobucket. “With DivX, Photobucket users can take their personal videos with them, in addition to sharing them on the web.”

"By partnering with Photobucket, DivX can bring our superior video quality and interoperability to Photobucket’s massive user base," said Mark How, Vice President of Business Development at DivX, Inc.

“It’s our goal to help create and build a better media future for consumers everywhere. Photobucket offers their community a clear and easy way to share the digital media that is important to them, and those values are closely aligned with our vision and approach.”

Blogging Stocks - Who Will Buy PhotoBucket: It's Not For Sale

Who Will Buy PhotoBucket: It's Not For Sale
Douglas McIntyre, Blogging Stocks

PhotoBucket, the huge online photo sharing site, is not for sale. But of course its CEO decided to have a press interview to make that clear.

In September, PhotoBucket was the 41st most visited site in the US. It had 14.7 million unique visitors, putting it ahead of sites like Overstock and Craigslist. The company is independent and backed by venture capitalists who are probably hungry for the kind of quick return that MySpace and YouTube VCs got.

By talking to the press and signaling that PhotoBucket could be had for the right price, the company is probably starting a bidding war. With photo-sharing and online photo development as two key community and commercial functions on the web, there are several potential suitors.

More at:

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/10/20/who-will-buy-photobucket-its-not-for-sale/

Dow Jones - Web Startups May See More Mergers

Web Startups May See More Mergers
Mark Boslet, Dow Jones Newswires
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- Google Inc.'s $1.65 billion acquisition of Internet video site YouTube Inc. has turned up the pressure on rivals to keep pace in a rapidly changing online environment.

"I think in general there are large technology and media companies that will buy their way in" to some of these companies, said Alex Welch, chief executive of photo-sharing site Photobucket Inc. of Denver.

Welch said Photobucket is not "officially for sale," but "it is possible for a company to be acquired in this space."

More at:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061018/web_startups_mergers.html?.v=1
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8KR84SO1.htm
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/technology/15790056.htm
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4268770.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061018-1237-webstartups-mergers.html
http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=36870146813520
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/business/technology/15790056.htm
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/technology/15790056.htm
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/business/technology/15790056.htm

For continued syndication please click here:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=Web+Startups+%2B+Mergers+%2B+Photobucket&btnG=Search+News

Press Release - 10.17.06 - Photobucket Bolsters Executive Team With Key Hires in Sales, Finance and Customer Service

Photobucket Bolsters Executive Team With Key Hires in Sales, Finance and Customer Service

Seasoned Executives Bring Operational and Strategic Experience to Fast Growing Personal Media Company

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), an online personal media company where over 25 million people create, manage and share their digital life, today announced the expansion of the company’s executive team. Recent hires include Karen Katz as Senior Vice President of Media Development, Peter Foster as Vice President of Sales, Greg Wimmer as Vice President of Finance & Administration, and Heather Dana as Executive Director of Customer Service.

"We’ve spent the past 3 years building a massive infrastructure and user base. It’s clear we can take better advantage of such scale with an expanded executive team," said Alex Welch, co-founder and CEO of Photobucket. The company recently announced it reached 25 million users that link their photos, personal videos and images to over 250,000 different websites and share them using email, IM and mobile devices. ComScore reports that Photobucket is the world’s largest photo-sharing service. Every day over 7 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world.

Karen Katz, Senior Vice President of Media Development, and Peter Foster, Vice President of Sales, are responsible for growing revenue through media development, advertising and sponsorships. Karen brings over 20 years of operational and leadership experience across start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Over the past 7 years, while founding and managing high-tech media companies, Karen has built new advertising platforms and a "who’s who" list of advertisers as clients. She previously worked as Executive Vice President of Sales at FilmLoop, a desktop photocasting network, where she signed on some of the world’s leading consumer brands. Prior to FilmLoop, Karen co-founded and served as CEO of AdSpace Networks, raising nearly $40 million in venture funding and building a world-renowned digital media network for advertising in public places.

Peter Foster, Vice President of Sales, brings 10 years of advertising sales and management experience to Photobucket. Peter has spent his entire career working with major advertisers and agencies across the US, running top-notch sales organizations. Most recently, Peter was Senior Vice President of Sales for ValueClick Media/Fastclick, where he managed a national team of more than 30 people and annual revenues of more than $150 million. During his tenure there, he also played a key role in successfully integrating the two sales organizations after the acquisition of Fastclick.

Greg Wimmer, Vice President of Finance & Administration, brings over 20 years of finance, accounting and management experience at innovative technology companies. Prior to Photobucket, Greg held VP of Finance and CFO positions at several fast growing companies, successfully raising over $100 million in venture financing. Most recently, as CFO of Wavemarket, Greg negotiated key contracts with major mobile operators in North America, as well as distribution deals with equipment providers globally. He previously worked as a Management Consultant at Deloitte & Touche.

Heather Dana joins Photobucket as Executive Director of Customer Service. Heather is responsible for the delivery of world-class services and support to Photobucket users globally. With more than 20 years of customer service experience, Heather brings a wealth of operational and strategic knowledge to Photobucket. Previously, Heather served as Vice President of Customer Service at Monster.com where she dramatically increased customer satisfaction and improved the user experience.

Vote for Photobucket!

How exciting!
Photobucket.com  has been nominated for a UK Website of the Year award in the Best video sharing site.

1. UK�s "Best video sharing site 2006" based on the website with the highest average scores on navigation, content and design.

2. UK�s "Most popular video sharing site 2006" awarded to the site with the highest amount of votes.   

We hope you'll vote for Photobucket.com  for this awesome award.

About the Website of the Year   

"Website of the Year 2006" is a pan-European people's-choice award initiative by online market research agency Metrixlab and supported by Nielsen//Netratings (Industry Partner) and various local Media Partners (TechCrunch, Markarina, Comunitzione, Bajo La Linea, TrabajarsInConexion, Rhizm.de and Das E-Business Weblog by Martin Rll).

Last year the Website of the Year attracted over 1.5 million unique visitors and the election was broadly supported by various well know websites (Zylom, MTV, Virgin, Neckermann, Otto etcetera.)

Winners will be announced in national media (print & web), on the websites of our media partners and allowed to publish the award on their website for one year.

Vote for Photobucket.com and you might win some cool prizes! Go! Do it today!

San Antonio News - Users, money shifting to participatory 'Web 2.0'

Users, money shifting to participatory 'Web 2.0'
L.A. Lorek, San Antonio News-Express

The new breed of Internet companies and online services revolve around people.

The Pew report points to Photobucket, a socially integrated photo service that requires users to upload, share and tag their photos as an example of a Web 2.0 company. It labels Kodakgallery, a traditional online photo site, as a Web 1.0 company. It also calls Wikipedia, an interactive encyclopedia, a Web 2.0 company, compared to Encarta Encyclopedia, another Web 1.0 company. The Web 2.0 companies are growing online traffic much more quickly than the traditional companies, according to the report.

More at:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA101006.01E.Web.2683b61.html

Clickz - Pew Zeroes in on 'Web 2.0,' Sort Of

October 6, 2006
Pew Zeroes in on 'Web 2.0,' Sort Of

Enid Burns, Click Z Networks

Sites embracing such concepts allow users to share their ideas through text, photo, video and audio. The report offers up Photobucket, where users can upload, tag, share and comment on photos, as one example of such a site. Photobucket's traffic has steadily increased, while "1.0" site Kodakgallery has idled.

More at:

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3623620

International Business Times - Photo and Real Estate Sites Lead European Internet Visits

Photo and Real Estate Sites Lead European Internet Visits
By Daniel Jacobs, International Business Times
NEW YORK (International Business Times) - Europeans are visiting more photo and real-estate websites a study released on Thursday reveals.

Traffic to real-estate related websites in Europe grew by 11 percent in August, research firm comScore Networks reports, garnering 34 million unique visitors. The German website, ImmobilienScout24 led the pack, with 3.8 million unique visitors representing 18 percent growth.

"As consumers increasingly turn to the Internet in their real estate research process to view properties, check mortgage rates and calculate loan payments, their Internet behavior can be expected to become a leading indicator of overall macro-economic trends in the residential housing market," said Bob Ivins, managing director, comScore Europe.

The report also finds that traffic to the photo related websites rose 5 percent to 60 million unique visitors for August. Imageshak, a U.K based site, increased 10 percent to lead the catagorey with 13 million visitors, while Flikr, the number two site, drew 6.5 million visits.

"As Europeans sought to share their best summer pictures, Photobucket.com and Pbase.com achieved the highest growth rates, increasing 15 percent and 18 percent, respectively versus the prior month," the firm stated.

Red Herring - What the $#@! Is Web 2.0?

October 5, 2006
What the $#@! Is Web 2.0?

Whatever it is, it’s growing fast. A new report attempts to define the vague buzzword.
A. DeMonte, Red Herring

 

Most Internet startups these days claim to be the next Web 2.0 hit. Some startups, confident they’ve moved one step beyond the social web, define themselves as “Web 2.1” companies. One hapless would-be visionary even claimed his plan was so grand that it was “Web 3.0.”

 

All of which begs the question: what the heck is Web 2.0? Non-Profit The Pew Internet Project tried to answer that question Thursday with the release of a report titled “Riding the Waves of Web 2.0: More than a buzzword, but still not easily defined.”

Coined by Dale Dougherty and made popular by O’Reilly Media in 2004, the term defined the wide umbrella of the blogs, wikis and social networking sites that made up the “participatory web.”

 

“That the term has enjoyed such a constant morphing of meaning and interpretation is, in many ways, the clearest sign of usefulness,” says the report, which argues there is “little consensus about where 1.0 ends and 2.0 begins.”

 

Web 2.0 vs. Web 1.0

 

The report looks at how online activity during the time known as Web 1.0 differed from that of Web 2.0, using data from market research group Hitwise to support its findings.

 

For example, the growth of the Kodak Easy Share gallery, an online photo-sharing site the report authors consider “traditional,” has flatlined. Meanwhile, “Web 2.0” site Photobucket made strong gains. Likewise, user-edited Wikipedia has gained ground, while Encarta is losing out.

 

More at:

 

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19007&hed=What+the+%24%23%40!+is+Web+2.0%3F&sector=Industries&subsector=InternetAndServices

Digital Trends - Photobucket Reaches 25 Mln Member Mark

Photobucket Reaches 25 Mln Member Mark

Ian Bell, Digital Trends News

Photobucket, the popular image and media sharing site has blown past the 25 million member mark today.

The company is reporting growth of more than 300% over the past year.

More at:

http://news.digitaltrends.com/article11385.html

Some updates re: what hitting 25 Million users means

Mike, our VP of engineering thought it'd be good to put the whole 25 Million users milestone in perspective and sent the following around the office.

Just to put a little perspective to the milestone we passed yesterday.

Photobucket has more users then the....

Distance from Earth to Venus -- 25,000,000 miles
Number of acres of lawns in the U.S. -- 25,000,000 acres
Annual number of lightning strikes globally -- 25,000,000
Population of Venezuela -- 25,000,000
Population of Uzbekistan -- 25,000,000
Amount of wool clipped in Wyoming every year -- 25,000,000 lbs.
Number of riders annually on all Amtrak trains -- 25,000,000
Population of Iraq (2004) -- 24,500,000
Population of Texas -- 20,851,820
Population of Australia -- 20,090,437
Population of New York -- 18,976,457
Five times the population of Colorado -- 4,301,261

Now while I wouldn't typically compare Photobuket to a bunch of wool or Uzbekistani citizens, these stats definitely make us realize how huge of an accomplishment this is and how much we've managed to grow over the last few years.

The official press release announcement on this after the jump.
Thanks again everyone!

MJ - Photobucket Marketing

Press Release - 09.27.06 - Photobucket Reaches Landmark of Over 25 Million Members

Photobucket Reaches Landmark of Over 25 Million Members
Membership Growth Fueled by Consumer Sharing of Personal Media Online
September 27, 2006
Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the largest personal media company for people to create, manage and share their digital life online, today announced that it has exceeded more than 25 million members.

The site, launched in 2003, has become a creative hub delivering billions of personal photos, graphics and videos daily to over 200,000 different websites – including eBay, Craigslist, MySpace, Blogger, and LiveJournal – and enables sharing via email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. comScore Networks reports that Photobucket is one the top 50 most visited websites, with 15 million unique visitors per month.

This announcement follows recent reports by Hitwise and Nielsen/Netratings that Photobucket is the top photo-sharing website in the world, 2x larger than Yahoo Photos, with aggressive growth of more than 2 million new users monthly. Every day over 7 million personal photos, videos and graphics are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with friends, family and everyone.

“I’m excited that Photobucket is at the center of it all – social media, blogging, sharing online,” said Alex Welch, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Photobucket. “We’re focused on giving our users creative control of their personal media, whether it be to create a widget and link it to their blog, or to email a personal video to a friend.”

Photobucket’s user base has grown 300% over the past year since September 2005, driven by consumer demand for a fast and easy way to share personal digital content using one central online hub.

Mediapost - People on the Move

People on the Move
MediaPost Publications

Photobucket has named KAREN KATZ as senior vice president of media development and PETER FOSTER as vice president of sales.

More at:

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showTodaysEdition&art_type=23

25 Million Users!

Today Photobucket passed 25 million registered users. Thank you all for helping us achieve this huge milestone, we couldn't have done it without all 25 million of you. Next up is 50mm... :)

The Photobucket Team

The Leaf Chronicle - Find photos, Hope on World Wide Web

September 22, 2006
Find photos, Hope on World Wide Web

Jamie Dexter, The Leaf-Chronicle

 

On many nights, the glow of my computer monitor is all that can be seen in my little apartment. Coke cans pile up next to my mouse pad, almost toppled by my furious clicking.

My name is Jamie, and I'm an Internet addict.

Rather than clicking back and forth between my favorite Web sites (myspace.com and facebook.com) I decided to think outside the Web address box and look into more cool sites to share with you.

Here are a few of my new favorites:

* Photobucket: The amount of sites on the Internet that focus on photo sharing and printing is uncountable, and I've probably used almost all of them, but Photobucket has some new and interesting features.

More at:

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060922/COLUMNISTS17/609220301/1024

IBDNetwork's Momentum Growth Conference Announces Topics and Final List of Participating Companies

MOMENTUM Growth Conference, September 27 - 28, 2006

- Announcement -

Registration is now closed for Momentum - TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED AT THE DOOR starting at 8:00 AM TOMORROW!

From the producers of the acclaimed Under the Radar, the Momentum Growth Conference honors industry leaders dominating the next stage of the growth cycle — a who’s who of leading companies with real customers, real revenue, real partnerships, and the vision to change their market landscape in the next 12–18 months.

Companies granted this prestigious honor are recognized as the “ones to watch” — role models for growing exponentially while gaining rapid traction in an exploding market.

At Momentum, discussions will not only be about how these superstars gained momentum, but also how they plan on keeping it. We’ll be talking about growth — the business opportunities that lie ahead for the Momentum 30, the current stakeholders in the market and the entire ecosystem surrounding.

The Momentum 30 Companies were chosen out of more than 500 companies reviewed.

The Line-Up
Accel Partners | Kevin Efrusy | General Partner
Amazon | Peter Krawiec | VP | Corporate Development
AOL | Toby Trevarthen | VP
Barrons | Eric Savitz | West Coast Editor
Blinkx | Suranga Chandratillake | CTO & Founder
CafePress | Fred Durham | CEO
Cellfire | Brent Dusing | CEO
CNET | Martin Green | SVP
CNET | Rafe Needleman | Editor, Business Buying Advice
Critical Mention | Sean Morgan | Founder & CEO
Discovery Communications | Doug Craig | VP Programming, New Media Operations
Facebook | Owen Van Natta | COO
Fox Interactive | Heather Harde | SVP Mergers and Acquisitions
Glu Mobile | Greg Ballard | President & CEO
Google | Megan Smith | Director New Business Development & Strategy
Gracenote | Craig Palmer | CEO
IAC | James Speer | VP Ad Products
IBDNetwork/Wise Mentor Capital | Sean Wise
Internet REIT | Bob Martin | CEO
Jefferies Broadview | David Liu | Managing Director
Jefferies Broadview | Katherine Egbert | Managing Director
Jefferies Broadview | Youssef Squali | Managing Director
Kalt and Rosen | Neal Rosen | Co-founder
Laszlo | David Temkin | Founder and CTO
Macrovision | Ghazi Benothman | Senior Director Corporate Development
Manatt Phelps & Phillips | Jerry Petruzzelli | Partner
Manatt Phelps & Phillips | Ron Katz | Partner
Media-Screen | Josh Crandall | Principal
Medio Systems | Brian Lent | CEO
MeeVee | Michael Raneri | CEO
Microsoft | Matt Champagne | Director Mobile Product Management, MSN & Windows Live
Microsoft | Sush Vij | Director TV Services and MSN Live
Mimeo | Adam Slutsky | CEO
Mixxer | John Dearborn | CEO
MobiTV | Paul Scanlan | COO
MobiTV | Philip Alvelda | CEO
Motorola | Cheryln Chin | Corporate VP Mobile Software Solutions
MovieLabs | Steve Weinstein | President & CEO
MTV Networks | Matt Bostwick | SVP Franchise Development, MTV Music Group
Navio | Kevin Collins | CTO
NETGEAR | Doug Hagan | Director of Corporate Marketing
Nokia Ventures Organization | Sanji Fernando | Portfolio Manager
Pandora | Jessica Stoner | VP of Business Development
Panorama Capital | Mike Jung | Principal
Peerflix | Billy McNair | Co-founder & CEO
Piczo | Jeremy Verba | CEO
Reach Local | Zorik Gordon | Founder & CEO
Real Girls Media | Kate Everett-Thorp | CEO
Reply! | Payam Zamani | CEO
Revver | Bill Jeffries | VP of Business Development
Sidestep | Rob Solomon | President & CEO
Simple Star | Chad Richard | CEO
Sling Media | Rich Buchanan | VP of Marketing
Specific Media | Tim Vanderhook | President & CEO
Sterling Communications | Marianne O’Connor | CEO
TeleNav | HP Jin | CEO
VantagePoint Venture Partners | Duncan Davidson | Managing Director
Vendare NetBlue | Art Shaw | CEO
WaldenVC | Larry Marcus | Managing Partner
Wall Street Journal | Kara Swisher | Staff Reporter & Co-producer, D: All Things Digital Conference
Yahoo! | Bradley Horowitz | VP of Product Strategy
Yahoo! | Jason Zajac | VP & GM | Social Media
Zillow | Spencer Rascoff | CFO & VP Marketing

Momentum Companies
Blinkx | Cafe Press | Cellfire | Critical Mention | Facebook | Glu Mobile | Gracenote | Internet REIT | Laszlo | Medio Systems | MeeVee | Mimeo | Mixxer | MobiTV | Navio Systems | Pandora | Peerflix | Photobucket | Piczo | ReachLocal | Reply! | Revver | Sidestep | Simple Star | Sling Media | Specific Media | TeleNav | VendareNetBlue | Zillow

Audience
Attendees are CEOs and executives of Momentum companies; senior business- and corporate-development executives from both technology companies and media companies; financial professionals including late-stage VCs and investment bankers; business and technology press; and industry analysts.

Press Release - 09.18.06 - SingShot Hits a High Note with New Personalized Features

SingShot Hits a High Note with New Personalized Features: Online Karaoke Site now includes Videos, Photos, "Top Recording" Ratings and RSS Feeds

SAN FRANCISCO - September 18, 2006 - SingShot Media, a Web-based entertainment service that enables people to listen to, rate and record karaoke-style musical performances online, today announced new features to SingShot (www.singshot.com) that further enhance the experience of singing in cyberspace. SingShot now enables users to upload photographs and video clips to add original content and personality to their music; engage in friendly competition with other members by highlighting the top member recording of each song, and receive a variety of information through RSS feeds.

After recording their own version of a song, singers can upload a photo that will appear in the playback window or, by using the photo and video hosting site Photobucket , can upload multiple photos and video clips for display. Recordings with customized pictures or video are marked with a special icon on the website.

To offer special recognition to the immense array of talent online, SingShot now highlights the top recording for each song. As a member prepares to record their own version of a song, a special box displays the member and corresponding recording rated as the best performance to date.

Finally, SingShot offers the ability to obtain informational updates through RSS feeds. Members can receive updates when new songs are available, or if another SingShot member they've marked as a "favorite" records a new song. Users can also receive information about new comments on their own recordings and that of other members, including updates on the most recorded songs and top members. In addition to RSS, updates can be received via email.

SingShot boasts a number of other features that make it easy for members to share recordings and integrate the SingShot experience into the way they live and play on the Web. SingShot users can embed their recordings into their profiles on blogs, MySpace®, and other social media sites, and add keyword tags to their recordings.

Anyone using SingShot can record their own versions of popular songs; can listen to recordings by other members; and rate and comment on the best singers and recordings for free.

SingShot was created by SingShot Media, a San Francisco-based startup that provides an online entertainment platform that enables people passionate about music and singing to connect and interact with each other, and get feedback from the world at large. The company was founded in 2006 and is backed by Trans Cosmos Investments, among others.

Financial Times - User-generated content is king in 2006

User-generated content is king in 2006
Aissetou N'gom

Fastest growing online brands in UK - 2006
1. YouTube
2. Flickr
3. MySpace
4. American Express
5. Photobucket
6. Mozilla
7. Vodafone
8. Bebo
9. Odeon
10. B&Q

2005
1. Piczo
2. American Greetings
3. Shopzila
4. Starware
5. Limewire
6. Odc
7. Wikipedia
8. Skype
9. Nickelodeon
10. Blogger

More at:

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

TechCrunch's Arrington shares his winners and losers

TechCrunch's Arrington shares his winners and losers
Dan Farber, ZDNet

TechCruncher Mike Arrington opened the second day of The Future of Web Apps Summit with his picks of Web 2.0 winners and losers and gives advice to wouldbe startups. He also announced the next blog in the TechCrunch family, which will cover enterprise products.

Winners (got acquired): Writely, del.icio.us, Userplane, Flickr, Weblogs, Inc., Myspace, Bloglines, Truveo, Grouper, Skype, Newroo

Very good bets: Digg, Facebook YouTube, Photobucket, Zoho, Stumble Upon, Popsugar, PlentyofFish, Netvibes. Mike said he could be an executive at any of the companies, it would be Digg, which also drives 20 percent of TechCrunch traffic.

Ones to watch: Jobster, Riya, Zillow, Flock, Sharpcast, Rocketboom, 1-800-FREE411, oDesk, Second Life, WordPress

More at:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3612

Social sites make up 5 out of 10 fastest growiing UK brands

Social sites make up 5 out of 10 fastest growiing UK brands
Staff, Tech Digest
Five out of the ten fastest growing websites in the UK between January and July this year are social networking / Web 2.0 based - in other words they're built on user-generated content.

Top of the pile is YouTube, followed by Flickr in 2nd and MySpace in 3rd place. Photobucket comes in 5th, with Bebo in 8th.

More at:

http://www.techdigest.tv/2006/09/social_sites_ma.html

Seeking Alpha - VC-Backed Ad-Driven IPOs Likely to Take Off in 2007

VC-Backed Ad-Driven IPOs Likely to Take Off in 2007
Paul Kedrosky, Seeking Alpha

The summer of 2006 will be seen as the trough for venture-backed IPOs. There are three factors at work:

1. The capital markets finally need new blood: Existing tech companies are doing poorly, long-buzzed turnarounds in old favorites like JDS have fizzled, and a combination of defections and acquisitions has shrunk the pool of public companies.
2. A new generation of tech companies is generating meaningful revenues, and not getting the valuations it would like in private markets.
3. Venture capitalists have capitulated on IPOs, and don't even bother trying anymore. Given a tiny opening, and they'll get one in the next twelve months, they'll unload their entire portfolios.

In 2007 look for IPOs from ad-driven companies like YouTube, Photobucket, and others, much to the chagrin of grizzled skeptics out there.

Here is a graph of some data I looked at earlier today that helped convince me we're set to see an IPO upswing:

More at:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/16367

ReadWriteWeb - The Web Photo Sharing Site Faceoff

The Web Photo Sharing Site Faceoff

Written by Alex Iskold and edited by
Richard MacManus.

In this post we profile the red hot photo sharing space, where the blogosphere darling Flickr is actually trailing in the mass market. Back in June, Hitwise posted their online photo market

statistics - which showed Photobucket with a
huge market lead at #1 and Flickr at #6. A lot of Photobucket's lead is due to its high
usage in MySpace pages - 56% of Photobucket's
traffic is from MySpace, according to Hitwise. So marketing and being part of a large ecosystem are crucial. But also important is having simple and easy to use features. So
we present here a feature-by-feature comparison and also highlight areas where particular
services stand out from the pack. 

Feature Comparison of Photo Sharing Sites

In the table below (which incidentally we did using Zoho Sheet, Zoho's online spreadsheet) we list companies from the Hitwise article as well as some additional 'web 2.0' photo sharing players.

Click for full-size table

Note that for Alexa rank we highlighted the top 5 scores - Flickr, Photobucket, Webshots, Kodakgallery, Pbase.

Pros and Cons of each Photo Sharing Site

	Pros	Cons
Flickr (owned by Yahoo!)	innovative, tons of cool features, drag and drop, sharing, RSS, badges, clustering	difficult to use for non tech savvy
Photobucket	simple, limited functionality, badges	perhaps too simple, annoying ads, no sharing and social web features
Kodakgallery	professional interface, targeting main stream	no sharing and social web features
MyPhotoAlbum	simple, has all the basic functions, each album has unique URL	no sharing and social web features
Pbase (not in the same space)	stunning professional photography, gallery-based implementation, simple	no sharing and social web features
Picasa (not in the same space yet - owned by Google)	hard to say because it is not apples to apples, but editing photos is nice	basically not (yet) in the same space, not really web-based
Picturetrail	music associated with albums, lots of badge options	unbearably annoying ads during sign up, clubs instead of groups, does not seem intuitive
Shutterfly	professional interface, targeting mainstream	no sharing and social web features
Slide (not in the same space)	runs on top of Flickr, Photobucket, etc. plugs into MySpace, blogs, etc. Fills nice niche within the space.	focused on making slideshows (it's a limitation, if you want to consider this service as a contender).
Smugmug	professional interface, a lot of album options, well thought through	not free
Snapfish	professional interface, targeting mainstream	no sharing and social web features
Webshots	has lots of social web photo features	ads, somewhat clunky, no tags (at least we could not find them)
Zooomr	conceptually interesting, some innovative UI, uses OpenID for login.	confirmation image gives you instant headache; no geography-only tag cloud; the maps are cool, but not useful
Zoto	very well designed, has the most social web features	somewhat slow, lacks printing ability

Notes

Where's Yahoo! Photos? We excluded Yahoo! Photos from this comparison because we did not have access to the new Yahoo! Photos beta, so we felt it would be unfair to review it based on the old site.

The browser twist The social browser Flock

has delivered two direct integrations with Flickr and Photobucket. What is interesting
(and also somewhat confusing) is that Flock has made a special version to be distributed
to Photobucket users. It is difficult to say what impact this deal has had on the photo
sharing market so far, but it is likely that browser integration is going to play a major
role in the future.

Conclusion

Firstly, we do not have a single online photo market. There is still a clear mainstream market led by KodakGallery and Yahoo! Photos. This market is basically focused on upload/album/print capabilities - and has little to none social aspects. 

On the other hand, Flickr is a clear leader in the social photo sharing market. It has unmatched features, usability and community. 

However the overall leader in the photo sharing market in general, and a good mix between mainstream and social web, is Photobucket. They have been able to add just enough social features, without getting too complex or fancy, to convert a lot of people from traditional photo sharing sites.

How is it all going to end up and who is going to win in this market? Time will tell, but it is likely we will end up having fewer players - and those that stick around will have a blend of features from the current mainstream and 'social web' camps. As for the bloggers' favorite, Flickr, the road to mainstream acceptance for Flickr is paved with tough competition and the need to simplify.

ECommerce Guide - Free Image Hosting for Sellers

August 25, 2006
Free Image Hosting for Sellers
Vangie Beal, Ecommerce Guide

Using images hosted on Photobucket, List.d Express is offering a free service to eBay sellers that will allow them to add these extra images directly to their eBay pages.

More at:

 

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/essentials/ebay/article.php/3628446

Gigaom - Photobucket Rules

Photobucket1, the plain vanilla photo hosting site is now officially the king of online photo business. It now has a whopping 44% of the total market, ahead of old timers - Yahoo, Webshots and Flickr. According to data collected by Hitwise2, “its share of visits increased by 34% in the four months from February 2006 to May 2006.” Flickr is growing fast too - up 44% in the past four months.

More at:

http://gigaom.com/2006/06/22/photobucket-rules/

Hitwise - PhotoBucket Leads Photo Sharing Sites; Flickr at #6

June 21, 2006
PhotoBucket Leads Photo Sharing Sites; Flickr at #6

In the SF tech bubble that I live in, most of the talk about photo sites has been centered on Flickr. In fact, you could get the impression from most people I meet that Flickr is the ONLY site at which you can share and store photos.

Full Article:

Rocky Mountain News - Snapshot hot shots

Snapshot hot shots
Entrepreneurs Alex Welch and Darren Crystal turned a hobby into the most popular photo-sharing clearinghouse on the Web

By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News
June 19, 2006

The Web's most popular photo-sharing site started as Alex Welch's hobby. The then-Level 3 engineer was frustrated with most online picture sites, which thwarted his efforts to swap pictures with friends. So he wrote a program during his off hours that created
Photobucket, a clearinghouse that allows users to post their images to social-networking sites such as MySpace.com and e-commerce sites like eBay while storing all of their photos in one location.

Full Article:

Press Release - 06.14.06 - Photobucket Jwidget Integration Tool Brings Free Image and

Photobucket Jwidget Integration Tool Brings Free Image and
Video Sharing to Leading Social Media and eCommerce Sites

Photobucket tool enhances user experience by allowing members to share and publish photos and videos without leaving partner sites

Palo Alto, California – June 14, 2006 – Photobucket , the world’s leading visual content hosting and publishing service, today announced the availability of the Photobucket Jwidget, an industry-first tool that enables any Web site to provide free image and video hosting for its users, leveraging Photobucket’s proven platform. In addition, Photobucket's content moderation operation aggressively removes objectionable material, providing a value added service for partners.

Consumers want to personalize and enhance their online experience on multiple sites. This requires them to use multiple browser windows to do simple things like share images and videos at the destination sites where they hang out. The Photobucket Jwidget streamlines the user experience by keeping consumers on the destination site to upload and link their digital content. Photobucket’s existing 18 million members can quickly publish content stored at Photobucket to those partner destination sites in a few easy steps.

“The Photobucket Jwidget brings social media and ecommerce sites free and reliable image and video hosting, and access to Photobucket’s world-class content moderation,” said Alex Welch, Chief Executive Officer, Photobucket. “It is our goal to make it extremely easy for our members to express themselves visually on a variety of Web sites, and for our partners to enable their members to have the best image and video sharing experience possible.”

Photobucket members currently link images and videos to over 60,000 social networking, blogging, ecommerce Web sites and discussion forums. The Photobucket Jwidget is an ideal solution for destination sites like these that want to allow members to quickly and easily link images and videos, without toggling back and forth between their Photobucket account. The Photobucket Jwidget is a free plug-in that can be implemented in minutes, giving any Web site image and video hosting and publishing functionality at no additional cost.

"Our members use Photobucket tools to enhance their online experience," said Jeremy Verba, CEO of Piczo. "By implementing the Photobucket Jwidget, our users can easily access their Photobucket content within Piczo itself. The Photobucket Jwidget improves our members’ experience on Piczo by allowing them to spend more time designing their personal Web sites."

The Photobucket Jwidget is a simple iframe (or IFRAME) that lives within the pages of third party Web sites and allows members to access and publish images and video content from their Photobucket accounts. Photobucket Jwidget is a free, self-service plug-in that can be implemented in minutes on any Web site.

For more information on the new Photobucket Jwidget, or for instructions on how to get this for your site, please go to http://www.photobucket.com/jwidget/

About Photobucket
Photobucket provides a simple, fast, and reliable service that enables efficient sharing and publishing of visual digital content online. Images, graphic art, and videos can be directly linked from Photobucket to any site, including popular sites like eBay, Gaiaonline, Piczo, Blogger, LiveJournal, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, and Myspace.

Photobucket was founded in 2003 by Alex Welch (CEO) and Darren Crystal (CTO). Two years later, Photobucket was named the fastest growing site of 2005 according to Nielsen/Netratings and now ranks as a Top 100 site by reach according to all of the major ranking services. Photobucket was profitable last year and has been funded primarily by earnings. As of June 2006, Photobucket had 18 Million users growing by over 70,000 users per day. Photobucket serves over 50 Billion images per month. Photobucket is based in downtown Denver, Colorado with business and sales office in Palo Alto, California.

American Photo - Photobucket Ranks as Top Photo Sharing Site for April

Photobucket Ranks as Top Photo Sharing Site for April
Photobucket.com attracted 7.8 million unique users for the month of April, beating out Yahoo! Photos, Kodak, Webshots and Flickr.

BY JAY DEFOORE

June 2006

With digital camera sales exploding, a number of elite
photo-sharing sites are fighting to keep up with the growing
demand for online storage, sharing and community services.
Nielen//NetRatings recently released a study of the top five photo sharing sites on the Internet, and we were surprised by what we saw.

Photobucket.com edged out Yahoo! Photos as the top online photography destination for April, attracting 7.8 million unique users for the month, representing a 45% growth over April 2005.

Full Article:

Tier 1 Research - Photobucket secures more financing; Functional hosting keeps growing

Photobucket secures more financing; Functional hosting keeps growing
Photobucket, a privately held content hosting provider, confirmed that it had secured $10.5mn in a second round of financing from Trinity Ventures. T1R spoke with Photobucket, which plans to use the funds to engage new hires and accelerate its growth. The company is looking to expand its advertising sales, product marketing and business development teams in Palo Alto, and its development team in Denver, covering the areas of software, content moderation and customer support. Photobucket previously closed a $2-3mn round of financing with Insight Venture Partners.

Full Article:

Wall Street Journal - Internet photo site helps MySpace thwart porn

Internet photo site helps MySpace thwart porn
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
By Julia Angwin, The Wall Street Journal
DENVER -- Working quickly, Photobucket.com employee Jeff Gers can look at nearly 150,000 images on his computer screen during an eight-hour shift, or about 300 a minute. His job is to find and destroy anything that might cause offense, a task that's getting harder all the time.

Every day, nearly four million new images pour into Photobucket, a Web service that allows people to store images and videos online, share them with friends and display them on other Web sites. He's come across pornographic snowmen, camera-phone snapshots of young
people's anatomy and, quite frequently, an animated cartoon of a girl lifting her shirt.

Full Article:

Press Release - 05.16.06 - Photobucket Raises $10.5 Million From Premier Silicon Valley Venture Capital Firm

PHOTOBUCKET RAISES $10.5 MILLION FROM
PREMIER SILICON VALLEY VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM

Gus Tai of Trinity Ventures joins Photobucket’s Board of Directors

Palo Alto, CA – May 16, 2006 – Photobucket (www.photobucket.com), the world’s leading visual content hosting and publishing service, today announced that the company has secured $10.5 Million in a second round of funding. Trinity Ventures led the Series B round as a new investor.

The financing will be used to further accelerate market share gains and revenue growth, while maintaining a disciplined and financially sound P&L. Photobucket was cash-flow positive last year, and is profitable.

Photobucket is a consumer visual media hosting and publishing service with over 16 million members and 10 million unique monthly visitors, according to Media Metrix. 2 million new members sign up each month. Members upload personal visual content including videos, images and graphic art and link it to over 50,000 social media, ecommerce, blogging and discussion Web sites like eBay, MySpace, Blogger, and Neopets. Photobucket serves over 50 billion image and video requests per month. Since the launch of its video services in April 2006, Photobucket members have uploaded nearly 1 million video clips at a rate of over 30,000 new videos per day.

“We are very excited about Photobucket because of their leadership position in this large market, the accelerating momentum they have, and the great team they have assembled,” said Gus Tai, General Partner at Trinity Ventures. “Photobucket is in a leadership position and has continued to demonstrate acceleration in their organic growth. It is a testament to the unique value proposition and quality of service they have developed over time.”

Trinity Ventures General Partner and industry veteran Gus Tai will join the Photobucket Board of Directors. Gus’ decades of experience in the consumer services and software industries make him a superb fit with the Photobucket management team. At Trinity, Gus focuses on company formation and accelerated growth of leading-edge consumer service and technology firms. Gus led the initial institutional investment in a number of related companies including Blue Nile, SpeedEra Networks, PlayFirst, MSpot, Modulus Video, WetPaint and ScanR. He has also worked as a close partner and investor in other companies whose technologies touch end-users, such as Sygate and KIVA Software.

“What is exciting to us about Gus and Trinity Ventures is their energy, thought leadership, and the value they place on building lasting relationships,” said Alex Welch, Chief Executive Officer, Photobucket. “Gus recognizes and truly appreciates the value and potential Photobucket has.”

To sign up for a Photobucket account, visit www.photobucket.com.

About Photobucket
Photobucket provides a simple, fast, and reliable service that enables efficient sharing and publishing of visual digital content online. Images, graphic art, and videos can be directly linked from Photobucket to any site, including popular sites like eBay, Gaiaonline, Piczo, Blogger, LiveJournal, Friendster, and Myspace. Photobucket was founded in 2003 by Alex Welch (CEO) and Darren Crystal (CTO). Two years later, Photobucket was named the fastest growing site of 2005 according to Nielsen/Netratings and now ranks as a Top 100 site by reach according to all of the major ranking services. Photobucket was profitable last year and has been funded primarily by earnings. As of April 2006, Photobucket had over 16 Million users growing by over 65,000 users per day. Photobucket serves over 50 Billion images per month. Photobucket is based in downtown Palo Alto, California with technology operations and development based in Denver, Colorado.

About Trinity Ventures
Founded in 1986, Trinity Ventures is a value-added investor that provides capital, networks and resources to early-stage software, Internet services, communications and networked systems companies. With more than $1 billion under management, Trinity Ventures has invested in and worked closely with leading companies such as Blue Nile, Crescendo Communications, Extreme Networks, Forte Software, LoopNet, SpeedEra Networks, Starbucks and Sygate. Trinity Ventures has offices in Menlo Park. For more information visit www.trinityventures.com.

###

Red Herring - Photobucket Scoops $10.5M

Photobucket Scoops $10.5M

Photo and video hosting site has won success as a tool rather than a destination.

Digital media hosting site Photobucket raised a $10.5-million second round of funding Monday, primarily from Trinity Ventures.
The Palo Alto, California-based company is a rare find among young Internet startups. It is both profitable and popular outside of a select group of in-the-know digerati. Photobucket has more than 16 million members and is growing by 2 million members per month. The free site gives users 1 gigabyte of space as well as easy access to publishing on sites such as eBay, MySpace, Blogger, and Neopets.

 Full Article:

TechCrunch - PhotoBucket Closes $10.5M From Trinity Ventures

PhotoBucket, the company that drives 2% of total U.S. Internet traffic, will announce a $10.5 million Series B round on Tuesday. The round was funded by Trinity Ventures. General Partner Gus Tai will join the PhotoBucket board of directors.

Full Article:

Yahoo Publisher's Network - Making Web 2.0 more fun than a barrel of sock monkeys

You might have heard some of this “Web. 2.0” buzz. While it’s
supposed to be everywhere these days, even the technorati sometimes
have a hard time coming up with a concise definition – usually they
murmur something nebulous about “Web sites behaving like
applications.”

Full article:

SFGate - Video bloggers claim spotlight

Jay Dedman's life plays out in snippets of video, captured on a handheld video camera and posted on his online diary, Momentshowing. A Manhattan subway bomb scare spurs him to post a photo montage of Sept. 11 and the days before and after. In another entry, he reveals his budding romance with fellow blogger Ryanne Hodson. Most recently, he documents their recent cross-country move from New York to San Francisco.

Full Article:

Press Release - 04.26.06 - Photobucket Launches Internet Video Hosting and Sharing Tools

Photobucket Launches Internet Video Hosting and Sharing Tools
for its 15 Million Members

Leading photo and video hosting & publishing service provides 1GB of free storage,
and the easiest way to upload once and link anywhere on the internet

Palo Alto, California – April 26, 2006 – Photobucket , the world’s leading visual content hosting and publishing service, today announced the launch of Photobucket Video, the fastest, and easiest way to upload and publish videos online at www.photobucket.com.

Inexpensive digital photo and video cameras are now widespread, but users are often challenged when it comes to moving their personal photos and videos online, to commerce and social networking Web sites like eBay, MySpace, and to personal blogs. Photobucket offers consumers an easy way to upload once, and share their photos and videos across multiple sites from a central location using simple linking.

Photobucket currently serves over 63 percent of all links to social networking Web sites, distributing more than 50 billion image requests per month – around 2 percent of all US Internet traffic. Photobucket has nearly 15 million registered members, and is growing at a rate of over 65,000 new members per day. Photobucket members are currently adding over 4 million new images daily (45 new images per second).

“The volume of personal photos, art, and video continues to skyrocket, but sharing that content online is often confusing and complicated,” said Alex Welch, Chief Executive Officer of Photobucket. “Since day one, our members have told us they want an easy way to express themselves visually on a variety of Web sites. We make it easy for our members to upload and store their original images, graphic art, and videos, then link that content anywhere on the Internet.”

Photobucket’s founders have experience building large scale hosting and telecommunications infrastructure. They built Photobucket to store and deliver exceptionally high volumes of images and videos at an unparalleled speed and reliability, without the lags, chop, and delays that can disrupt the visual experience. At peak times, Photobucket serves over 30,000 images and videos per second.

Most consumers do not own web servers for storage and publishing. They also don’t want to upload their videos and photos multiple times to different Web sites. Photobucket gives users 1 GB of storage for free, and up to 5 GB with a premium account; this storage is equivalent to around 50,000 images or 5,000 3 to 5 minute videos.

"Our members use Photobucket to enhance their online experience," said Paul Remer, CEO of Piczo. "By integrating with Photobucket’s Plugin, we have given our users the ability to easily access their Photobucket content within Piczo itself. Photobucket's plug-in improves our members’ experience on Piczo by allowing them to spend more time designing their personal websites."

“Photobucket's image and video hosting service is very popular with our members,” said James Cao, Founder of Gaiaonline. “By hosting our members’ images & videos, Photobucket allows us to focus on building a vibrant community. Photobucket is a great partner for us and for our members.”

Photobucket Video offers the fastest and easiest way to upload and share video over the Internet. Members upload videos in any standard video format (mpeg, avi, etc.), and Photobucket performs a real-time conversion to a flash format that users can then publish and share immediately. Flash is supported by virtually every browser, and displays video inside the context of the web page. As a result, Photobucket video can be viewed quickly and easily, without launching a separate video player.

Business Week - Photobucket: One Big Under the Radar Startup

Photobucket: One Big Under the Radar Startup
Heather Green

This week, I met with Photobucket. Until a month ago, I had never heard of them. But their name started to bubble up among the conversations I was having with VCs, and then they came into town.

Photobucket is a company that has bootstrapped its way into attracting aroung 14 million users. And they're adding 2 million users a month. Founded in 2003, the company says its cash flow positive and has in total raised $2.5 million in venture money.

What they do is pretty simple: They do image and video hosting. Essentially, people upload photos, animations, and now videos, to Photobucket, and then they use a little bit of code to put the bits and pieces of their lives on blogs, eBay, Neopets, or 60,000 other sites that work with Photobucket.

There is one thing I found interesting and another thing that I think is confusing. Photobucket decided early on to be a tool, not a community. So they just follow people around, through their lives, as they move from site to site, without worrying about what's hot or not.

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2006/04/photobucket_one.html?campaign_id=search

TechCrunch - 2% of U.S. Internet Traffic goes through Photobucket

2% of U.S. Internet Traffic goes through Photobucket
Michael Arrington

Photobucket isn’t as flashy as YouTube or Flickr, but they have 14 million users, 80 uploaded photos per second and, just two weeks after launching their video product are nearly matching YouTube with 30,000 daily uploaded videos (YouTube is 35,000/day). And, Photobucket is both profitable and cash flow positive.

More at:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/04/19/2-of-us-internet-traffic-through-photobucket/

CNNMoney - Is there an Online Video Bubble?

Is there an online video bubble? Plenty of start-ups are hoping to cash in on the online video craze. Is there enough money to go around?

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com senior writer
April 18, 2006: 12:29 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Meet the next big television star: You.
Web sites such as the insanely popular YouTube are turning average schmos with a video camera into pop culture phenomena. And naturally, corporate America and investors have taken notice of this growing trend. But with so many sites cropping up and trying to attract financing from venture capitalists, a couple of questions need to be asked. Is there really enough demand for so-called user-generated content, especially when more big media companies like CBS (Research) and Disney's (Research) ABC are putting mainstream programming online for free?

Full Article:

Colorado Startups - Denver’s PhotoBucket is a red hot destination

www.photobucket.com
ColoradoStartups.com
March 23, 2006
Filed under: Initial coverage, Denver — david @ 11:42 am
Denver’s PhotoBucket is a red hot destination
Guess what web site I’m referring to:
• It gets 3 times the unique monthly visitors that Facebook does
• It serves up 50 billion distinct pieces of content every month
• It acquires over 65,000 new registered users a day.

MySpace? Flickr? No. Let me give you some more clues.

Full Article

New York Times - Hungry Media Companies Find a Meager Menu of Web Sites to Buy

Hungry Media Companies Find a Meager Menu of Web Sites to Buy
Glu Mobile, Cnet and PhotoBucket.com are among the companies that have elicited merger speculation.
By MATT RICHTEL

Media companies are still hungry. Is there much left for them to consume that they'll find satisfying? NBC Universal's $600 million acquisition of iVillage, an early Internet company catering to women,
highlights the continuing interest by media companies in adding new Web sites to reach and connect with consumers, hobbyists, parents, investors, car buyers, Scrabble players and virtually every other niche audience.

Full Article

NIELSEN//NETRATINGS REPORTS THE FASTEST GROWING WEB SITES

Nielsen/Netratings Press Release

NIELSEN//NETRATINGS REPORTS THE FASTEST GROWING WEB SITES

Highlights from Photobucket Newsletter

We've released our October 2005 newsletter detailing the latest improvements to your Photobucket.com service. Click here to see what's new and cool at Photobucket.

* How to upload pics from your mobile phone
* Partnership with Peerflix, special deals for Photobucket users
* We've Doubled Storage & Bandwidth for Free Accounts
* Ask Photobucket: Help with common problems
* User Feedback and Photobucket in the News

-Vince

Wall Street Journal - Smile, You're on Photobucket

Smile, You're on Photobucket
Bloggers Looking to Share Images
Flock to Upstart Photo-Hosting Site
By VAUHINI VARA
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
September 26, 2005
A year ago, relatively few people had heard of Photobucket.com. While
the upstart Web site is still far from a household name, it has emerged as
the most popular online photo destination in recent months, drawing more
visitors than established sites from companies like Eastman Kodak Co. and Yahoo Inc.
Photobucket.com Inc., started by a photo buff who wanted a better way to share images with his friends,
has seen traffic surge tenfold in the past year. In August, it had 12.2 million unique visitors, compared
with 9.6 million at Yahoo Photos and 5.9 million at Kodak EasyShare Gallery, according to research firm
Nielsen/NetRatings.

Full article:

Nielsen/Netratings - Web Image Hosting Sites Show Explosive Growth

Nielsen/Netratings Press Release

Full Press Release Here.

Happy 2nd Birthday Photobucket

I guess in our busy lives we don't realize how fast time flies. My dad dad reminded me that this website has been online for two years today, so Happy Birthday Photobucket! Its always fun to look back and see how far we've come.

I feel that the best is still to come as we have many exciting things coming over the next year. Many image hosting and online photo album sites have come and gone over the last few years. However, I can assure you that we aren't going anywhere!

Thanks to all of our members that have suppported us through the years.

Looking back....

- May 8, 2003 I registered photobucket.com
- July 13, 2003 hit 1,000 users
- September 20th, 2003 I added a second server
- February 1, 2004 Darren joined me as a partner
- February 20, 2004 hit 100,000 users
- June 1, 2004 moved onto our own infrastructure here in Denver
- June 17, 2004 hit 1,000,000 users
- October 12, 2004 launched the new site (same as today)
- September 15, 2004 added premium accounts
- December 2, 2004 hit 2,000,000 users
- March 20, 2005 hit 3,000,000 users

.... and here we are today growing faster and faster

-Alex

Join the Photobucket Team

Join something great in the making. Photobucket.com currently has opening here in the Denver area. If you'd like to join a startup that is hard working, fun and rewarding, please post a brief summary of your skills and how we can contact you. All replies to this thread will be private.

---Developer/Engineer---
LAMP (linux/apache/mysql/php) programmers with ( 3+ years experience )
Networking, routing, load balancing, sysadmin, security ( advanced )
Scaling large applications, databases and storage
Mobile (wap,mms,sms)
Data mining and algorithms for user behavior

---Business Development---
You will know if you are one of these, you must have experience in this area.
Develop and negotiate strategic business deals and relationships

--Advertising Salesman---
You will also know if you are one of these, you must have experience in this area and have relationships with largescale corporations.
Able to negotiate and seek brand and performance based media deals

Fun statistics

Why does photobucket hickup once in a while? Possibly because of these stats, but we continue to tune, tweek, re-architect the site to better serve you.

- 2.5 million registered users
- 17,500 new users per day
- 250 million images served per day
- 7 million pageviews per day
- 250 million images stored (lots of terabytes)
- 1.3 million new images uploaded per day (30 per second at peak)
- 500,000 sites using photobucket pictures
- 54% female and 46% male