Blinkx creates rich catalog of web video - San Francisco Business Times:

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The firm, founded in 2004 with speech and imagew recognition software developed by a large Britisj informationmanagement firm, has catalogued and indexed more than 32 million hours of audio and video. Its spidering searcb bots transcribe everything they hear and even thingsthey see. Despitee fierce competition from other video search enginesand providers, including titan , Blinkx has managed to grow steadily with an offerinbg that links to any other site with video. It claims to be “thw world’s largest single index of rich media content onthe web, deliverinvg more content from a broader range of sources than eithetr Google or .
” Revenue has been growing rapidlyg and is expected to reacn $12 million to $13 million for this fiscalk year, which ends in April, said companyh founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake. Revenue was about $6 million the previou s year, and $2.5 million the year befor e that. The sheer momentum of the online video explosion meana the company is likely to keep Chandratillake said. The company now has 60 about 40 of including all the technical andresearcuh staff, in San Francisco. The company expectw to hire 10 to 20 more in thecomingt year. “I think people see that we are good at whatwe do. We have a reputatio for being the gold standard ofvideo search,” Chandratillake said.
The company makes money — most of it in the United Statew — from advertising and expecte to be profitablein 2010. Chandratillake says it could beprofitablse today, but has focused on spending for Recently, it began offering the ability to insergt ads into and around streaminhg video. It also powerws search services — whichh include features like generatinvg transcriptions of audiostreams — for numerous other including Ask.com, , and MSN in the U.K. “Blinkx has an extremelt robust index that offers highly relevant resultzs toour users,” said David business development director at Ask.com.
The company was founde d by Chandratillake, who was the chiefv technical officer in the United States forAutonomy Corp. plc, a Britishj company with a large Bay Area presence that uses technologg to search and organize videp and documents for corporationsand government. Foundex in 1996, Autonomy says it has grow n tobe Europe’s second largesgt pure software company. Chandratillake said he and a handfup of others got excited aboutapplying Autonomy’a technology, which was developed over 12 years at Cambridgs University and is protected by 111 to the consumer space, particularly video.
Autonomy foundeer Mike Lynch agreed to license his inventionws to Blinkx in exchange for 10 percentof Blinkx’s exclusive rights on the technology expire in four years, but Autonomy may choose not to licens e it to anyone else. Lynch sits on Blinkx’es board of directors. Blinkx establishee itself withroughly $5 million of angelo and venture funding before going publidc on the in May 2007, when it raisedf about $50 million in its initia l public offering, Chandratillake said.
Chandratillak said his strategy is to partner with otherorganizationzs — currently Blinkx is working with 420 different companiesa — to get a slice of thei r advertising pies, while slowly buildingf the Blinkx brand as a destination site of its own. In Blinkx launched an online televisiojn channel, and in August, it launched Blinkx a directory of full length televisionshows online. Blinkx has also made repeatexd offers tobuy , a Florida-base online ad company, including one that is “It’s difficult to build a brand out of Chandratillake said.
Rajeev Bahl, a senior research analyst with in Londonm who tracksthe company, said he expects Blinkzx to do very well, but not becomes a huge consumer brand name. “I thinkk they will continue to be primarilu aniche player,” Bahl said. “Blinkx.com will not become a majofr internet destination.” Bahl said Autonomy’s powerful search technolog y will appeal to people looking forobscure videos, but consumersz can just as easilu use other sites to find mainstreamk content. Blinkx’s sweet spot is that it can make mone off video that otherwise would not be seen and that publishersx are strugglingto monetize.
Blinkx will also be able to get revenus by providing search services tootherd companies. Brian Pickens, senior researcyh manager at Ipsos MediaCT, said he knows of Blinkx, but his firm’s surveys show the company has littlse name recognition atthis time. “Theyt haven’t popped up as being very high onconsumee awareness,” Pickens said. Chandratillake is gettinb noticed inindustry circles. This he was named one of DigitalMedia Wire’s “25 Executives to Watc in Digital Entertainment.” Also this week, Internet market researcher ComScore reported that residents of the United State s watched 12.
7 billion videox in November, 34 percent more than a year Google’s various search particularly YouTube, handled 40.3 percent of all of that The market for video ads is expecteed to grow this year by as much as 45 perceny to $850 million a ComScore said. Anton Denissov, a digital mediqa analyst with , a Texas, research firm, said Blinkx got out early with its ability to search and link to videoes from all sortsof providers. “They have a more bake d solution than someone just bringing a solutio n tothe market,” he “They also have a broader picking of partners.
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