Youtube innovated and came to dominate the emerging market for online video sharing. Google thought so much of this new market that they purchased Youtube for $1.65 billion. How does a startup compete with the Godzilla of a target market space?I really only see two ways to go about it: (a) build a better mousetrap or (b) fragment the youtube user base concentrating on a small segment with special needs. Perhaps there is technology out there better than the youtube video interface that I am unaware of but option A looks to be dead in the water. Even if a competitor came up with a technology innovation in the area of video sharing, patent protection would be necessary to avoid adoption of the innovation by youtube. And patent protection is a thin veil for an underfunded startup to rely upon.
St. Louis startup Schooltube took a crack at option B. Every startup should have an unmet market need it aims to address. In this case, it was schools who block student access to youtube given that this service contains vast amounts of content inappropriate for viewing by school children. Schooltube's solution? Limit posting of video clips to those approved by teachers. Schooltube verifies with the school a teacher's status. The teachers then authorize the posting of individual videos by their students. If teachers vet the clips, it stands to reason that schools will not block the site. Thus, Schooltube provides a kid safe web site where students can share video clips they've created as school projects. See St. Louis Post-Dispatch story. I love the business concept!
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