Show HN: Launching my Realtime Social Video Startup | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Launching my Realtime Social Video Startup

frozenhot.com

67 pointsiman49 comments

I see potential in this. It's almost like walking into a room full of people all watching one TV. There's appeal to that; online video does have the watch-whatever-you-want feature, but a lot of times people just want to turn on a TV channel and watch whatever comes on.

If you really want to make this a startup, you should make it exactly that. Take control over the public rooms, feed them with quality content, and call them channels. Hire moderators to keep the content fresh. Show occasional commercial advertisements. I think the closer you make it to TV, the more willing people will be to sit through advertisements (random idea: sell to advertisers what people say during their advertisements). Voting is an ok feature, but you should limit that to private rooms.

I can see myself going to a "comedy central" channel and just watching whatever it has on, not needing worrying about what to watch next. Knowing that others are watching the same thing is pretty compelling.

My thinking behind this was indeed to somehow bring a TV feel to the web.

But I am actually leaning towards adding even more interactive features to the site. We already have TV. And Youtube and other sites are already moving in the direction of what you describe(eg. Youtube "leanback").

I believe that this is the wrong approach. The web makes it possible for viewers to interact in new ways, and I think that there is a lot of potential here. I believe that the future of TV-like entertainment will be something that is very interactive/social and game-like. People have already suggested that I add to this site points and game like features, which I plan on doing, among many other interative features.

Also, I have even more long-term plans for expanding beyond video, but that is for another comment :)

Thanks for the input!

Yes, "TV internet" and interactive game-like features are two different markets.

I agree that the web provides new possibilities of interaction. But I still think there's a big market for TV-like streaming; a lot of people just want to sit back and watch something they find interesting. And no website on the internet has got it right yet. I can imagine people logging into your website via facebook, and seeing a list of channels that their friends are currently watching.

I'm not saying you shouldn't add any game-like features. I just think they're a distraction from what you already have. After all, content is king when it comes to these sorts of services. I think you should focus on that before game mechanics, since content will be what attracts users the most.

On the other hand, this is just an opinion of some guy on the internet :)

Hey guys, I've been reading HN for a long time (since before it was called HN). I rarely comment or submit to HN, but I am really proud to finally submit my site here.

Would appreciate any feedback you have!

Thanks

Very cool, I registered. How does this differ from jtv?

In addition, needs voting for room members for next video, or to change video. Is that implemented and I just missed it? Otherwise it's just... the Internet on rails.

Could be very cool, needs some/a lot of aesthetic polish and features that make it actually social besides a chatroom and a "tweet this" button (ESPN has "tweet this" buttons as well as chatrooms with real-time game updates. I don't think anyone would call that "social" though.)

I like the concept, needs to tie in more with other concepts of social applications. Also a javascript bookmarklet would be great. Say if I want to show a buddy this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L64c5vT3NBw, I click the bookmarklet on that page and it creates a Frozenhot URL that would take the user into a chatroom and spin up that video automatically. Something like that.

Seems like most of the comments are ambivalent about your idea, and maybe it's been done before, or could've been done 5 years ago, but this could be cool for a lot of people. I can see you getting traction here. (Especially once you overhaul the layout!)

Say if I want to show a buddy this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L64c5vT3NBw, I click the bookmarklet on that page and it creates a Frozenhot URL that would take the user into a chatroom and spin up that video automatically.

Smart.

jtv is similar but is for live video only. also, i plan on adding a lot more interactive features to the site.

Right now all of the users in the room are able to vote for the next video. I hope this clarifies things. Several people have suggested adding a way for the room to collectively decide to "skip video" which is a good idea that I am considering.

Your idea for clicking a bookmarklet and spinning up a video room is good, but it might detract from the main focus of the site now (and there are actually sites that exist that already do this).

Thanks!

It's sorta like youtube meets IRC, isn't it? :)

Things that I wonder about:

1. where will you get the actual video content from?

2. I think that voice would be better for this type of stuff, atleast with friends. Typing is slow and not that interactive.

3. Have you thought about focusing on educational videos? Those strike me as the best candidate for group watching because discussing actually makes more sense than during, say, a movie.

4. So what's the deal with the name? :)

5. The design needs work. For example, I found the voting process to suble.

I too have thought about making video's more social but honestly I'm not sure what the value is in adding chat. But maybe the idea needs to be fleshed out more?

Tinychat definitely does the social video watching thing

1. The videos are embedded from youtube. They are hand selected.

2. Voice is an interesting idea, will think about it :)

3. This is a very good idea, and definitely something that is being considered.

4. The name doesn't really have any meaning. It was just a good domain that was available.

5. Yes, the design needs a lot of work. I'm looking for a designer now. When there are more people voting then it's a bit clearer how it works, but yeah, it could be improved.

Thanks!

Nice work. Voting for the next video is great! I can see this becoming really popular.

I had a similar idea to this with some minor differences around 2-3 years ago but never ended up implementing it.

Instead of doing this for streaming videos, maybe you could do stuff for TV programs (such a primetime TV or news) so that people could chat with other people in real time when watching TV.

Repeat after me: A website is not a startup.

It's bad enough that everyone with half a business idea calls it a startup, but now everyone with half a website prototype is joining in.

I do like the idea, but agree it's not very polished. It lacks a certain degree of professionalism: it could've been done 5 years ago and we wouldn't have noticed. $30 templates go a long way.

Good point. I recently learned that WP theme marketplaces also carry generic HTML themes. Here's a set from a family member: http://themeforest.net/user/Parallelus/portfolio?x=15&y=...

Why the negativity? Aside from that, why does it matter what exactly is called a startup?

The worst ideas can transform into the biggest of communities and then be monetized.

I think the word startup has lost all meaning at this point, but I would like to propose this definition: A startup is something you quit your job to work full time on. Until then, it's a side project.

If the OP is fully committed to working on this site full time for the next 3 years, he can call it a startup.

Otherwise, calling a side project a startup seems intellectually dishonest in view of those that are putting 100% effort into a website/startup.

In all fairness, many highly successful businesses started as side projects. In my case, I started my web site about 12 years ago as a side project, and this year I expect to exceed 1 million in revenue.

I'm not sure at what point during the evolution of my side project I went from side project, to startup, to established business.

Maybe a startup should be termed as "a business that is designed to make more money than it spends."

it is unfortunate that they didn't consult you before submitting. :(

What is a startup?

A fantastic simple idea. Video interaction is brilliant through gaming add-on. 3 comments:

1) Find a way to MAINTAIN gaming during the video (e.g. live comments adds of people in the room to the images?). That's because right now its fun to vote every 1:30minutes but then kind of boring to watch.. Althrough I stayed 3X more than initially planned ;-) This would allow maintaing people on site too since many people left/stopped voting after 1st video.

2) POINTS need to be prominent & STATUS linked: it's not about the money for me but the challenge & game. Many sites followed this model. When I win, the reward of points would need to incenvize me somehow. Make it big/prominent? What about leveraging STATUS with points too: status changes with results from say commoner to king to rock-star...

3) Consider Consumer Goods ads for site monetization: FMCG would pay to have their ads displayed (what about an ad of 10'' every few where people vote too???). I know that's old model but still there is something in the voting that could be a way for consumer research or brand 'interraction' of sort

Overall will be big, well done and keep it up!

"POINTS" - how are they shown ? Chromium here, I do not see them...

You could actually make the voting along the video, before it ends, so there will be no waiting between them and also people can play the whole time.

EDIT: Also, I would add the possibility to recommend a video to be next. It could be better then the automatic youtube recomends (do I think right it uses that?)

Thanks, these are great comments.

1) Yes, this is something I am thinking hard about.

2) Yes, points and gaming like features with player rankings are key here. I would be very happy to hear about more specific thoughts or suggestions.

3) I am not yet thinking too much about monetization, but there are definitely a lot of interesting opportunities. Your idea here is something I will keep in mind!

Thanks!

I can't find a source now, but this reminds me of the story where Bill and Melinda gates would stay in touch when one of them was traveling by having an over-the-phone movie date night. Both of them rent a movie and start it at the same time, they call each other and chat throughout.

Edit: Here's a cite but it tells a slightly different story than I remembered. http://davis.foulger.info/papers/RelationshipEqualsSumMedia....

Did that with my girlfriend when I was in the US for 6 months. Worked pretty well, except for timing issues such as phones ringing, bathroom break, oh and time zones :(

Fun stuff! It's like being the robot on mst3k. The site has a real soul to it... I find the jankiness of the design endearing, I love that you assigned me the name "renny", and I like the random touch of having my name tag appear when I click to vote. It's fun to move around! I think frozenhot is memorable, it's fine.

Main thing: how are you going to bring people here?

A few minor suggestions: make the vote countdown shorter, allow me to click the x on the popover ad, add a "this video sucks, skip it" button, fix the damn lagging. Maybe add a way for people to ping the screen for additional lulz.

Couple questions after visting:

1) How does it work? 2) What does it do? 3) Why should I sign up for an account?

These are things that the front page should answer immediately. .

But most importantly, how do you expect to generate revenue from this project? Not having a clear answer to that question would probably eliminate this as being called a "startup."

Best of luck on your project!

1,2,3) You are right that the front page does not explain any of this. My thoughts right now are to hope that people click through into a video, and then from there that things are hopefully self-explanatory.

Regarding revenue: I have several ideas about this, but no clear well defined strategy. I would love to hear any ideas :)

Thanks!

I like the concept. It's sort of like watching TV with a bunch of friends. Interactive voting on the next video is very cool.

But, here's your biggest challenge: This concept doesn't work without a bunch of users showing up at the same time.

Tomorrow, when this is off the front page of HN, how do you plan to get people to come back? If you can solve that, you've got something.

In a perfect world, people will like the site, and return to it, and maybe spread the word to their friends :)

I also have some ideas for integrating game-like features which would introduce viral elements to the site.

I would love to hear more ideas for getting traffic!

Fun! Here's an idea for you to consider for getting money out of it:

display the two choices "coming up" and accept person betting either on one or the other. Don't show how many people placed a bet.

When the choice is done - the part that won takes the bets of those who lost.

If a draw - like "zero", the house takes all the bets and makes a random choice.

"Make money while watching TV" - could be an appealing tagline to some :-)

--- edit: creating custom rooms could be a killer feature. Think of how a VJ can be put into the mix above - maybe leave him the %% of micropayments or points from each winning vote, or something like that.

I think this could make it.

Unfortunately, the cost of maintaining a gaming license in an appropriate jurisdiction is likely to outweigh the revenue stream from such an enterprise.

Good point. "A reward for determining the most liked of the two movies" probably would not fly.

Similar to http://www.synchtube.com/

I actually made synchtube -- thanks for the shout. Was thinking about putting in a voting mechanism eventually. Nice to see frozenhot implemented it.

Ironically I also did a Show HN today (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2344151) today as well but only got 1 point :(

Nicely done, not sure what video's I'd use if for though.

This very cool. One application I can see for this is for viewing video together with someone across great distances like the example you talk about - maybe even in a long-distance relationship. Can you move beyond using YouTube or is the tech based on some of the features exposed by the YouTube API?

I like it. A more fun way to spend your time if you're a person who watches videos on youtube all day.

It has all the hot buzz words! "realtime", "social", "video"! Best of luck with it!

Great implementation. I had the same exact idea for a while, but I didn't really have a feeling for it.

Suggestion: Run commercials during the 20-30 seconds in between videos (while users are voting).

Concept: Very interesting. Nothing more I can add that hasn't already been said by others.

Design: Very poor. Right now it looks unprofessional.

Looking forward to seeing where you go with this!

Love it. :D Especially being able to vote on what we view next. I'm just going to go ahead and say we have a winner here. I can't stop watching the Family Channel.

Great datail to add random names and not "guest012"!

Some documentaries and university lectures could be interesting. I'd like to see those get selected.

Maybe Khan Academy, too?

I can't find where to put it into full screen. That part really annoys me.

kind of fun, you need to somehow generate interaction .. by a gaming/voting system so its like a game.

oh, yeah.. analyze the chatlogs.. just discussing the whole thing in-chat ;)

this reminds of an app that i saw a while back except it was really simple and only worked for two people.

this is pretty cool though

btw. the ads appearing within the videos are non-clickable.. dunno if this is good or bad for you ;)

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