Online Media Cultist

The “lifestreaming” phenomenon streams onward and upward, or at least a few companies in the venture capital space hope so.

Ustream.tv is announcing that it is raising $11.1 million, which is on the heels of Qik’s $3 million round.

In late March I noted this about Ustream: It’s a potent and timely mix, video and social networking and a real-time communications experience. I’m curious to see where this will go.

In my view, Ustream is a lot stronger and healthier platform as compared to Qik, which centers around live video streaming from mobile phones. I think this space will be huge in a few years (and perhaps less, who knows?) but the quality of the video I’ve watched on Qik has been bad enough to make me shut it off. Whereas with Ustream it’s a lot easier to “get”: (watchable) live video broadcasting with a suite of easy-to-use social networking and chat features built around it. Great place to go if you want to set up your own video chat show. Host impromptu live meetings by making an announcement on Twitter or another real time communications application where you can reach a lot of people immediately. Get it, makes lots of sense.

I haven’t played with Qik a lot so don’t want to be totally unfair to it, but I sense that it has a ways to go before it can attract a huge audience. And perhaps it’s unfair to compare Ustream and Qik directly as they are not exactly the same. If Qik can improve video streaming quality (no easy task!) it could be a killer app. And for all I know it just might be anyway: people love using their mobile phones to do so, and if you can stream live video and create an audience around that, that will certainly catch on.

Other lifestreaming-type services include Kyte.tv and Justin.tv. I haven’t head a lot about Justin.tv of late, but it seems to be quietly streaking up the Alexa rankings at the least, clocking in under the 1000 mark yesterday.

So that might help us to understand why there’s a spurt of funding going on round the lifestreaming junction at the moment.

There’s lots of techie and geeky buzz about Justin.tv of late, an EdTV scenario made real in which a random tech-warrior of the geeked out west (that would be Justin) records himself 24/7 amidst Silicon Valley adventures.

Not too long ago, another .tv had some buzz, or at least some paid buzz behind it: Bud.tv, the Anheuser-Busch backed site that was supposed to usher in a new era of original online video content, presumably aimed at right-thinking sports-loving beer-swilling young gents.

However, after a massive outlay of between $30 million and $40 million, traffic has plummeted some 40% – from 253,000 in February to 152,000 in March – according to Advertising Age. Hilariously, AdAge rubs salt in the wound by noting that according to ratings service Quantcast, Bud.tv currently sits between a porn site and the “comprehensive source for sheet rubber” in terms of popularity on the Internet.

Just as in politics, money can get you somewhere, but it can’t take you all the way. Media Landscaping gets to the heart of the matter by noting that: “These Ad-Driven-Traffic models will never hold up long term without really compelling content; which to this point they do not have.” It’s then pointed out – and I hugely agree – that original and expensive online video isn’t enough. Other kinds of content, blogs, podcasts, as well as the ability to embed that content anywhere are essential parts of any new large scale online media play.

By the way, Justin’s still sleeping at the moment I’m writing these words. Wake up dude!