Joost, which was considered one of the most innovative start-ups in early 2007 when the beta was released, has gone through some hard times lately. Ultimately the P2P client, with its obvious benefits, had more flaws than expected. Without the ability to link to specific videos or embed them on to your own website it became obsolete.
In last September Joost launched the Flash site, which gave users the option to select between Flash and P2P. Now there's no choice to be made. The only platform that will apparently have an own Joost client is iPhone.
Moving to Flash not only means fierce competions with tons of other online video sites, but a much larger bandwidth bill for Joost. P2P streaming was a clever idea, unfortunately it didn't succeed - at least not in this case.
With no major proprietary content, unlike Hulu with NBC/FOX and TV.com with CBS, Joost will have even harder times ahead. And you don't need to be an industry analyst to predict that if they don't come up with something exclusive the story of Joost could be over.
Written by: Matti Robinson @ 18 Dec 2008 5:49
