Mario: Hey, it’s Mario Armstrong at the International CES 2009 for a Small Business TV; I'm your tech guru, Mario Armstrong. Look who we found walking around Vegas at the CES show, none other that Mike Volpi. He is with Joost, J-O-O-S-T.
How are you doing?
Mike: I'm doing great.
Mario: I'm glad to see you. Thanks for taking some time out to join us.
You’re entrepreneur man. You’re CEO of the company. Tell us how is it going right now?
Mike: It’s going great. We launched our site on October and it’s been going very, very fast. Lots of audiences from around the world checking out TV programs, music videos and films on our sites, so it’s being going great.
Mario: Yes, so it started on the web, right? But you also have made it so that is available on mobile devices. Specifically, I recognized that there’s a Joost application. I’ll pull up the screen here so we can actually see the Joost icon. There it is. I don’t know if guys can see that right there in the bottom right corner with the J.
Mike: That’s right.
Mario: So now, what does this mean?
Mike: So basically we decided to launch a company that would transport regular television programming and high quality film over the internet to a web site as a starting point but then we want to broaden our rich to devices outside just of your PC. So obviously, the most exciting on right now is the iPhone, so we launched an application on the iPhome. Very popular, it’s free to the user. So you download the app, you have to see some ads, but aside from that it’s free to the user and it has become the number two most popular free application on the iTune store. So it became very, very popular very quickly and a little faster than we actually expect this.
Mario: I mean when you talk about thousands upon thousands of applications already available on the ITunes store, that’s quite a success measure..
Mike: Yeah, it did really well and it also helps our web site traffic because you just have the same content in both places. So sometimes users find us on the web and then go and find us on the iPhone later or sometimes they find this first on the iPhone and then they come to our web site.
Mario: That’s a really great point. I'm glad you brought that up because we have a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners that watch this particular program and you just brought up how you can bring more traffic to your site, through your products and through your services from multiple distribution points.
Give a little bit of insight maybe for other entrepreneurs as to what the process is kind of like if you want to create say a mobile application that may compliment your web presence.
Mike: Sure. The key thing is if you’re a small business like we are, you want to get your name out there, so you need distribution and distribution on the web is very well understood. You can buy Google key words, you can get your site connected to from other sites and so forth but that only kind of is one dimensional because it’s web to web.
Now, what the iPhone applications can do or other applications that a mobile can do will reach users who may not have found you on the web because it’s very busy and cluttered and through a different path discover you and then once they discover you one way, they’ll dscover the breath of your offering and use both types of media and both types of portals to watch your content.
Mario: Now as a small business it’s important for you to be a trade shows like this. What’s the benefit for you? What are you hoping to get out of having as presence here from a small business perspective? What do you expect to really tangibly live with in terms of results?
Mike: Well, there are a lot of good things about coming to a show like this.
First of all as a small business you partner a lot. We have a lot to keep partners, people that make content. Apple is a keep partner, Intel is a key partner for us. We’re demoing our staff at the Intel both here. So the ability to reach out to your partners in a very efficient way in one place is great. You also got to check out what’s happening in the market place.
Mario: That’s so very important, right?
Mike: And then you have a lot of media folks, so you get out here and get your name out so that people can know what you and know what you’re doing.
Mario: That’s right. So now, you’re from London, right? You’re based in London?
Mike: Our company is based on London that’s right.
Mario: So this truly is international consumer electronic show. I mean can you—what would it take for you to try to get this type of presence meet by buyers, meet analyst, media, partners, you know, would it take you a whole year to do what you can do in a few days here?
Mike: Yeah, it would a long time, I don’t know about a whole year. That’s a lot of days, but probably a month or two to get the kind of meeting that you can get switch in two or three days here.
Mario: Yeah, and as fast as you guys move, some of the technology might even be outdated in a couple of months.
Mike: Absolutely. Well, we developed that iPhone up in a month
Mario: That’s pretty fast.
Mike: Absolutely. The developer tools are quite good and we have a lot of back end stuff that we’ve done before but basically from zero to published better month.
Mario: Okay. Now, last question. Where are you going? What are some of the announcement that you’re looking to make or some of the things that you’re very proud of at this point or going forward for 2009?
Mike: There are these tricky areas. First of all, our web site and our service is about watching TV on the internet. So we’re announcing a lot more programming on our platform. Already, we have shows from CBS, from MTV, we have film from Sony and Paramount and we are announcing a lot more of those in the coming months. We’re introducing more platforms. So today, it’s iPhone and the web and you’re going to see more of those coming from us. And then of course you’re going to see a lot of interesting enhancements to TV viewing because it’s—on the internet, it’s not just about attaching a show to a user but it’s making a viral, so how do you connect through Facebook and discover show that you didn’t know about or how d you check out with who are friends are watching?
So those sorts of interesting social features are going to be up and coming for us.
Mario: So this is a major shift what you’re talking about. I mean really when we think about it because we’re right at the beginning of that and what he is talking about is integrating social media into the TV viewing process, which until now has really been either a solitary experience or just the people that are with you locally at that moment. Not something that can be shared globally or you know.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. It’s sort of like when your watching TV today like a regular television, you’re usually seating on a couch and then with a few friends, right? Which is great, but how does that transit into the virtual world? Right now, if you go to a web site, it’s just you and the web site. There’s no sort of sense of community. So what we’re trying to do is to create that couch and make it virtual so you can extend that couch over to your friend in Germany and your friend in France and your friend in Arkansas and all kind of watch the same programming, maybe at the same time, not at the same time, express your emotions about it and have some fun with the programming the way we do in real life today on a real couch except spread across the internet.
Mario: A virtual couch, Mike has just given us something to talk about, a new one to talk about, a virtual couch. CEO of Joost and we are pronouncing that correct, right?
Mike: That’s right Joost.
Mario: And I know a lot of people—it’s Joost folks.
Mike: J-O-O-S-T.
Mario: That’s right. Thanks so much for taking time out. Congratulations as a small business owner recognizing the opportunity in being here because to be a part of the game is very important and you’re doing it and you’re making it happen. So we wish you but success, all right.
Mike: Thank you very much. Take care.
Mario: That’s Mike Volpi from Joost right here, international CES in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m going to go play with my iPhone now and pull up some of my favorite program. See you guys.
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