Land of Milk, Honey & 2.0

Editor's note: as I mentioned on the weekend, here is Roi's first post. Who knew that MetaCafe was based in Israel! Please welcome Roi aboard! 

It's no secret that Israel is well regarded for its high-tech skills. However, consumer oriented Web products and services have not been our expertise. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few major successes-ICQ which revolutionized all our lives with the invention of Instant Messaging and Shopping.com the price comparison service, to name two of the gems-but we've been much better at software and semiconductor engineering. This may all change.

In the last couple of years the land of milk and honey has been a hotbed of 2.0 innovation. Here is a small sampling of Israeli ventures we should all keep an eye out for:

Zlango

Certainly one of the more unexpected startups to hail from Israel is Zlango which created a completely new language based on icons. The brainchild of Yoav Lorch, Zlango was originally created to energize the lifeless but ever popular SMS. The company has since realized that there is no avoiding the Web and is gearing-up for a strong push into the world of Instant Messaging.

To see the language in action, check out a Zlango'd version of Little Red Riding Hood. It's a must read-I mean view...

In probably the coolest ever press release, the company announced it raised $12M from VC's Benchmark & Accel. I have it on good authority that the turn around on the term sheet was around 9 days-astonishingly quick for VC's.

Silly? Some think so. Others I've spoken to believe Zlango to have quite a bit of potential when merchandizing and cross-marketing opportunities are added into the formula.

MetaCafe

Honestly, how many of you knew that MetaCafe is Israeli? My guess, only the Israeli readers :) Kidding aside, MetaCafe is one of the originators of what we all have grown accustomed to in viewing video on the web: Flash player, embedding, rating, etc.

It's been a strange year for MetaCafe. Rumors of an acquisition in the $200M range were buzzing around in December 2006. I don't know the inside story, but the common understanding is that traffic stalled and began to decline. Since then they've hired EA veteran Erick Hachenburg as CEO and struck a deal with Steven Bochco for an exclusive series of short confessionals called Café Confidential. Not too shabby.

The real trick of course in the online video space is monetization. While YouTube seems to be in a near state of paralysis, MetaCafe is being adventurous. A couple of weeks ago came an announcement that MetaCafe will be piloting a new advertising platform by upstart Adap.tv (founded by Shopping.com founder Amir Ashkenazi, you guessed it, an Israeli). Evidentially, instead of pre-rolls, contextual ads will appear underneath the videos.

Going by Nielsen/Net Ratings' April 2007 numbers, MetaCafe is the 7th most popular video site. Interesting if it could be the number #1 monetizer...

aniBoom

aniBoom is a niche play in the video space that focuses strictly on animation shorts. Unlike the normal amount of crap we're used to seeing in YouTube-like clones, aniBoom's content by most accounts is top-notch. I say this in terms of both the quality of content and the level of production.

However, one of the more interesting aspects of aniBoom is its founder Uri Shinar. A former big-time TV honcho, Shinar is accredited in having a great deal to do with the success of Israel's Channel 2, the country's #1 commercial station and the one that sets its social agenda.

Shinar's take on aniBoom's business model is refreshing and bold. He claims that aniBoom is being molded into an animation studio-one powered by user generated production mind you.

Forget the traffic=$$$ paradigm, this baby is being primed for acquisition based on the value of its content depot. I have strong feeling it will be snapped-up by an American media conglomerate of some sort. Evergreen should expect multiples with this investment.

eSnips

Social networks are surely the flavor of the year, but launching one and operating a thriving one, are two different ball games. eSnips is a case-in-point for a successful run.

eSnips users, who should be well above the 1M mark, get to share, promote and sell up to 5GB of photos, videos, links, music, documents and even hard goods-all from one central location. Check out their presentation at last year's DEMO.

eSnips has been rolling out some features on a steady basis. These include the uploading of photos from mobile phones, a marketplace and most recently, a radio widget that plays music uploaded by users. I'm guessing the latter will be mostly successful within the eSnips community itself, rather than outside of it.

Not only did the stars line-up just right for eSnips, it also has a skilled team to boot. Noteworthy is the fact that eSnip's CEO, Yael Elish, is a woman. Unfortunately this is still uncommon… In fact, I can only think of one or two other female startup CEO's here in Israel. VC's Gemini and Greylock are in it for the ride with a combined investment of $2M.

Roi Carthy is an Israeli-based entrepreneur and startup consultant.