Taking a Look at Seesmic and Why It Won't Work Despite Those Behind It

Yesterday, Loic Le Meur wrote about the round of venture capital he has raised with his "video conversation" tool Seesmic. Loic has, by far the best smile in the tech industry. While his video tries to make out likes hes a newb, clearly he isn't. He has even beat Calacanis at the friend game - and that's no easy feat! Of the $6 million, $5.5 come from larger investors, leaving $500,000 for the balance of 12 other investors which averages at $41,000 each.

You can read our initial review from November. Why don't I think Seesmic will work even though there are enough names involved to keep pushing it over and over? Simple really - unlike Valleywag, I don't see Seesmic as a video email tool. Seesmic is a video conversation tool but isn't a real-time conversation, it's a "wait and see" conversation and that's why it won't work. It's taken me a while to figure out what Seesmic is but I've come to the realization that it's a video message board. I hope this explanation helps Mathew Ingram clear up his confusion on what Seesmic is.

Let's look at the different types of video tools today with a Twitter-like explanation of each. I am probably missing some video types so leave others in the comments.

YouTube and other basic video sharing tools

With YouTube, you upload a video of yourself playing with your kid. People may comment but the goal is to get visibility for your video -- that is, share it with others. You aren't expecting a conversation over the video. Most videos on YouTube are there for "push" only.

Flixwagon/Qik

These are real-time mobile video broadcasting tools. I take my cell phone and shoot video live on a channel where people can watch and interact via comments. An archive is offered for later viewing in the same style as YouTube above. (Flixwagon/Qik)

Ustream

With Ustream, you create a channel and again broadcast live using your Webcam or camera and others can interact via chat. An archive is offered for later viewing in the same style as YouTube above.

SeeToo/ooVoo

We reviewed SeeToo late in 2007. SeeToo lets you have a video conversation with others in a real-time environment. ooVoo lets you have group chat using video, again, in a real-time environment.

Seesmic

I was chatting with a friend today (in text) about Seesmic, and here's how I described the application:

• mary records a video
• mary uploads it to seesmic
• mary sits and waits and keeps hitting refresh hoping someone posted a reply
• oh look there is a reply
• mary has to watch the whole video because there's no way to scan it
• now mary makes another video
• and the cycle repeats

People want instant gratification -- look at IRC or any of the IM apps. No one wants to wait for maybe someone to post a video. While some call Seesmic a "Twitter-killer", its clear that 99% of what's uploaded on Seesmic could be handled in text - there's no real benefit to video for the conversation - it's not like there are charts and graphs that someone is pointing to. I'd bet a dozen hot that if Loic started a fancy Web 2.0 text chat service the same group of people would be on there too.

On Mathew's post, Antje Wilsch commented with even more reasons why Seesmic won't make it:

• you can't comment, scan, or make notes on video / hard to easily forward to share (gotta' worry about video formats, players, flash etc etc)
• many people cannot, or will not, watch video at work (!)
• time savers - difficult to briefly skim a video to see whether worth watching the whole thing like one can quickly do with text
• it's not that interesting watching unattractive people (had to say it!)
• quality takes time to put together - esp on video costs go up (vs. say re-writing and editing text) so the quality vs. speed thing is an issue

Conclusion

At the end of the day, if anyone can make Seesmic work, it's Loic. He's got the charm, the connections around the world and now an all-star cast of people to continuously spread his message. Will it be enough in the long-term? If Loic can figure out how to make the "video conversation" real-time and step away from being a message board, then it has a much better chance of succeeding. But there are plenty of services that do that already.

Are you using Seesmic? If so, please share your experiences with the service.