david joyce jalipo build it and they will come

Jalipo:Build It and They Will Come

David Joyce

ThoughtWorks

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Jalipo, Ltd. was founded as online marketplace for TV and video content in London, United Kingdom.

It let content owners use the internet to offer their channels, video-on-demand and live events direct to viewers around the world.

A New Idea


Jalipo brought to market a completely new concept in the way on-line digital video content could be efficiently traded and consumed.

In conjunction with a planned consumer video destination site, Jalipo planned to launch a unique Pay Per Minute video viewing model, with J:Credits acting as a micro payment system.

Micro Payments


Chris Deering, Former President of Sony Europe (the father of the playstation) as Chairman.

Founders Alex Taylor (CEO) and Brent McNish (CTO) additional board members.

Jalipo gained VC funding of £5m from Artemis Investment Management.

Funding


Jalipo aimed to combine the latest advances in Flash video streaming and web 2.0 technologies with a range of innovations in rights management, syndication and media monetisation, to turn the internet into a secure, open market for media distribution.

Products


A small team (less than 5) had created early Betas of a player along containing limited content to generate interest amongst content providers.

Once funding had been obtained the team ramped up to a peak Agile team of over 30 people.

• Product Owners (CEO, CTO, Product Managers)

• Iteration Manager / Coach

• Architect (who coded)

• .NET, UXD, and Flash Developers

• QAs (manual and automated)• Creative Designers

Agile!


A combination of Scrum, Kanban and XP adopted

• Fixed delivery date of 6 months defined, launch at MIP TV event in Cannes

• Inceptions session to create prioritised backlog and story map

• Scrum of Scrums product based teams

• Highly skilled (and expensive!) XP development staff hired

• Partnered with Agile testing company - full automation of front end/back end products following Acceptance Test Driven Development

• Pairing across roles throughout the team

• CI (unit and acceptance tests), high unit test coverage, automated deployment, replicated UAT environment

• Kanban adopted to deal with high volatility of changing requirements

Agile and Kanban


Jalipo was to provide long form, high quality, content on the web for the first time. Offering viewers a range of bandwidths to view content.

Yahoo! YouTube were concentrating on short form, low quality, user generated content.

Other video solutions e.g. Joost were providing long form via players installed on the viewers machines.

Long Form


Long Form

This is absolutely not for user-generated content.

If you were looking to put us into the marketplace, I would put us at the other end of the market to YouTube.

This is rights-protected, territory-restricted and monetized every minute.

Alex Taylor CEO


Launch!

Custom Flash video player, content administration ‘Console’, Programme Guide site, Credit Purchasing site, Business Intelligence reporting and corporate marketing site were successfully delivered on time. Yay Agile!!!

Jalipo then launched on April 2007 at MIP TV Cannes.


YouTube Killer!

Created a lot of buzz upon launch.

http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/04/17/jalipo-to-replace-youtube/




Content Expanded


Things were Looking Good

• Beta prototypes generated interest

• VC Funding obtained

• High profile chairman• Innovative products

• Well engineered products, easily extendable

• Monetization strategy and revenue forecasts

• High level of interest and word of mouth industry buzz

• State of the art broadcast facilities built• Expandable server farm built

• Company expanded; Finance, Marketing, Sales, Pre-Sales, IT Support, Help Desk, Product Management, permanent development staff (rather than contract or partner).

• Offices purchased in West London ready for scaling of staff.

• Many content providers signing up; BBC, Sky, CNN, independent movie studios, live football qualifiers, live boxing events.


We Have Built ItNow they Will Come


How Much Would YOU Invest?


Warning Signs

All new viewers signing up received free credits, but the number of viewers purchasing new credits is dwindling.

Live events are drawing in less than expected viewing numbers.

Major content providers are unconvinced model will work. Rumours of Hulu surface. Other Ad funded video sites launch.

Unfavourable reviews and blog posts

We’re not convinced that a minute-by-minute credit system is the right way to sell online video. If the content is worth watching, it’s probably worth watching till the end, and should be sold as a complete offering. Jalipo’s video quality is good, though compelling content seems lacking.


Advertising and Marketing

■ New marketing strategy devised.

■ An expensive advertising campaign is launched.

■ Google AdWords used.

■ Free Credits increased and period extended.

■ Product lines enhanced based on Product Managers ideas.


Switching Gears

■ Sales force reduced.

■ In view advertising facility built.

■ Funding running out.

■ Development team reduced.

■ Product Development cycle begins again

■ New product ideas and prototypes built

■ Hunt for new investor begins.


Jalipo Runs Out of Credits

Despite being ahead of its time

■ Long form video■ High quality■ In viewing advertising■ Live streaming of events■ Content marketplace■ PPM micro currency■ Syndication model

Jalipo still didnt make it in the market place.

The demise of Jalipo was sadly an event waiting to happen.

The premise of offering people bite-sized portions of channels through the internal system of J Credits was sound enough, just that as is so often the case with the world wide web, you can always find something else to entertain you at half the price.


As of April 30, 2008, Jalipo Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of ROK Entertainment Group, Inc.

Jalipo Runs Out of Credits


Out of the Ashes


You Don’t Know if you are WrongUntil you are Out of Money

1. Failed from a lack of customers not product development failure. Built it, but no one came.

2. Had a process to manage product development, but not a process to manage customer development

3. Sales and Marketing costs front loaded, focussed on execution vs learning and discovery

4. First customer ship became the goal

5. Financial projections, execution and hiring predicted on business plan hypothesis


A Better MethodFocus On Customers and Markets From Day One


Questions?


david joyce jalipo build it and they will come

Technology

video content

content owners

compelling content

content expandedthursday

online video

user generated content

usergenerated content

major content providers