Brad Stone at the Bits Blog of the NY Times reports on Vook raising $2.5 million in seed funding -
Now Vook is set to expand, announcing that it has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from a group of prominent Silicon Valley and New York investors including Ron Conway, Michael Maples and Kenneth Lerer, chairman of The Huffington Post.
It’s quite interesting to hear what Brad Inman, Vook’s founder, wants to do with the $2.5 million -
Mr. Inman said he would use the new funding to expand the company and forge new relationships with authors and publishers, and to build automated tools that can generate hundreds of Vooks a week.
“There are infinite possibilities bringing together authors with filmmakers, photographers and all the other creators of media,”
Also interesting is pondering what this might mean for Video Books.
What Vook’s $2.5 million funding means for Video Books
There are some very important consequences for video books -
- It gives Vook a few years of burn rate and the ability to ramp up production. That increases the chance we get one or more big successes.
- It means the press will write more often about Vook and video books and perhaps even label it a niche to watch out for.
- It shows other investors that Video Books might have a future and other companies and projects in the space are sure to get funding.
- It’ll get companies and entrepreneurs more interested in the space.
- It encourages other forms of books – digital books, interactive books, and more.
In general, this validates the space and gets a lot more people interested in creating and watching/reading Video Books.
Do Video Books have a future?
There are only a few signs so far -
- Vooks hitting some good positions in the Book Apps section of the App Store.
- Vook getting $2.5 million funding.
- Some of the Vooks being very good.
Vook’s funding means that video books get, at the minimum, another 2 to 3 years to break through and create their niche.
It’s hard to say whether Video Books will have a future - Vook do have 3 years or so to carve one out.
How soon do we see real competition and top quality Video Books?
There have been a few digital book projects that have done well. There isn’t, however (to the best of my knowledge), a full fledged competitor to Vook.com. Perhaps now start-ups in the area will spring up, get funding and provide Vook.com with some real competition.
At the moment Vooks are good or very good. They aren’t getting everything right though. Hopefully we see Vook.com figure out how to get some huge hits .
What would guarantee top quality Video Books is solid competition – It’d bring out the best in Vook.com, and in competitors, and we would see at least a few video books hit the magical ‘almost perfect’ level and become huge hits.
Closing Thought – Vook might have already created a brand new niche
One way of looking at it is saying that Vook have 2 to 3 years to carve out a niche for video books.
Perhaps the more accurate view is that by releasing a bunch of Vooks, by hitting the bestseller charts in the App store, and by getting $2.5 million in funding Vook.com have already created a brand new niche.
