On Path to Irrelevance
Joost, the Internet TV service created by the legendary Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, has announced it is dropping its consumer service offering together with about 80% of its employees, including CEO Mike Volpi. The company had already discontinued the Joost application in favour of a website-only streaming model last year.
The latest announcement marks a sour end to the high profile project that seemed to have all the right ingredients to challenge YouTube for online video supremacy. Although Joost hopes to continue to exist as a white-label video hosting platform, Om Malik points out that is a “cowded market littered with the carcasses of other failed video hosts.”
In any case, it is truly remarkable how a company can go from being the undisputed next big thing to complete irrelevance in less than 2 years.
