Just when you thought the market for online video distribution was being shaken out, there seems to be a renaissance in the number of video platforms that have emerged offering low-cost, easy-to-use video publishing. Framesocket is just the latest in a series of platforms that have emerged with affordable pricing plans and easily customizable user interfaces. But while most have been focused on capturing small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have a ton of video expertise, Framesocket is hoping to get interest from third-party developers.
Framesocket is designed to make it easy for publishers to create video sites and reach a number of devices. The platform allows publishers to build branded video players and archive pages, and has a flexible encoding engine that creates video files which can be viewed across a wide range of devices including as the iPhone, iPad and Android mobile phones and tablets. It costs just $ 25 a month for 5GB of storage and delivery, with additional storage and video delivery available in increments of $ 0.50 per GB storage and $ 0.25 per GB transferred.
But with the launch of other low-cost options like VidCaster and Vimeo Pro, who really needs another online video platform? Developers, that’s who.
Framesocket was built by the guys behind video real estate platform WellcomeMat and location-based photo- and video-tagging service PegShot. The idea behind creating Framesocket was actually to make it easier to develop their own video-based applications, according to CEO Christian Sterner.
But once it was done and the infrastructure was in place, it made sense for them to open it up to third-party developers. In the same way that 37Signals created Basecamp to handle their own project management needs, then made it available to others, Sterner thinks Framesocket could help those who might want to build apps that leverage video, but without having to create the whole backend from scratch.
Sterner says that if such a service had been available when it launched WellcomeMat, or even PegShot, the startup would have been able to save a significant amount of money by outsourcing much of the heavy lifting to someone else. For startups in the fast-paced world of mobile app development, for instance, plugging into a platform like Framesocket could also speed up development.
In the future, Sterner & Co. plan to do just that: Framesocket will enable the WellcomeMat to easily create white-label video apps for its partners, which include Halstead Properties, Houlihan Lawrence, ForSaleByOwner and Luxury Portfolio.
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