This Monday CBS joined the acquisition bandwagon and bought the popular online video site Wallstrip.com. Purchased for a price in the single-digit millions (rumors are around $5 million but this has been disputed) after having been online for less than a year, Wallstrip is a fantastic success story. Investor & creator Howard Lindzon’s blog announced the purchase and he sent his thanks to those involved.Congrats Wallstrip!
Apart from the fact that Wallstrip deserves this good fortune (it IS a great site), what I find the most interesting is that Wallstrip’s success came about, in part, thanks to Google. Yes, I said Google, and no Google did not have a financial stake in Wallstrip. Google owns YouTube and YouTube provided the free video hosting and feed services that allowed Wallstrip to function. It is fascinating that a free service can provide a platform where an idea can become an acquisition.
Wallstrip put out a clever announcement which Lindsay Campbell (one of the winners in this deal) hosts. It is definitely worth a viewing for a good laugh.
YouTube was just one of many platforms we used to distribute WallStrip. On our own site we initially used Revver and then moved to Blip. But the show was indeed uploaded to YouTube and other services daily.