Just Browsing

Does Joost Presage the Demise of Downloadable Software?

An article this month in Portfolio chronicles the disappointing stagnation of Joost, one of the most hyped startups of recent years. The conclusion appears to be that web-based video a la YouTube has trumped the technical advantages of Joost’s P2P-powered client. Given the choice between downloading a special piece of software to get full-screen, high-resolution video and watching grainy clips on the web, users have opted for the latter in droves.

There’s some truth to this, of course. Success on the internet is all about exploiting network effects, and anything that acts as a barrier to adoption is anathema to this goal. It’s tempting to conclude that the era of downloadable software is over, at least for media consumption. If a high-profile startup with rich, famous founders and tens of millions in investment can’t entice users to venture outside the walls of the web browser, what hope is there for other special-purpose browsers like Songbird and Miro?

This view is oversimplistic, however. The real competition for Joost isn’t YouTube, it is BitTorrent. And BitTorrent requires a special client, proving that users aren’t averse to downloading software if they see enough benefit. The real problem is that Joost tried to position itself as a distribution platform for traditional media companies. Unfortunately, control over distribution is really all that the media companies have left in their arsenal as they flail desperately against an inevitable future where artists ply their wares directly to consumers. The record companies are famously unhappy about the power they ceded to Apple by making their songs available on iTunes, and the video folks aren’t keen to make the same mistake.

The Portfolio article quotes Jeff Zucker, the head of NBC:

“I was not that comfortable with Joost,” Zucker says. “We wanted greater control over how our content was presented and distributed, and the key things advertisers and consumers are looking for are ease of use and a safe haven.” By safe haven, he means a site where no one will stumble across those barfing videos or even Motors & Babes.

The safe haven line is a smokescreen (though a more vulgar term comes to mind). What Zucker really means is that they want to keep the virtual equivalent of their bricks-and-mortar distribution monopolies for as long as humanly possible.

I’ve been hearing constant rumors about Joost’s plans to jettison their client and move to a web-only model, but there’s no reason to believe they’ll be any more successful with their existing content in the overcrowded web video space. A better bet would be to reposition themselves as a competitor to Big Media, providing a superior outlet for artists keen to bring their creations directly to the masses.

In the long term, the web browser may garner enough features and flexibility to make special-purpose media browsers obsolete. But in the meantime there is plenty of room for software that offsets the pain of downloading with the gain of better quality content, lower costs and tighter desktop integration.