Video hosting can be pricey, and most beta services get asked this question – so I asked Mireira Fontbernat, who heads Europe, Middle East and Africa ops for much talked-about mobile-to-web live video service Qik: “What’s the business model?” Answer: Qik will retain a core free service but is planning…
— Premium features for media partners, like logo branding and streaming direct to destinations other than qik.com (ie. white-labeling).
— Allowing brands like magazines to charge viewers to watch their videos, with a rev share for Qik.
— Looking for carriage from networks and phone makers for its downloadable app, again with a rev share.
Media partners to date include Fast Company and Variety. Windows Mobile is in private test and a new Java version is due soon for Qik, which currently only runs on Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Nseries and has competition in mobile-to-web video streaming from Flixwagon and Bambuser. Watch the video, which, unfortunately, dropped out toward the end…