Hey!Watch adopts Amazon S3 model for video encoding
March 7, 2007 – 8:34 amHi People,
Regarding the growing demand from both companies and people, it’s time for Hey!Watch to highlight its skills as a pure Video Encoding Web Service.
Consequently, our current business model is not adapted anymore. So, we have decided to adopt the same basis as Amazon S3 to best suit you:
- Pay only for what you use
- No start-up cost
- A unique cheap price of $0,10 per encode (no more free)
- 100% flexible: just credit your account with the number of encode you precisely need (min 5 credits)
- Unlimited in time: you can use your credits without any deadline. No pressure and no waste of money.
We increased the unit price because we want to maintain a high and professional encoding level for All. But, paradoxically, you save money: you can adjust sharply to your needs and don’t waste any encoding sessions anymore. So, you optimize your investment and make your subscription more profitable.
Besides, the max video length limit has been extended to 45min to encode longer videos like TV shows or whatever you want. Still more, you can now extract audio from any video file and convert it in MP3 or Ogg.
For both Watcher and Business, you won’t loose anything. Actually, we will credit your account with remaining encode sessions. For example, if you subscribed for one month with 100 encode sessions and you used 40, your will get 60 credits back.
Personalization is what people want most. The old model was too restrictive because of the time limit and the unadapted number of encodes. We know that everyone has his own needs, and this main change will be better for all the different uses and behaviors we met. We want to maximize scaling effects and pass obviously those benefits to you. That’s why we choose this model and we trust the results.
19 Responses to “Hey!Watch adopts Amazon S3 model for video encoding”
No! I loved the Watcher model - the credits “topping up” at the end of each month.
Now I’ll have to pay for every single one I convert? I’m quite upset about this.
By Ben on Mar 7, 2007
Dear Ben,
Thanks for your first comment even if it’s negative. It proves you like and follow Hey!Watch.
Actually, absolutely NO to your question. You can credit your account with any quantity of encodes sessions with just a min of 5. Just realize! Once you have defined how many conversions you usually use, you can sharply adapt to your needs.
As we explained in the Blog, before this move, you wasted all your unused encodes sessions after each reset, each month . Today, you can do exactly as you like to do. Don’t you think it’s still better?
By The Hey!Watch Team on Mar 7, 2007
Guys,
Working for a broadcasting company, al lot of our shows are max 60 minutes, so 45 is just too short for our nedds. Can you ad another 15 minutes, please?
By erwin blom on Mar 7, 2007
i like the new business model, but pls use more payment method.
PayPal is not accept many country even Saudi Arabia which is my country, i relley need 100 credits just for now.
i recommend 2CO: http://www.2checkout.com/
By khaled on Mar 7, 2007
Khaled,
Great to know that you like the new business model.
At the moment, Paypal is the cheapest way for us and consequently for you too.
We check the 2CO offer, but it’s really too expensive!
Actually, you have several means to pay with Paypal, from classic cards to Paypal account. So, don’t hesitate any longer.
By Eric Fontaine on Mar 7, 2007
Aw no, I’m pretty disappointed there’s no free service anymore. I love HeyWatch, but I can’t pay for it.
I didn’t mind the fact that the free service only allowed 10 encodes a month, it was useful and easy to do. If I needed to encode more videos I just used other methods, but they were more time consuming. Now with no free service I will have to do this all the time.
I really liked HeyWatch before, but now I’m quite disappointed in you.
By Calum Guest on Mar 8, 2007
Hi Calum Guest,
I definitely understand your point. But, with the ability to sharply adjust to your needs, no more waste of encodes, no more deadline to use, and plenty of features and options, it’s like Freedom. None ohter service offers that at the moment. Besides, our price is the cheapest one according to everybody. I hope we will see you soon.
By Eric Fontaine on Mar 9, 2007
I just do not understand why we HAVE to pay, why can’t you leave the older style/model an option for those who prefer it. This is precisely what ruins most websites that are on their way to popularity, you don’t understand I was telling all my friends about it. Imagine, what if myspace charged? Immediately they would drop from most trafficked website to least, no one would use it anymore, NO ONE! the only reason heywatch was so awesome and so great for the public was because it had the “public” in mind, and kept it free, now we have to pay? i mean, come on, didn’t ne of us watch Anti Virus
neways, all in all, I am DEFINETELY opposed to HeyWatch charging, and you are loosing me plus hundreds others, i mean dont you guys get it, there are a LOT of other sites that let me do what I can do here for free, the difference was that heywatch was more convenient for me, and less confusing…i guess ill just figure out the free ones and forget about you all
By heywatch ruined on Mar 9, 2007
Dudes come on, dont ruin ur site like the rest of the online business loosers! Money, money, money…that’s what it’s all about, this is the web man, let it be free find other ways to pay the bills, teach urself how marketing and advertising can really pay for your website on it’s own without you charging…like myspace and facebook, i mean you probably havent done ur research, but dont you know there are other ways to encode and transfer, it takes longer and is more difficult, but i mean, it’s free and to be honest with you, free is the only way for me
I can’t believe you guys resorted to charging, we were all having so much fun and really enjoying your site…well, uve lost me and my roommate who posted above this, plus probably all the other people in our dorm, laterz
By credit what? where did this come from? on Mar 9, 2007
Hi Guys,
Many thanks for your honest feedback. Even if it’s negative, we sincrely appreciate. I think that FREE is a lie coming from the biggest company (is Myspace, Youtube, Facebook and others). Why? Simply because behind them there are big investors, so they can have a free business model. But the issue is following: compared to them, how many freshly born companies suffers from this idea that everything must be free. How to survive? Ads, waiting for being bought by a big one? It’s not our strategy. Paradoxically, we adopt this business to give real freedom to our users. Hopefully, we received so much emails from people truly agreeing with these changes. Actually, It’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of people who created a company and just want to live.
By Eric Fontaine on Mar 9, 2007
I really like the way this new system has been put into place. I agree that the old system was too restrictive; this new one should allow people who have need varying amounts of encoding done each month.
I really like the direction that Hey!Watch is going towards. Keep up the good work.
By Herbz on Mar 11, 2007
Here a mail form a happy user. You deserve money for a really good service!
By erwin blom on Mar 15, 2007
Heywatch is an excellent tool, but unfortunately this model is no longer acceptable for my intended uses, Education - and an education focussed online video wiki. Maybe I shall have to look elsewhere, for example Zamzar
I had intended to promote and use Heywatch on digital media courses with school and university students - both for real encoding and as an explanatory tool. Have you considered a business model for education?
By theo kuechel on Mar 17, 2007
I think the pricing is very reasonable, though I’d like to see perhaps a discount for heavier users as an option.
To the people that are disappointed that there is no free anymore.. the current reality of web video encoding on a web server is that this is a cpu intensive task(not the sort of thing you’re going to do on shared hosting), and bandwidth heavy on the download side..a busy site would need a dedicated server = a commitment in money + a commitment in time (compiling ffmpeg +mencoder+codecs+ flvtool + all necessary dependencies & other bits..)
I think if you have 100’s of videos getting uploaded, your site would probably be easily enough monetizable to cover the cost.
Here’s another idea though..
A limited amount of free credits, but a heywatch watermark is applied (allows room for experimentation, helps promote service)
Add pre/post roll adverts to enable free use users.
I notice in the update too it says “you can now extract audio from any video file and convert it in MP3″ does that include from flv’s recorded by flash media server that use nelly-moser audio codec (like flv2mp3.com)? That’d be useful..
By Mike Duguid on Mar 20, 2007
Hi Mike,
Many thanks for your support. It’s true that Video Encoding is something very intensive and difficult to handle.
We seriously thought to add free credits. Unfortunately, too many bloody users. They made multi-accounts creation to get hundreds of credit. As always, bad people punish good one. Trust us, we saw so many messages on several forums saying to do that to infinitely enjoy… No comment…
Of course, you can extract audio from any standard video file or extension. Flv’s included.
By Eric Fontaine on Mar 21, 2007
Nothing new Frank :/
By Bruno Celeste on Jul 24, 2007