More than 400,000 people have used the PodServe platform since we launched more than a year ago. Today, around 2,000 power users actively use the service to host their podcasts. The truth is that we have done a lousy job supporting our unpaid users, primarily because the service was free. We have determined that our ‘unpaid’ model is unsustainable and as a result we are moving to a ‘paid’ model starting in May. PodServe has been a great marketing tool for Big in Japan resulting in a handful of lucrative private label projects including projects for Nip/Tuck, Dirt, The Shield and The Riches.
Starting May 1st we are asking that users pay an annual fee of $25 to use PodServe via PayPal. We certainly won’t make any money with this fee (if every active user paid we would generate $50,000 per year, hardly enough to pay someone to provide basic support), but it will help defray the costs of operating the service and allow us to continue to use PodServe as a marketing tool for Big in Japan. We have a plan to make PodServe better:
Our plan: a) add additional dedicated servers and a larger SAN, b) integrate updated code base to PodServe code for increased stability, c) add statistics, and d) provide basic support to users.
Interested? Go ahead and send $25 via PayPal to sales@biggu.com, providing your user name with the payment. Alternatively, you can wait until April and signup on the site. Remember, if you are not going ‘Pro’ you will need to move your podcast before May 1st.
Is this a good deal? If PodServe works for you it is a great deal. If you need additional features like a flash creator, http://www.hipcast.com might be a better fit. They have three plans ranging from $49.97 to $119.40 per year.
Posted by admin | March 19, 2007 - 8:05pm | No Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: biggu, Podcast, podserve, Social Media
We moved the Big in Japan servers to our new data center and during the move PodServe was taken offline. For some reason we failed to get it back online until this afternoon. Sorry for the outage! We hope that our new facilities improved infrastructure will make up for the service interruption.
Posted by admin | November 27, 2006 - 5:22pm | No Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: podserve, Social Media
Today is a big day at Big in Japan. Together with FX Network, we’ve launched the Nip/Tuck Fancast. Update: For clarification FX Network is a client of Big in Japan.
The Fancast is live on the Nip/Tuck site, or you can access it directly here. We’re really proud of this project, and would love to get your feedback. It’s running smoothly and we don’t expect any problems. If you have any feedback, please drop us a comment in this thread. We’d love to hear what you think!
Posted by amuse | September 26, 2006 - 4:06pm | No Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: biggu, Podcast, podserve, Social Media
According to INC Magazine, our PodServe solution is best for podcasting. To be honest, we have not been investing much time in our free tools. Instead we have focused our attention on the enterprise market for white label versions of the tools. Our latest project is for a major television studio and their hit series. PodServe, with Podcall functionality, will allow their cast, crew, directors and writers to interact directly with their viewers.
We need to remember that much of our ‘paying business’ comes as a result of the free tools we launched last year. I personally will make an effort to keep our free tools. In the meantime we will take the praise from INC and redouble our efforts. Nice that we are sitting between two heavy-hitters like Yahoo and Six Apart. Here is the scoop:
Posted by amuse | September 5, 2006 - 3:19pm | No Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: biggu, biginjapan, inc, podcall, podserve, Social Media, tv
Peter Davis has a great point when he notes that he can review 50 blogs in the same time he can listen to the average podcast. He has a great point and one worth reading in full here. But for me Alex has a more topical explaination of how podcasts can offer businesses a method for timeshifting important audio content.
For most companies conference calls are a fact of life. Many of us sit in our office on several conference calls per week at peek work hours. We could be connecting with partners and associates, but instead we are forced to listen to boring calls that often have nothing to do with us. Podcasting offers a great way for businesses to allow their workers to timeshift conference call information. Imagine being able to listen to a weekly conference call on the way home from work or being able to fast forward through parts not on topic to your function? What if you could then use your cell phone to insert your own thoughts into a feed? Alex details these features in his post titled, “Scoble is right, podcasting is inefficient!”
Podcasting is a great tool that can be used to save time or to waste time – its all in the application!
Posted by admin | June 26, 2006 - 4:00pm | No Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: alexmuse, peterdavis, Podcast, podserve, Social Media
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