DEMO '11: Keep your eyes on WeVideo

Network World - While there were a lot of impressive technologies at this year's DEMO convention, WeVideo looks like it has the most potential to be the Next Big Thing.

Why, you ask? Well if you've ever watched amateur videos uploaded onto YouTube you know that they look, well, like amateur videos. And what's more, amateur videos are inherently limited because YouTube in its current form lacks the capability to have multiple people collaborate and work on editing a video together. It's literally YOUTube, as in, "You film it, you upload it, you edit it and you post it."

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WeVideo, on the other hand, puts a definitive "We" into the picture. Imagine that you and a couple of your friends are attending the Consumer Electronics Show and you want to put together a compilation video of all the cool new gadgets you see. The standard operating procedure would be to have everyone film their pieces individually and upload them onto YouTube individually. WeVideo, on the other hand, lets you upload your work onto your account and then invite users from other accounts to post their videos and edit them all together in a nice shiny package.

WeVideo also has a built-in cloud-based video editing system that lets you add music, transitions, titles and other video staples that will make amateur videos look more professional. The editing interface is a standard drag-and-drop model that WeVideo CEO Jostein Svendsen says was developed to be used as part of educational programs for students in Europe. The hope, he jokes, is that if children are able to work with it then even adults might be able to grasp it.

Svendsen also says that utilizing the cloud has allowed WeVideo to offer a collaborative service that provides faster rendering and more storage than any other online video-posting service.

"On a desktop computer you have limited processing capability and limited storage," he says. "What we have done now is by being in the cloud we have an unlimited amount of storage and processing power. Most people when they start rendering on desktops, they find that video takes longer to render. This is a true paradigm shift in terms of use and speed."

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For now WeVideo is offering its service through a subscription model where users can post and edit videos in 360p resolution for free but can also post and edit 720p high-definition videos for $40 a month. Svendsen says that while the company is looking at additional ways to generate revenue in the future, it's comfortable right now that it can make money from offering people a subscription service that lets them post and collaboratively edit their own videos, especially since they'll be getting a push from partnering with other big companies that will utilize the technology.

"We'll come to the market with major strategic partners, giving us access to millions of users around the world," Svendsen explained during his demonstration this week. "These will include major telecoms ... smartphone manufacturers and the largest online video-sharing websites in the world."

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