Vlix â€" an app that let users add filters and other features and then share them with others â€" is shutting down in August, about a year after its developer, SpotMixer, was quietly acquired by Disney. The news was delivered to Vlix users in an email last night; a copy of the note is at the bottom of this post. Users will have until August 31 to download videos they have created on the service.
It’s not clear whether One True Media, another SpotMixer subsidiary, or SpotMixer itself, are also being shut down. We have reached out to the companies to ask. We have also contacted John Love, who is now a VP at Disney Interactive but had been the co-founder of the company in 2005.
SpotMixer, One True Media and Vlix were backed by a number of big names, including Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, DAG Ventures and NTT, to the tune of some $14 million. (We’ve also reached out to Kleiner Perkins for comment; there, it appears that Randy Komisar led on the investment.)
The Disney connection to Vlix, in fact, is only apparent when you look at the bottom of the shut-down notice, or follow through to the app’s terms and conditions. Looking around, one of the only references I was even able to find of the acquisition being made in 2012 was this small note added to One True Media’s CrunchBase profile by one “jlove†that says that “SpotMixer Inc†was sold to the Walt Disney Company. Privco, meanwhile, states that the sale of “One True Media†closed in October 2012.
When Vlix first launched, it was hailed as yet another “Instagram for video†â€" before Instagram itself became the Instagram for video.
It’s not completely clear why Vlix is closing, but there are probably a number of reasons. For starters, it’s a very crowded space, with companies like Twitter, Cinemagram, Lightt and many more also competing for users. It could be Instagram’s eventual move into that area that was the nail in Vlix’s coffin. Or it could be that Disney had always intended to buy SpotMixer for technology that it could use elsewhere. It’s worth pointing out that Love also led on the launch of Story.us, an app released by Disney in May and geared at parents that lets users create stories of patched-together videos and photos.
Vlix doesn’t appear to have any usage figures, but One True Media, a platform that lets users create slideshows (tech that appears to have been used in Story.us), in 2011 said it had 6 million users posting over 10,000 videos a day and over 5,000 videos a day posted to YouTube and Facebook. SpotMixer, geared more at businesses, operates on a paid-model starting at $10/day.
SpotMixer provides web and mobile-based video creation and distribution services for businesses and consumers. It’s video platform enables users to create visually rich videos and distribute them online, on TV or on mobile devices. SpotMixer leverages its platform across three business lines. One True Media is SpotMixer’s consumer service, with over five million users creating over fifteen thousand videos a day and sharing them on the web, on DVD and on TV. SpotMixer is a provider of online...
Vlix – video effects & sharing mobile app is the fun and easy way to enhance, personalize, and share your video. Apply stunning video effects, personalize with opening and closing text, then share your video exactly how you want – publicly or only to close friends and family. Developed by SpotMixer Inc., the leading provider of web-based video creation and distribution services for businesses and consumers.
One True Media, a business of SpotMixer, Inc., is an online provider of online editing and sharing tools that allow users to combine photos, video, music and special effects in order to create video montages. One True Media seeks to make video editing a collaborative experience, and provides customizable DVDs, online sharing options and photo book keepsakes so that users can build, tailor or update their video montages with ease. In 2012 SpotMixer Inc., was sold to The...
The Disney Interactive offers a mix of interactive entertainment and informational content and services for Internet and mobile devices. The organization is both a developer of unique new media experiences specifically designed for Internet and mobile media and a developer of new platforms for distributing content selected from broad, existing entertainment divisions and libraries of The Walt Disney Company or its affiliated companies. Disney Interactive’s suite of properties includes Disney.com, Family.com, Movies.com and mobile entertainment. Disney Interactive is an...
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