Sevenload

(Updated: June 26, 2010)

Sevenload [ sevənloʊd ] is a platform for the free management of multimedia content on the Internet. On Sevenload can videos, and images uploaded, indexed, protected, comments, be organized in albums and shared with others and replaced. In addition to the user - generated content Sevenload provides users in cooperation with numerous production companies and record labels, TV content and a variety of music videos. In the TV area Sevenload cooperates for example, with National Geographic, Deutsche Welle and DMAX. Universal Music and Sony Music show in their channel current and older music videos. Currently, there are 22 country portals in 12 languages.

The company appears next to the character of a Web 2.0 platform itself as " Social Video Network " in the field of Web TV and to be understood as technology service providers: So for companies like BMW and Grundy UFA own video portals have been developed.

Business

The sevenload GmbH was founded in April 2006 in Cologne by Ibrahim Evsan, Thomas Bachem, the holding company of Axel Schmiegelow ( dw capital GmbH), and K2 Interactive by Akgun and Tamer Kulmac. Ibrahim Evsan and Thomas Bachem had developed the technology for a video player on the internet since the fall of 2005. The brothers Kulmac retired soon after the founding of the operating business back while Axel Schmiegelow CEO in the summer of 2006. Ibrahim Evsan and Thomas Bachem were responsible as CTO and Director of Technology, Axel Schmiegelow as CEO for the business and licensing model and funding. In 2007, Andreas Heyden came as COO to who had founded an in-house Founder at RTL the Sevenload competitors ClipFish. He took over the responsibility for the licensing of professional TV content.

Co-founders Ibrahim Evsan (former CTO ) and Thomas Bachem (former Director of Technology ) in September 2009 left the company to start a new business. The directors of the company have since been Axel Schmiegelow (CEO ) and Andreas Heyden (COO). Involved in Sevenload were T-Online Venture Fund, DLD Ventures, Martin Varsavsky, Media Ventures GmbH, dw capital GmbH as well as management investment companies Axel Schmiegelow (CEO ), Andreas Heyden (COO ), Jodok Batlogg (CTO ), Richard Cooperstein and employee investment company.

On 15 December 2010 it was announced by a report in Handelsblatt that the Burda Group had taken over his holding company DLD Ventures majority stake in the company through the purchase of the shares of T- Online Venture Fund as of December 17, 2010. In the course of the co-founder and former CEO Axel Schmiegelow joined the Supervisory Board of the company, while Andreas Heyden took over the sole management as CEO. The new Supervisory Board will therefore formed by Dr. Marcel Reichart, Dr. Jörg Lübcke and Axel Schmiegelow. According to media reports, it seems likely that due to the composition of the Supervisory Board and the Media Ventures GmbH (Dirk Ströer ) and private investors such as Martin Varsavsky delivered their Shares and only in DLD Ventures and dw capital are involved as investors in the company. The other shareholder structure Sevenload by other investors or minority holdings have since been unclear.

User Functions

Unregistered users can view published at Sevenload content. Registered users also have the ability to upload your own content and actively participate in the community. Users have their self-created works, the way to manage the rights of use of the Creative Commons license. The users can be informed individually about updates of the images and videos or special keywords About RSS Feeds. With numerous widgets or the embedded flash player, all hosted on Sevenload photos and videos in the private websites, forums or blogs of the members can be integrated.

Content

In addition to the principle of user - generated content Sevenload provides its users by different categories of structured channels. The company sees itself in this area itself as a provider of so-called " premium TV content" that will be provided via various content partners in the channels. In these channels are regularly 1.800 WebTV formats with their own presenters and actors in the form of in-house productions, shows, reports and documentaries presented (including the Mindtime show). The contents through its own editorial in the channels themselves are put together, so that a mixture of professional issues such as the videos of Focus Online, but also from semi-professional to amateur content which is rather attributable to the User-Generated Content arises.

Thus, the eighth and ninth season of Big Brother were centrally integrated as a custom format in the website. and since August 2008, the first season (1995 ) of Forbidden Love is available. In September 2009, Sevenload started with your own music portal sevenload Music TV. Since August 2009, is to find German -and French - language website for World Wrestling Entertainment on Sevenload. In February 2010, the Turkish- language website and in October 2010 the Polish- language website for World Wrestling Entertainment followed.

Technology

The videos are stored in Sevenload in flash video format and can be played online as a stream in the web browser. To view the videos in your web browser to install the Adobe Flash plugin is required. Videos can be uploaded to a size of 1.5 GB in the most common formats (eg AVI, MPEG, WMV or QuickTime ). Before the proliferation they are converted from Sevenload in the Flash video format. The user can store up to a size of ten MB Upload Photos; allowed the formats JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIF, JP2, PSD, WMF and EPS.

In addition to classic advertising banners Sevenload also offers Videoadvertisement, which is accompanied by a still unclear revenue share for its intended users.

End of March 2008, the portal has been completely revised and carried the name " sevenload 3.0". Besides design, the video player has been redesigned and provides better image quality. Users can create groups in the new version, which is already of other social networks, such as Facebook or StudiVZ known.

Since February 2009 definition quality videos can be uploaded to high, but the upload limit of 200 megabytes was increased to 1.5 gigabytes.

In the meantime, find some of the videos from Sevenload with about 100 channeling on new TVs Philips Net TV, Sony BRAVIA, TechniSat and Loewe as well as set- top boxes and receivers with T-Home Entertain and Videoweb.

Criticism

According to terms of use Sevenload the uploaded content must not violate legal prohibitions, the morals and the rights of third parties.

Despite ban it comes again and again to the spread of copyrighted material on Sevenload. According to a review in 2007 by the magazine Computer Bild this but quickly erased after the receipt of a message. In a judgment of 29 September 2010 the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, the video platform Sevenload was relieved in the context of an appeal brought by a music publisher of the allegations, to make copyright material properties and therefore does not have to answer as a perpetrator of an infringement of copyright. This judgment seems to be the trend for the German media industry, especially the Hamburg Regional Court in August rejected an urgent application by GEMA to an injunction against the competition portal YouTube.

The portal offers compared to the competition to fewer videos. In addition to about 1,800 channels one finds the well-known platforms for video content from short clips, recordings, photographs, and funny videos.

Each video begins with a max. 30 -second advertising until you get to see the actual content.

Curiosities

The name of the company was born from the composition of the English words " seven" and "load ", which is literally " Upload seven days a week " mean.