CNN Is Closing Down Beme, YouTube Star Casey Neistat’s Video Company(buzzfeed.com)
buzzfeed.com
CNN Is Closing Down Beme, YouTube Star Casey Neistat’s Video Company
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stevenperlberg/cnn-is-closing-down-beme-youtube-star-casey-neistats-video
63 comments
OUTPUT: They didn't make enough videos. 41 Videos in 6 Months 7.7 million views. 10 of them were Casey and not the Beme crew.
The production was good and the stories were interesting in a Vice type of way BUT they didn't output enough content. On YouTube amount of content is more valuable than production quality.
PS Casey states that Beme is moving into CNN and will still actually produce content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfIhBu0TZBs
The production was good and the stories were interesting in a Vice type of way BUT they didn't output enough content. On YouTube amount of content is more valuable than production quality.
PS Casey states that Beme is moving into CNN and will still actually produce content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfIhBu0TZBs
I agree with you. They should have been doing Vice-level output to keep and grow and audience.
That was quick.
Then again, good on Casey Neistat for squeezing out hopefully a cool few million from CNN.
Then again, good on Casey Neistat for squeezing out hopefully a cool few million from CNN.
Failed acquisition: dog bites man story. Strange though that the acquired company principal is roaming around bad mouthing the acquirer rather than "focusing on strategic projects" or gardening.
The great thing about Neistat is the way he tells a history. About him, about a product, about a trip. Beme News has never tried tell any history.
> “I couldn’t find answers. I would sort of disappear, and I would hide, and I would make YouTube videos for my channel because at least I would be able yield something,” Neistat said. “I don’t think I’m giving CNN what I want to give them, and I don’t think they’re getting value from me.”
Sounds like things went poorly. Anyone know if this affected his earn-out (if there was one) or if they're just calling this whole thing a bust?
Sounds like things went poorly. Anyone know if this affected his earn-out (if there was one) or if they're just calling this whole thing a bust?
The Nerdwriter episode on Casey Neistat's style was pretty interesting: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JbiJqTBCQuw
Beyond the Beme platform itself, I'm greatly troubled by this SV notion that you can crowdsource objectivity, as if we have ever received a rational analysis from a mob.
Recent developments, like Facebook's decision to let its users determine what is and isn't factual (what is essentially Beme's advertised product), will lead to sanctioned groupthink.
Recent developments, like Facebook's decision to let its users determine what is and isn't factual (what is essentially Beme's advertised product), will lead to sanctioned groupthink.
Not only that, but because Facebook is an online platform, they'll be fighting not only typical online security threats, but mass bot/troll campaigns to influence the result.
I think there's a greater threat from using "bots" as an easy excuse to silence opinions the network's owners don't agree with.
Taking a small subsection of a group and painting it as the majority is one of the oldest disinformation tactics.
Taking a small subsection of a group and painting it as the majority is one of the oldest disinformation tactics.
The "Surprisingly Popular Vote" actually works quite well:
- http://news.mit.edu/2017/algorithm-better-wisdom-crowds-0125
- https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/02/06/crowd-wisdom-surpr...
Although it seems like there needs to be more research on the boundary cases
- http://news.mit.edu/2017/algorithm-better-wisdom-crowds-0125
- https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/02/06/crowd-wisdom-surpr...
Although it seems like there needs to be more research on the boundary cases
Are there people that actually want to implement "Surprisingly Popular" for voting in political candidates? It seems useful for things like finding the correct answer to a factual question, but I have no idea how it would work in politics.
It's less about politics than it is about the "wisdom of the crowds". For example, it'd be really useful to get info from traders if they have special information about how the market will move.
> Recent developments, like Facebook's decision to let its users determine what is and isn't factual (what is essentially Beme's advertised product), will lead to sanctioned groupthink.
It doesn't really matter. Groupthink is already "sanctioned" by the group. If something gets flagged as "non-factual" it will just embolden all the supporters of that thing.
It doesn't really matter. Groupthink is already "sanctioned" by the group. If something gets flagged as "non-factual" it will just embolden all the supporters of that thing.
Perhaps you can identify individuals who are "usually right". And from there do the filtering.
"Usually right" by who's standard? You would require individual arbitrators to determine what's correct, and at that point, why do crowdsourcing?
> "Usually right" by who's standard
By the standard of the person you are showing the news to.
C.f.: collaborative filtering. Or how Netflix recommends movies.
By the standard of the person you are showing the news to.
C.f.: collaborative filtering. Or how Netflix recommends movies.
So people who at some point liked enough anti-vaxers posts to cross the threshold will never ever see any article presenting the facts that prove it's not true? And beside why would you want to serve users only the things that they agree with? It's not good for them, just makes them more stupid & easier targets for disinformation, but it's not good for Facebook neither because people love arguing online and cutting it down means also cutting the user interaction with the platform too.
Congratulations, you’ve just invented the echo chamber.
Details from the co-founder - https://medium.com/@mhkt/when-your-startup-stops-d275c15ff70...
That message on their office whiteboard in the photo there:
> Look at this fucking cheetah.
> He doesn't slow down, he doesn't get distracted.
> If you slow down he will catch you and he will tear your FUCKING HEART OUT.
> Work Harder
> Work Faster
US startup culture is weird, man. Who, in good conscience, says something like that to their employees?
> Look at this fucking cheetah.
> He doesn't slow down, he doesn't get distracted.
> If you slow down he will catch you and he will tear your FUCKING HEART OUT.
> Work Harder
> Work Faster
US startup culture is weird, man. Who, in good conscience, says something like that to their employees?
Wasn't there a post in the past few weeks that lampooned the "founder's farewell message for a failed startup" and catalogued the typical elements of such a message? This one seems to fit that mold perfectly.
They seem to have disabled the video.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ob4hS6ymCJZOVA_F7KTvMcFJc5z...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ob4hS6ymCJZOVA_F7KTvMcFJc5z...
A mirror seems to be available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46RDiwfknu4
CNN bought a brand and not a product. In fact the only “product” the company had (beme) was shut down at acquisition. Seems like they simply never managed to translate some smart enthusiastic people into a viable product.
Sad, but seemed like a predictable outcome. Neistat is great, but never saw how his approach would succeed inside a large corporate operation or how he could monetize the “brand” beyond his very successful YouTube following.
Sad, but seemed like a predictable outcome. Neistat is great, but never saw how his approach would succeed inside a large corporate operation or how he could monetize the “brand” beyond his very successful YouTube following.
I tend to agree and I always got the impression that Casey was far more motivated by his vlogging than running beme.
Beme was dumb to begin with. Took a powerhouse of a personality to get it anywhere. Hard truth :\
Where's your data to back that up?
Casey openly talks about how the app failed. Him and Matt Hackett's interview on the YC Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvK-CgzxSdM
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Classic case of a superstar at X (video, editing) trying a new sport Y (startup management), and failing spectacularly.
Casey Neistat is a talented daily lifestyle vlogger, and apparently not a talented venture startup video platform CEO.
Casey Neistat is a talented daily lifestyle vlogger, and apparently not a talented venture startup video platform CEO.
hmm. He did sold the company for millions of dollars to CNN. Should have made more money than most "venture startup video platform CEO"s in their lifetime.
The company took multiple rounds of VC money and sold to CNN for ~$20 million. He very likely didn't make a penny from the sale.
Somewhat irrelevant though, as he takes home annual-salary-sized checks for every video that he puts on youtube.
Somewhat irrelevant though, as he takes home annual-salary-sized checks for every video that he puts on youtube.
Raised $2 million in 1 round and sold out for $25 million.
Raised $6+ million in 2 rounds.
Could you possibly elaborate on how the breakdown of an exit like Beme's (prior to CNN) could have resulted in Casey not taking much?
I thought Beme was dumb, just curious to learn more about the mechanics of this kind of deal.
I thought Beme was dumb, just curious to learn more about the mechanics of this kind of deal.
Not OP and I have no inside info, but if we take the $25m as given and assume that investors owned 20-30% on a $2m check with a vanilla preferred that brings the founders/team share down to somewhere in the the $17.5-20m range with the lion's share going to the founders.
Sounds nice, right?!
But, and this is admittedly a big assumption, this smelt like an acquihire at the time so I imagine the deal was structured in a way that allowed the financial investors to cash out with a respectable return while the founders committed to some form of earn-out to ensure their commitment and loyalty to making the platform a success for CNN. Given how quickly the shutdown occurred, you have to assume they didn't meet the metrics in the buy-out so will be leaving some (a lot?) of that purchase price on the table. If we assume a 50% discount that brings the net price down to under $10m split across a group of 10+ employees with the two founders presumably capturing about 80% of that. After tax ~ possibly at their prevailing income tax rate vs long-term capital gains ~ he may have realized a low-single digit million exit which is nothing to sneeze at for the vast majority of us especially given the quick turnaround. Now, if CNN negotiated hard on the earn-out or the investors had something other than 1x preferred it's possible that number is significantly lower, but none of us really know.
Sounds nice, right?!
But, and this is admittedly a big assumption, this smelt like an acquihire at the time so I imagine the deal was structured in a way that allowed the financial investors to cash out with a respectable return while the founders committed to some form of earn-out to ensure their commitment and loyalty to making the platform a success for CNN. Given how quickly the shutdown occurred, you have to assume they didn't meet the metrics in the buy-out so will be leaving some (a lot?) of that purchase price on the table. If we assume a 50% discount that brings the net price down to under $10m split across a group of 10+ employees with the two founders presumably capturing about 80% of that. After tax ~ possibly at their prevailing income tax rate vs long-term capital gains ~ he may have realized a low-single digit million exit which is nothing to sneeze at for the vast majority of us especially given the quick turnaround. Now, if CNN negotiated hard on the earn-out or the investors had something other than 1x preferred it's possible that number is significantly lower, but none of us really know.
How much of that is a result of success as the former, and not the later?
There are plenty of startups started by celebrities which burned a lot of money and died. Of course, the popularity of Casey must be a factor for the CNN acquisition but you can't tell that as the only one.
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Neistat is a great guy, but I just don't get what CNN expected, whats supposed to be ROI of 25m price paid!?
I get the impression they bought the company expecting Neistat would allow them to tap into his vlogging audience to spread their political agenda so he would become something like a new-wave news anchor. I expect it went something like this...
Them: "Hey Casey, you should vlog the womans march" Him: "Nah, I'm going to go surfing with my buddies".
I bet this lead to a lot of frustration from both sides when Neistat didn't want to play along.
Them: "Hey Casey, you should vlog the womans march" Him: "Nah, I'm going to go surfing with my buddies".
I bet this lead to a lot of frustration from both sides when Neistat didn't want to play along.
In a nutshell: They tried to build a Vice News, but they ended up with a BuzzFeed.
I thought it was closer to Vox, but yeah.
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I found a couple of mirrors of the video. They have the same title, but they have slightly different content, so I'm not sure which was the one that was linked.
https://youtu.be/8dVbO9BJa80
https://youtu.be/46RDiwfknu4
https://youtu.be/8dVbO9BJa80
https://youtu.be/46RDiwfknu4
CNN is in its MTV transition phase. Remember when MTV played videos? We'll be saying: Remember when CNN did news? I don't blame CNN; the issue is their funding doesn't allow for complete independence. They need to shift programming to keep ad dollars coming in and they're looking for their "The Real World".
I've followed Bourdain through his many network changes, but his latest shows on CNN aren't the same. CNN is still relatively dry. Not for want of trying though... witness the number of times their newscasters shouted "shithole" with glee recently. :)
Personally, Neistat is not appealing to me, but he had an existing audience that I guess CNN execs were willing to give it a shot. That to me is desperation, not execution.
I've followed Bourdain through his many network changes, but his latest shows on CNN aren't the same. CNN is still relatively dry. Not for want of trying though... witness the number of times their newscasters shouted "shithole" with glee recently. :)
Personally, Neistat is not appealing to me, but he had an existing audience that I guess CNN execs were willing to give it a shot. That to me is desperation, not execution.
Wow, MTV is a perfect metaphor if you grew up in the 80s/90s. I may have to start using that. Its all 'talking heads' and filler now. I wonder if they still have independent coverage of anything outside dc or nyc.
> Its all 'talking heads' and filler now.
It's always been that way, other than brief exceptions (the 1991 Gulf War was probably the longest).
It's always been that way, other than brief exceptions (the 1991 Gulf War was probably the longest).
'member when ESPN showed sports?
So as a user of the Beme Panel app (the 2nd app, created after the CNN acquisition), I thought its core idea was fascinating. The ability to quickly panel and poll people on news topics directly via a phone app instead of invasive text or phone calls seems something worthwhile to invest in. Using it felt more like joining a group for a conversation rather than being prodded by pollsters.
What didn't make sense to me is why they didn't "step on the gas" and accelerate the speed of their app development and content. I overall enjoyed the Beme youtube vids and it seemed they were finally honing in on the right track, and as mentioned earlier the Beme Panels app showed promise.
However, the videos were a bit infrequent, not pumping out as much video content as competitors VICE or Vox, or even CNN's own previous acquisition "Great Big Story". The Panels app was still in closed beta and only brought in a trickle of users instead of trying to bring in even more to provide more data points and diversity of content/conversation.
Being a subscriber to Casey's YouTube channel, it seems to me that Casey is the kind of person that's a self-starter that likes to change things up a lot (which works for YouTube vids), but when it comes to consistently working on something that's more finite for long periods of time he doesn't have the knack for it.
What didn't make sense to me is why they didn't "step on the gas" and accelerate the speed of their app development and content. I overall enjoyed the Beme youtube vids and it seemed they were finally honing in on the right track, and as mentioned earlier the Beme Panels app showed promise.
However, the videos were a bit infrequent, not pumping out as much video content as competitors VICE or Vox, or even CNN's own previous acquisition "Great Big Story". The Panels app was still in closed beta and only brought in a trickle of users instead of trying to bring in even more to provide more data points and diversity of content/conversation.
Being a subscriber to Casey's YouTube channel, it seems to me that Casey is the kind of person that's a self-starter that likes to change things up a lot (which works for YouTube vids), but when it comes to consistently working on something that's more finite for long periods of time he doesn't have the knack for it.
The first launch of Beme led to 400,000 downloads in the first 6 days. Users posted 1 million videos in that same time frame. While there were breakout areas or "10s of thousands of consistent users, "after the cool down from the initial launch, they saw user engagement fall and realized the product was not working. There was hope that there was still validity in the concept (posting unedited - authentic video footage); however, the app needed a redesign to thoroughly test the concept.
Beme has 11 full time employees (10 of which are technical, 1 of which runs their social media communities (Jack)). Casey does not collect a salary from Beme. With this being said, it sounds as if Casey does not include himself in this employee count as he would most likely fall into the non-technical category. Beme splits their employees into 3 teams. Most likely these are divided by platform: Android, iOS, and Web.
The burn rate for these 11 employees is $180,000/month or $2,160,000/ year. Beme has the option to monetize through in-app advertising, in-app purchases, and selling of user data. With no signs that any 3 of these revenue streams have been activated at this time these expenses are being paid for from the venture capital money raised.
The second release has seen a surge in downloads to over 1 million, with added engagement after the first 8 days of launch. Time will tell if the added interest is purely based off of Casey's current social clout, or if the concept has legs to become a standalone sharing platform.
https://techcrunch.com/video/casey-neistats-youtube-life/519...