Forrester: Brightcove, Ooyala top video platforms

Brightcove and Ooyala ranked high in market presence and customer offerings, earning them top marks in a recent Forrester study of U.S. online video platforms in the latest market segment report from Forrester research. Forrester looked at six companies in its study--Brightcove, Ooyala, Kaltura, VMIX, Twistage and Fliqz--evaluating them on their current offerings, strategy and market presence.

Forrester’s study concentrated on those companies with a focus on consumer on-demand video, that had products for both premium and user-generated video. It didn’t look at the big enterprise players or at platforms whose focus was live streaming.

Among the highlights:

• Brightcove was the class of the pack with high scores in nearly every category. It ranked as a market leader. Forrester rated it best for its current offerings, market strategy and market presence, and said what put it ahead of every other platform was distribution and integration. Its overall strength probably is what prompted rumors in June that it was in buyout talks with CDN big dog Limelight, and later produced rumors that Googles had it in its own corporate sights set on Brightcove in September.
  
• Ooyala is nipping at Brightcove’s heels vis-a-vis current offerings, but trails in strategy and market presence. Still, it ranks as a market leader. Forrester said its strengths were monetization and analytics and gave it props for its growth and maturing position in the market. “We believe that an expansion of its services arm and partnership ecosystem will enable it to take on the largest enterprise clients,” Forrester wrote. Both offer strong “end-to-end offerings,” said Forrester, and are capable of “serving all segments of the video markets on a global basis.”
  
• Kaltura and VMIX were ranked as “strong performers,” with the ability to offer standard packages to customers, but also capable of strong customer support to create more customized packages, Forrester said.
  
• Fliqz and Twistage earned “contender” rankings, with Forrester saying their strength lies in “media management, player capabilities and publishing capabilities.” Forrester says it’s time for Twistage to “expand its team and ambition to move from offering feature parity to providing market-leading features.” Fliqz, meanwhile, is a company to watch, Forrester said, adding that it need to “see the platform add more robust playlisting and basic distribution options to sites like YouTube for a full solution.”
  

Forrester notes that some 71 percent of U.S. Internet users currently watch some form of online video. That audience is enticing more companies of all kinds and sizes to try and get their message online as quickly as possible. What customers need to look for in a platform, Forrester notes, is the ability to provide end-to-end solutions, scalability, and the platform's long-term commitment to growth and maturity.

For more:
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