London, England and New York, NY, January 6, 2009 – Footbo, the leading football (soccer) social network, announced today that it has selected Kaltura, Inc. (http://www.kaltura.com), developer of the first open source video platform for video management, creation, interaction, and collaboration, for full management of the site’s rich-media content, and for supporting interactive rich media capabilities for its users to upload and comment on video content.
“As our site continues to develop and gain traction, we are determined to provide our users with the ultimate experience – a big part of that is related to video, which of course is a critical part of any sports-related social network,” said Mani Honigstein, CEO of Footbo. “As our site evolved we felt the need to look for an advanced video platform that provides features and functionalities whose development and service require domain expertise. Kaltura’s platform emerged as the best solution for Footbo – it handles both standard and enhanced video capabilities, it’s very flexible and easy to integrate.”
Footbo has integrated Kaltura’s video management platform, allowing Footbo admins to manage and moderate video content, create playlists based on tags, ratings and other criteria, track video statistics and usage, and more. Kaltura’s platform also enables users to upload videos and photos and import them from leading social networks and content sites. Kaltura’s platform enables Footbo to easily add over time more advanced interactive functionalities such as content discovery, subtitles, remixing and editing tools.
“We are so excited to be working with Footbo – they have launched such an amazing concept and really provide a home for avid football fans around the world, especially in Europe,” said Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura Chairman and CEO. “The main message we’re hearing in the market is that publishers want to enhance their online video capabilities, but at the same time keep costs low. Our flexible open source framework allows sites of all sizes to launch the most robust range of video tools and applications at a fraction of any alternative cost”
About Footbo
Footbo is the leading online social community for football lovers worldwide. Fans and amateur players can connect and interact, receive customized information, share content/media and express their knowledge and emotions. Created by people who are truly passionate about the beautiful game, Footbo is based in London, UK. For more information, visit http://www.footbo.com. Press contact: press@footbo.com
About Kaltura
Kaltura provides the first open source platform for the creation and consumption of video and rich-media web applications. Already in use by thousands of web publishers, integrators, and application developers, Kaltura’s free and flexible platform enables any site to add advanced video and photo functionalities including uploading, importing, editing, annotating, remixing, publishing, syndicating, searching, monetizing, and monitoring. Kaltura’s open source code is publicly available in the form of a free Software Development Kit as well as video extensions and plugins for leading open platforms, including content management (Drupal), blogging (WordPress), and collaboration (MediaWiki). Kaltura also provides supplemental paid services that include maintenance and support, integration and professional services, streaming and hosting, ad serving, content syndication, and aggregation of related third party services.
Founded in 2006, Kaltura’s team includes top notch advertising, marketing, and media executives as well as open source experts and seasoned technology entrepreneurs, including co-founders of ICQ, Cyota, and Destinator Technologies. Since its public launch in September 2007, New York-based Kaltura has won numerous awards and endorsements, including the coveted TechCrunch40 People’s Choice award, Mashable’s ‘Open Web’ award, a TWS ‘top 10 Israeli web startup’, an AlwaysOn ‘Global 250’ company, a LeWeb ‘top 30 start-up’, Esquire Magazine’s ‘8 most promising Web 3.0 companies’, and TVWeek’s ‘Five Online Video Startups to Watch in 2009’. For more information, visit http://www.kaltura.com.