Social media aside, nothing seems to be grabbing more headlines and venture dollars these days than the online video category. Two players in the space recently announced new capital raises. The first company, Generate, started by WB vet Jordan Levin, raised $6 million for expansion. Generate is kind of a hybrid online production studio and talent management agency. They have already have a sweet development deal in place with MTV and I'd expect more will be on the way over the coming months. The second announcement comes from ManiaTV who raised $5 million on top of $17 million they raised previously. Clearly, they are well capitalized to execute their strategy. ManiaTV, like Generate to some extent, targets the youth market with their content offerings. You can draw some parallels with the social media category. There are so many players competing for the same ad dollars from brand marketers that inevitably, there has to be some sort of shakeout. Who will be the first to fall and who will succeed remains to be seen. But remember from years past, it's not always the strongest capitalized company that takes the prize.
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