Hope for Podcasting?
The AlarmClock reports that Podbridge has been able to raise $8.5 million in is Series B funding route.
Today, podcast advertising network PodBridge raised around $8.5M in Series B funding, according to a regulatory filing dug by PEWire. The Mountain View, CA-based startup is backed by Sutter Hill Ventures in the round and joined by return backers Mayfield and Worldview Technology Partners.
There are a couple of other players in this market, including Podtrac and Kliptronic.
I think there are good reasons to be skeptical about the future of podcast advertising. With such low mainstream penetration, the idea just doesn’t scale yet. While the podcasting niche is at least free from competition with Google so far, I think the reason Google isn’t in the game is because it just doesn’t make enough money yet.
The ROI for podcast advertising is probably pretty good. Few media outlets have such a close relationship with their listeners. However, the scale is just too small to make sense yet.
At times I wonder if those of us in the podcasting community started thinking about the commerical aspects too early. I think instead of focusing on money, we might be better off evangelizing. So far, there is still nobody out there who is the face of podcasting to a mainstream audience (except maybe Adam Curry could have been that person, but I unsubscribed from his show a year ago because it got too boring for me).
And what the hell do they need $8.5M for? I still haven’t figured out what podshow‘s 70 people are doing. Wasn’t the idea behind podcasting that it was simple and anybody with a cheap hosting account could do it?
Another good comment comes from Pete Cashmore of Mashable:
Podcasting seems like one of those trends that was overhyped, over-funded, and didn’t prove as popular with consumers as many first thought. Hence the bearishness on sites like PodShow and Podtech.net (both, in their defense, have realized that video is far more appealing). I’m not going to say that Podbridge is overcooked, but come on: $8.5 million? What would they need to deliver to live up to that?
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