Showiz Inc. is betting that growth is just the beginning, an assessment about as obvious as betting the sun rises in the East. According to Casey Ng, VP of Corporate Development at Showiz, first you make the service really really easy. Originally launched last December, Showiz decided to release a free version of its service this week as a means of attracting a larger user base and expanding public awareness of the company. We've lowered the bar for everyone who wants to stream over the Internet. Showiz IS easy.
Registered users log on to a personal site with a simple utility for uploading any local media file.
From that upload, the user specifies copyright issues, content specs, title, etc. Showiz also hosts the converted media, providing the user with URLs to the content, which can then be placed on the user's personal or company Web site. Accounts are now free with Showiz for up to 10 MB of storage space and five concurrent connections to the stream. After that, the service is based on a subscription basis, determined by the number of connections and the storage space desired. Even on the subscription end, however, it is still relatively inexpensive, especially for a mid-sized company's application.