In another great example of how .TV is really taking-off when applied in the right space, Bee.tv raised another 1.5 million on top of the 8.5 million they’ve already raised. The social tv startup also released a brand-new iPad App. The company is building innovative software to allow people to share their favorite tv moments. Considering that all over the world people fall in love with particular shows and have moments they’d love to share with the world. This makes a lot of sense, especially given the highly social world we currently live in.
Not only do I think this is a cool idea, but this is yet another great example of where .tv makes sense. No – I don’t think .tv is a great extension for Domainers to buy like crazy and hope someday they’ll hit the jackpot. I do think that in particular cases though it makes a lot of sense.
Last September I ditched my cable service and opted to have Roku boxes all over our pad. It has been an incredible upgrade and we now watch all our content through Netflix, Hulu Plus, as well as plenty of baseball now thanks to…MLB.tv. Along with MLB.tv we also enjoy Crackle.tv which is a cool service you can use to watch free movies and tv shows. I’m in Canada right now and enjoy watching Seinfeld at night while I’m working-away on emails thanks to the Crackle iPad app.
More and more companies have embraced the .tv extension and it’s resonating with consumers. Many of the channels on Roku use .tv sites and Bee.tv is just another example of a brand using the extension to really build a completely different brand from Bee.com which is a site where you can buy DVDs and Games – how old school! Why buy when you can stream?
Bee.tv received their funding from an investment firm in Italy called Innogest and I’m sure we’ll continue to hear more and more about Bee as they make tv a bit more social. With a total of 9.5 million dollars in funding Bee.tv has the idea and the funds to do something totally incredible. I’m not sure how much capital Bee.com raised but in comparison I’d rather invest in Bee.tv even though they don’t have the dot com!
Now don’t take this the wrong way, remember, I’m buying mostly .COMs this year and plan to have a portfolio that consists of about 90% .COM domain names by Q1 2012. Still when I see a business build a real brand on a .tv domain and get funding for their idea, my hat goes off to them, it’s time to innovate folks and bee.tv is doing exactly that!
