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Vringo, Inc.

Product Name

Vringo

Market Segment

Consumer

Funding

Series A: Privately funded, $2.35 million. Currently raising Series B.

Competitors

Video-sharing companies, such as ShoZu and Veeker, and video ring-back tone vendors, such as Comverse.

Product Description

Vringo is launching a video ringtone sharing community. Video ringtones (or “Vringos”) are played for friends each time a user calls them—the user decides which clip his or her buddies will see, and the user’s friends choose the clips the user will see. These Vringo clips are licensed content from the best movies, TV and music, or are user-generated and created from personal mobile phones. Vringo will make sharing viral videos as easy as calling friends.

Market Opportunity

According to visiongain, the total ringtone market at the end of 2006 was almost $5 billion worldwide. Continued growth is expected in this market, with video ringtones expected to grow from 5% of ringtone revenues in 2006 to almost 50% of the total ringtone market in 2011.

Demo Says

Admit it: You’ve more than once wondered what all the hubbub’s about with ringtones. Then you hear ringtones are a $5 billion global market and it’s clear: people, especially young ones, love their ringtones. So what comes next to keep that mega-market hopping? Vringo has developed a symmetrical video share that takes place during the call-handling process, delivering a 10-second video clip that accompanies your call. Your phone stores the clip for later viewing at a tiny footprint of 100 to 200k. The Vringo site is the main repository of content, so there are no bandwidth issues. Simple on the surface, sophisticated down below with 18 patents pending and endless possibilities for revenue down the road. What a great idea.