Wibbitz units Up new york HQ to lend a hand extra Publishers flip text Into Video
João-Pierre S. Ruth August 13, 2015
With consideration spans getting shorter and shorter, publishers are searching for new methods to make their content extra attractive. Wibbitz has created a platform that turns textual content-primarily based information articles into narrated video summaries to just do that.
the company bought its begin in Tel Aviv, then moved its headquarters to the big apple in may after raising $ eight million in a collection B spherical. CEO and co-founder Zohar Dayan demoed the platform at this month’s new york Tech Meetup, then spoke with me this week about Wibbitz’s relocation right here. “We idea ny can be the perfect place for us with it being the heart of reports, media, and promoting,” he says.
previous to the move, Dayan says, he would talk over with the big apple every month or two. quickly it made sense, he says, to have a permanent presence in the city to make connections with media publishers that need to leverage more video with their information articles.
Wibbitz developed a natural language processing algorithm that scans in the course of the textual content of every article to create summaries of the most crucial knowledge. The software then pulls related video clips, pictures, and different photos from the publishers’ library of content. A voice actor provides the narration constructed from the summary, and the elements are blended into a video.
Dayan says this can be a new manner for publishers to generate promoting revenue, and grasp the eye of their readers. The platform is free for publishers to make use of; Wibbitz takes a share of the advert income generated via the movies. “We let publishers to make far more money off their current content, and take a reduce out of that,” he says.
in addition to the platform for publishers, there’s also an iPhone news reader app the public can use to look the videos.
There are other software systems, comparable to Article Video robotic, for turning text into advertising and marketing videos. there is additionally an app in the works from Crumbles for creating mashup videos with short text phrases, but that service is extra curious about entertainment, now not news.
the theory for Wibbitz emerged, Dayan says, whereas trying to learn information articles on his iPhone. textual content no longer optimized for cell was troublesome to read, he says, so the idea to create a private video newscaster used to be born.
at present Wibbitz has a crew of 5 at the trade headquarters in the big apple, with some other 25 individuals working in research and building in Tel Aviv. Dayan says the corporate is having a look to hire extra sales, business building, and advertising personnel in big apple.
up to now, the corporate has raised virtually $ eleven million, together with the latest round. Its backers embody Horizon Ventures and Patrick quickly-Shiong, the la-based totally health practitioner with deep pockets who Dayan says is known for investing in improvements in machine learning and natural language processing.
For now, Wibbitz focuses on turning information textual content into videos, but the know-how might be utilized in other ways, depending on how the algorithm is used, Dayan says. that can embody converting recipes, critiques, and books into movies as neatly. “We get requests from college students who don’t need to read anymore and want to watch a brief videos,” he says. “It’s all a subject of how we train the algorithm.”
Dayan believes Wibbitz can emulate the growth of companies similar to Outbrain and Taboola within the publishing sector, but he will want a greater group to make that occur. “with the aid of the tip of this year, we need to add 10 to fifteen folks in big apple,” he says.
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