Leading Online Video Creation Platform to Expand Product Offerings and Team NEW YORK, May 15
NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Animoto (http://www.animoto.com), the web
application that lets users quickly and easily create personalized,
professional-quality videos from their own photos and music, today announced
that the company has received funding from Amazon.com.
The heart of Animoto is its Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology
that thinks like an actual director and editor, using the same sophisticated
post-production skills and techniques that are used in television and film.
Users upload photos, choose a song and Animoto takes care of the rest,
returning a unique video orchestration with the visual energy of a music video
and the emotional impact of a movie trailer. The Animoto.com website,
launched in August 2007, currently has over 160,000 registered users and over
7.5% of those users have paid for premium services.
"In our first eight months, we've helped make photo sharing fun again,"
said Brad Jefferson, CEO & Co-founder. "Now we're ready to accelerate our
team growth and product development to establish Animoto as the ubiquitous
rendering platform for generating high-production value video from images and
music. We are delighted to find in Amazon.com an investor who believes in our
vision."
Animoto's Facebook application is the first of many offerings that
leverages the Animoto platform. Released in March 2008, the Animoto Videos
Facebook application has quickly become one of the most popular applications
on Facebook with over 750,000 users. To accommodate its dramatic growth,
Animoto has relied on Amazon Web Services for all of its' technical
infrastructure needs.
"Animoto has a very smart team with an innovative approach to helping
people create personalized, high production videos for the web," said Jeff
Blackburn, Senior Vice President for Business Development, Amazon.com. "As a
customer of our Amazon Web Services business, Animoto shared with us the
success they've had recently with their Facebook application, and we think
this is just the beginning."
In recent months, Animoto won the Web Award in the "Film/TV" category at
the 2008 SXSW Interactive festival, where they also announced a YouTube music
video production tool, and a Music Submission Program as a way for bands and
artists to feature and promote their music on Animoto. While it's free for
Animoto users to create 30 second Animoto videos, the company currently earns
revenue by offering premium services which allow users to create extended-
length Animoto videos and download their Animoto videos in MP4 format.
About Animoto
The founders of Animoto Productions include veterans of the entertainment
industry who share a passion for helping people better share their stories and
express themselves through online media by innovating technologies in the
field of video production. Animoto Productions, founded in August 2006, is
based in New York City with an office in San Francisco. Visit
http://www.animoto.com.
SOURCE Animoto
