Joost founder admits mistakes with online TV

Thu Dec 10 2009, 17:21 PM

Swedish entrepreneur Niklas Zennström admits misjudging the market for on-demand TV service Joost, which he developed with Janus Friis. The partnership, which also produced Kazaa and Skype, recently shifted Joost’s focus away from the on-demand TV market amid growing competition from online video service Hulu. Joost now provides video services for businesses.

“With other companies, such as Kazaa and Joost, we made a lot of mistakes. We had the timing off and misjudged the market and the partnership opportunities. Joost is an example where we could not get the right partnerships or audience,” says Zennström.

Zennström and Friis are expected to launch subscription music service Rdio next year. It will face competition from rivals such as Spotify.