Bambuser
 | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
Type of site | Social Networking |
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Employees | 15 [1] |
| Slogan(s) | Live from your mobile! |
| Website | bambuser.com |
| Registration | Required for broadcasting, not required for viewing |
| Launched | 2007 |
| Current status | Active |
Bambuser is a Swedish company, founded in 2007,[2] providing a platform for interactive live video broadcasting, for streaming live video from mobile phones and webcams to the internet. Bambuser's main office is situated in Stockholm, Sweden, and has a branch office in Turku, Finland. The Turku office works with technology and development while the Swedish office concentrates on business development and marketing.
The Service
Bambuser, the service, is an interactive mobile video streaming platform that enables users to effortlessly stream and share live video using a smartphone or a computer equipped with a webcam. In addition to being accessible on the Bambuser website, broadcasts can be shared on various social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Blogger.
The Bambuser broadcasting mobile phone application is currently available for iOS, Android, Nokia Maemo, Symbian, Bada and Windows Mobile platforms.[3]
Bambuser is free to use for private persons and representatives of charities. Commercial use is allowed but requires purchase of a premium subscription.
Media Coverage
In 2010, Finnish broadcasting channel YLE adopted Bambuser as an alternative platform for their online- and news-broadcasts. This allowed YLE to get more live-coverage on their webpage, and allowed the viewers to interact with the reporters on the scene.[4]
In November 2010, Bambuser was one of the finalists in The Europas, the European Startup Awards. 33,126 votes were cast across 23 categories, and eight judges deliberated over the results.[5]
On January 1, 2011, the Swedish Pirate party celebrated its five-year anniversary with a Bambuser live broadcast with party leader Rick Falkvinge and vice party leader Anna Troberg. Live in the video, Falkvinge sent a tweet saying he stepped down as party leader, and he announced that his successor would be Troberg.[6]
Presence in The Middle East
During the demonstrations in Egypt, Bambuser (along with microblogging site Twitter) was blocked by the government.[7][8] Shortly thereafter most of the country's internet traffic was restricted. During this blackout, Bambuser set up a special Egypt page on their website, collecting all the streams originating from Egypt and the protests on Tahrir Square. This page later evolved into the North Africa/Middle East page.
During the protests in Bahrain, a similar situation emerged, as government officials blocked access to the Bambuser homepage.[9]
In the Syrian civil war, Bambuser has been used to a great extent by citizen journalists in an effort to document and raise awareness of the events taking place inside the country.[10] On 17 February 2012 Syria was reported to have blocked access to the Bambuser website.[11]
During the Gezi protests in Turkey, citizens started broadcasting the police violence and oppression of the AKP regime with the Bambuser app. As a response, the Prime Ministry banned Bambuser in Turkey illegally, without a court decision. The ban was still ongoing as 4 April 2014.
Partnership with The Associated Press
Since the partnership was announced in April 2012, users of the Bambuser service have had the option to share their broadcasts with The AP.[12] The partnership enables The AP to use Bambuser as a source for user-generated content coming from citizen journalists. In addition to sharing the actual content, users are required to disclose some form of contact information which enables The AP to verify the authenticity of the broadcast material and properly credit the author.
On June 20, 2013 the partnership between the two companies was extended when The AP announced their purchase of a minority stake in Bambuser.[13]
References
- ↑ About us
- ↑ Crunchbase entry about Bambuser
- ↑ Bambuser.com's list of compatible phones
- ↑ Dagens Media - Bambuser i finsk affär
- ↑ Techcrunch - The European Startup Awards 2010
- ↑ The Swedish Pirate Party History and Foundation
- ↑ "Bambuser blocked in Egypt". Radio Sweden. January 26, 2011.
- ↑ Butcher, Mike (January 26, 2011). "Now Bambuser live streaming mobile video of protests is blocked by Egypt". TechCrunch.
- ↑ Preston, Jennifer (February 18, 2011). "Cellphones Become the World's Eyes and Ears on Protests". The New York Times.
- ↑ Shanley, Mia (October 2, 2012). "Live from Syria: Swedish streaming site gains followers". Reuters.
- ↑ Devereaux, Ryan (February 17, 2012). "Syrian government blocks live video streaming site Bambuser". The Guardian.
- ↑ Sawers, Paul (April 4, 2012). "Associated Press partners with Bambuser to bring citizen journalists' videos to the masses". The Next Web. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
- ↑ "AP buys stake in Bambuser, strengthens live UGC video capability". Associated Press. June 20, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2013.