Tyler ReedYoung Entrepreneur & Speaker

TWAC
TWAC is starting to show some growth as they now have a few more videos from users and quite a number of TWAC Couches. I tried to register on TWAC again but they still require my cellphone number and I still don’t know why. I am however most impressed with their new looking video player, it looks bigger and better. Good job guys.

TWAC screenshots: (old player vs. new player)

Zoopy
Zoopy has really taken off in South Africa and continues to grow each day with new submissions of videos and photos. The developers of Zoopy respond very quickly to feature requests that they think are necessary to implement. They have now made commenting AJAX enabled. You can now also share images on Zoopy since they allow you to embed them in your blog, website or you can link to them via email since they provide the URL to the image. Good job guys.

It has been less than 20 days since my original S.A. Video Sharing Comparison so I will wait for MyVideo to inform me of any developments and I will do an update on them then.

Disclaimer: I am about to be very harsh and critical about 3 new video sharing services in South Africa. I fully support the websites mentioned below and wish them all the best.

The last few months have seen the rise of 3 new video sharing services in South Africa. Zoopy, MyVideo and TWAC. Zoopy claims to be the first in South Africa. This is backed up by their domain registration date, which is 05 Feb 2005, yet they only decided on a name in September 2006. However their first video dates back to only 23 days ago and yet they also claim to have gone live yesterday. MyVideo’s first video dates back 76 days ago and claimed to go live in January 2007. So lets settle this with quick math.. YouTube was first.

Zoopy

The Good Side:

• Design and Layout
  This impresses me the most about Zoopy. The colour scheme is really good and soft on the eyes.
• Lots of Videos
  So far they have the most amount of videos available to viewers, with +- 260 videos.
• Photo Sharing
  Now this is some clever innovation. Combining video sharing and photo sharing. This really going to be something to keep an eye on.

The Bad Side:

• Photo Sharing, Not Really Sharing
  They allow you to embed a video on another site yet they do not provide code to embed a photo on another site. All they provide is code for a link to photo page. Photo sharing is not sharing unless you can display the content somewhere else.
• Comments Are Not AJAX
  This really needs to be looked into as well. I have commented many times on YouTube while watching a video but on Zoopy I was half way through the video when I commented and the page reloaded. Not cool, use AJAX for comments.
• Video Player Could Look Better
  The video player really didn’t impress me. It looks like some old version of Windows Media Player.

Screenshots of Zoopy:

MyVideo

The Good Side:

• Design and Layout
  It’s not a bad layout or design, nothing spectacular about it, but it does the job.
• AJAX Comments
  Yay! Comments are handled with AJAX.

The Bad Side:

• Too Much YouTube
  I can’t seem to find anything unique that this site offers that YouTube doesn’t.

Screenshots of MyVideo:

TWAC

The Good Side:

• Design and Layout
  I like the layout of this site. It breaks away from the YouTube feel.
• Encourages Local Content

  TWAC has a strong focus on facilitating quality UGC. We have established 16 unique TWAC PLAC clubs at schools in Johannesburg and Cape Town with learner populations ranging between 800 and 1600 students. By the end of 2007, 64 schools will be part of the program. Read More.

The Bad Side:

• Video Player Too Small
  The video player is really too small. They should look at making it a bit bigger.
• Registration Mistake
  I did not register on TWAC because they wanted my cellphone number, for what may I ask?
• Not Enough Content
  They really need to find more ways to increase their user generated content section, it is far behind Zoopy and MyVideo.

Screenshots of TWAC:

I wish all three services the best of luck.