iLike was one of last year's runaway hits, after offering one of the first big music applications for Facebook, and in turn letting you discover new music based on what your friends were listening to. So its no surprise that the company's founder, Patrick Koppula, is using many of the same tricks for his latest project: ffwd, a video startup debuting today at The Under the Radar conference in Mountain View, CA.
As your watching a video, you'll see completely new channels you move to based on what ffwd identifies as content you'll be interested in. Koppula thinks this is a big difference between the "Related Videos" you see on sites like YouTube, since you can essentially create an entirely new path, and adding that channel will in turn make ffwd smarter for you in the future.
While that is the basic premise of ffwd, the strategy goes well beyond a destination video site, of which there are many. The company has a developer platform in the works, that on one side will allow video publishers to feed their content into ffwd, and on the other, allow device manufacturers to integrate ffwd applications into their hardware and software. One such example is a prototype the company has developed for the Nintendo Wii, featuring a version of ffwd optimized for the console. On the business side of the equation, the company looks to share revenue with video publishers, while hoping a rich developer community will drive a lot more eyeballs to the service.
To make it all happen, the company is also kicking off its Series B round, in which it is looking to raise "more than $5 and less than $10 million," according to Koppula. That follows a Series A in which the ffwd raised $1.7 million.
While all of this sounds pretty interesting, it will be a while until you can get your hands on ffwd. While the company's beta will open up this summer, followed by the developer platform launch in the fall, the site won't actually be open to the public until next year. Between now and then, there will certainly be many more entrants into the online video space, while the ever-dominant GooTube will continue to build a better mouse trap. Ffwd is an interesting play, but it will be a while until we can assess whether it's a winning one.