Friday, September 28, 2007

Wanna "Hulu?"

I haven't yet decided if the name itself is catchy or just plain silly. But I do know the explanation of the new brandname of Hulu falls short.

"Why Hulu?" writes CEO Jason Kilar, "Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building."

Hulu.com. The idea is to create competition for YouTube. Not out until October (and then only in beta), all we have to go by is press and the home page. From the looks of it, Hulu.com will feature content from television programs, perhaps more so than user-generated content. This seems to place it apart from YouTube slightly.

Keep an eye on it. Silly name or not, online video is a big media trend that must be followed.

Read a letter from CEO Kilar here.

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