Beyond YouTubeBeyond YouTube

Want video for your Web site? Think outside the YouTube box.YouTube is synonymous with Web video, but it's not the only option for small and medium businesses that want to host their own productions or those generated by user communities.

Last week Fliqz launched a new video platform that provides a player and the backend infrastructure to stream and store video content. Customers can produce and upload their own videos and encourage their user communities to do the same. Fliqz lets customers brand the player with their logos and watermarks.

Video is becoming table-stakes for Web sites these days, but it can be an expensive proposition. Fliqz aims to put video within the reach of more SMB budgets. It charges $500 for initial setup and $50 per month for basic service. That monthly fee increases depending on the amount of video Fliqz stores and streams.

The company also touts ease of setup. The demo I saw took about ten minutes to get a player loaded and branded.

Video is great for marketing your own products, but Fliqz sees more opportunity in Web 2.0 interactions. One of its customers is a travel site that encourages users to upload vacation videos. PB Wiki, which hosts Wikis for small businesses, uses Fliqz to enable its own customers to add video.

Fliqz provides a management page that shows all the videos available on your site, including titles, Web links and length. At present, customers have to request more detailed data, such as whether users watch all or only part of a video. Fliqz is developing a reporting dashboard to provide that information automatically.

Fliqz isn't alone in this space. Videoegg, another startup, also provides a player and hosting for online videos. Videoegg's twist is that it contracts with advertisers to embed ads in user-generated content.

Fliqz was founded in 2005 and is backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures. The company is pursuing a second round of funding.