Flying Kyte

Kevin Maney writes: When you create a Web doohickey that gets embraced by both Arianna Huffington and 50-Cent...well, that's saying something. I spoke with Kyte CEO Daniel Graf about all the attention his company is getting lately.

Kyte is, to use Graf's term, an uber-widget. Think of embedding a YouTube video on a Facebook page or blog or Web site -- except instead of just playing that one video, the player creates an open channel between the content producer and its audience.

So in 50 Cent's case, Kyte powers his ThisIs50.com player -- on a Web site built using Ning. The player is not branded as Kyte -- it's branded as 50 Cent's player. Anyone can then embed a 50 Cent player on any site, and that player becomes an open channel between the player and ThisIs50. If 50 Cent posts a new video, or photos, or a song, or uses his cell phone to broadcast video of whatever he's doing at the moment, it flows out to every 50 Cent branded Kyte player. What's more, every 50 Cent player is networked to every other 50 Cent player, so his fans can chat with each other online, creating a mini-social network of 50 Cent lovers.

Four years ago, Graf, who is Swiss, was working at Philips and getting bored. He peeled out of Philips and started building Kyte three years ago, launching it in beta last year. It got some attention around the edges, but Graf says 50 Cent made Kyte visible. "He was the first star who started using it, and after that it really snowballed," Graf says.

50 Cent has had more than 16 million views on his Kyte player, which is playing from 51,000 Web sites, Facebook profiles, blog posts, etc. Huffington recently signed on. Record labels are using it. So is MTV Germany, a TV news station in the Philippines, and a growing number of hip-hop artists. In March, Kyte raised $21 million from an investment group that includes Nokia, NTT DoCoMo and Walt Disney. The company has 30 people in San Francisco and about 10 in Switzerland.

Graf still isn't sure what Kyte's business model will be like. The company is testing ways to license Kyte, including models based on usage and others on revenue sharing. Individuals can set up a Kyte channel for free, but it's branded as Kyte. To create a branded channel -- a la ThisIs50 -- you have to license the technology. "We'll find out in coming months what works," Graf says.

(CLARIFICATION: In an earlier version of this post, I said that Kyte powers the ThisIs50.com Web site. But Kyte only powers the player in the middle of the home page. The site is built using Ning.)

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