The online video portal Joost has closed its Dutch office and development centre. The move follows the closing of the London operations of the once promising web TV aggregator.
Just two years ago, the company employed about 170 people in The Netherlands to develop an online TV service that would revolutionise television viewing by making it more personal using behavioural targeting and social networking.
However, the venture was plagued with problems from the onset. Joost failed to acquire enough good quality content from major producers and broadcasters. Some were willing to try the new service, but by lack of income selection remained poor.
There were also issues with the client software users had to download and when Joost switched to browser-based video viewing, it was already surpassed by others including Hulu in the US.
