Over 900 Business Plan Entries Submitted by Developers Building
Their Products and Services Using the AWS Platform
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 2007--Amazon Web Services LLC, a
subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced that
Ooyala is the winner of the Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge.
Ooyala is a video company delivering a high-quality interactive video
experience with monetization and analytics tools for video publishers
and advertisers. As the grand prize winner, Ooyala will receive
$50,000 in cash, $50,000 in Amazon Web Service credits and an
investment offer from Amazon.com. Today's announcement at a
celebration in Seattle capped off an exciting final round of the
contest in which seven finalists presented their businesses to judges
from Amazon.com and venture capital firms.
Ooyala has built a platform to deliver video content for
publishers and targeted advertising via an interactive video
experience. Ooyala is built on Amazon Web Services including Amazon
EC2, used for video and analytics processing, and Amazon S3 for
content storage and delivery. Ooyala leverages Amazon FPS to process
both content and ad serving payments. Amazon Mechanical Turk and
Amazon SQS are also utilized by Ooyala.
"When we started Ooyala, we were warned that we would spend most
of our time in datacenters at 2 a.m. making sure everything worked,"
said Sean Knapp, Founder and President of Technology for Ooyala. "Very
few companies in the world can provide the infrastructure services
Amazon can provide. Why would you do it yourself? AWS has enabled
Ooyala to build, deploy and scale our product in record time, raising
the bar for rapid innovation."
"We were amazed both by the number of entries we received and the
creativity of the developers and start-ups who entered. Our finalists
ranged from healthcare technology to insurance applications to web and
video analytics. It was difficult to narrow such a qualified field and
select a single winner," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President of Product
Management and Developer Relations, Amazon Web Services. "Ooyala is a
wonderful example of the innovation and potential we see in so many of
the companies adopting AWS."
The Start-Up Challenge began on September 12th with a call for
entries. Over 900 applications were reviewed and seven finalists were
chosen. Videos of each finalist were then produced and posted to the
AWS website where developers casted their votes for the best idea. For
the Final Round, AWS flew finalists to Amazon headquarters in Seattle
to present their ideas to a judging panel of representatives from
Amazon.com. To complete the competition, finalists participated in
"Fast Pitch" sessions where they each had 15 minutes to present their
ideas to representatives from venture capital firms. At the end of the
day, the judges selected the winner who was announced at an awards
dinner.
Details on the six remaining finalists for the Amazon Web Services
Start-Up Challenge follow.
Brainscape, a product of the Neuroinformatics Research Group, is
an engine for measuring the networks in the brain. Researchers are
using Brainscape to discover new brain networks and measure the
effects of new drugs in clinical trials. Soon, doctors will be using
Brainscape to diagnose disease and aid in treatment. The team at the
Neuroinformatics Research Group is building their tools on AWS to meet
their computing and storage needs. Brainscape is currently using
Amazon EC2 to build dynamic computing clusters and Amazon SQS to
distribute jobs on those clusters.
Commerce360 uses advanced mathematics and statistical analysis in
their ClickEquations product to optimize paid search campaigns and
deliver improved campaign efficiency and performance for advertisers.
ClickEquations utilizes Amazon S3, Amazon EC2 and Amazon SQS to store,
process and queue data analysis and campaign management.
Justin.tv operates a massively scalable live video platform
serving about 500,000 video streams per day. Their custom server
software, Python Media Server, has been written from scratch to
perform optimally on lightweight Amazon EC2 instances. The end result
is that live video publishers have a free, easy-to-use, and completely
scalable platform for hosting any type of live video broadcast.
MileMeter is an innovative insurance start-up that will offer
"auto insurance buy the mile". With MileMeter, drivers will be able to
pre-pay auto insurance based on the number of odometer miles. Their
utility pricing model will reward low-mileage drivers with fair and
affordable insurance. Using AWS, MileMeter will have a scalable
infrastructure to expand as their business grows.
UserTesting.com provides quick and cheap website usability
testing. For as little as $19, website owners can access a network of
pre-screened testers who are articulate and observant and who meet
specified demographics. Testers perform common tasks on a website
while they have their screen activity and verbal comments recorded for
the website owner to review. UserTesting.com will use Amazon
Mechanical Turk to find testers and use Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 to
process and store the resulting flash videos.
WeoGeo creates a one-stop marketplace for mapping using Amazon EC2
and Amazon S3. WeoGeo supplies surveyors, engineers, cartographers,
and scientists with the ability to conveniently store, discover, and
exchange high-resolution CAD and GIS mapping products. Map providers
easily list their products for sale and buyers quickly find the maps
they need.
About Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides technology services that give
businesses access to Amazon's own back-end technology infrastructure
that they can use to enable virtually any type of business. These
in-the-cloud web services make it possible for any business to reach
the scale of major internet players such as Amazon.com, but without
the expensive price tag these companies must pay to build and maintain
such reliable, secure, and scalable infrastructure. Businesses can use
AWS to achieve this level of web scale with zero up-front investment
and low, pay-as-you-go pricing. More than 290,000 developers have
signed up to use AWS since its inception. Amazon Web Services LLC is
an Amazon.com, Inc. company. More information is available at
http://aws.amazon.com.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc., (Nasdaq: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in
Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers
Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover
anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its
customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers
offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories
such as health and personal care, jewelry and watches, gourmet food,
sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs,
electronics and office, toys and baby, and home and garden.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including
www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and the Joyo Amazon websites at
www.joyo.cn and www.amazon.cn.
As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms
include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context
indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ
significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others,
risks related to competition, management of growth, new products,
services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating
results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and
claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial
agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange
rates, system interruption, significant amount of indebtedness,
inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud.
More information about factors that potentially could affect
Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, and all
subsequent filings.
CONTACT:
Amazon Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
www.amazon.com/pr
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
