Revver Non-Payments Have Video Makers Crying Foul

Video-sharing site Revver made a name for itself with its revenue-sharing model, which promises to split advertising revenue with creators of popular videos. For years, enterprising independent creators gravitated to Revver rather than YouTube, and some even quit their jobs to make a career out of it.

According to some of those creator contributors, things took a downward turn starting last year, when payments slowed and then stalled. Revver currently owes many creators thousands of dollars, and, according to reports, has offered no communication telling when payment will be made.

Revver did not respond to email requests for comments and other attempts to contact the firm about this matter.

Growing Fame
Patrick Sell, producer and owner of IDNAD Productions, was an early beta member of Revver and found a following there for his videos of attractive women in everyday situations. His work was mentioned in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. While he worked at Reuters and has a background in online marketing, he left that when his online video career began generating an income.

Revver promises to split ad revenue 50/50 with content creators, and revenue is based on thousands of views (CPM, in business parlance). In the early days of the site, says Sell, creators were paid $3 per thousand views. When ads on the site increased, creators were paid $9 per thousand views.

In those early days, Revver had an in-house sales team, says Sell. But when advertising slowed, the site switched to Google AdWords for income. Google paid much lower, and so creators only received $1 per thousand views.

Insult to Injury
While that was bad enough, says Sell, the situation grew worse after Revver was acquired by Live Universe, an online entertainment company, in February, 2008. Sell received one or two payments after the sale, but from then on all he got were excuses.

"We got one mercy payment three or four months ago," Sell says of himself and Revver's other contributors. "And then everything stopped."

Excuses from Live Universe pointed to problems with Paypal, but never led to a resolution, says Sell who also reported that Revver owes him over $1,500 and that Live Universe also didn't sent Sell a tax form for the money he was paid in 2008.

"In my mind, this is tantamount to theft as the money was paid to them and they are not meeting their pledge to share the ad revenue. What irks me is that Google paid them the money already," Sell adds.

With no other options, Sell has begun the process of removing his videos from Revver and creating his own subscription site. The work is tedious, he says, because Revver has no Delete All function. Instead, he's had to remove his hundreds of videos one-by-one.

A Shared Story
Sell's Revver experience is certainly not unique, but is echoed by other video creators across the Net. Michael Michaud is one of three co-creators of Channel Awesome, the video-creation company behind That Guy with the Glasses and other planned sites. "We've never been paid once," Michaud says.

At one time, Channel Awesome had between 100 and 200 videos on Revver, but it came late to the party, after Revver had been purchased by Live Universe. The team started posting in July, 2008, and by September Michaud realized—from angry forum posts and e-mailed excuses—that Revver would never pay them.

"They don't say anything that's legit. They stopped mentioning payments in December, I think," Michaud says. Revver owes his team over $4,500.

Payment was only one of the hassles for Channel Awesome: Uploaded videos took days to post, sometimes had glaring audio or video glitches, and were often tagged with adult ratings that made them ineligible for ad dollars.

Michaud's team removed its videos in January, 2009, opting for Blip.tv, which also offers revenue-sharing. The group has made over $40,000 in the six months it's been with Blip.tv.

It would appear Revver's contributors are left in limbo, then, unpaid and unsure if legal collection methods are worth the effort. The only thing certain is that a site that made a name for itself with revenue-sharing is now giving itself a black eye with unpaid bills.