YouTube Acquires Directr, App Helps Small Businesses Shoot Videos
YouTube has shown its interest in helping small businesses create videos by buying Directr, a Boston-based company with a pair of iOS apps. Directr's business app simplifies shooting, giving users storyboards for popular types of videos -- such as sales or testimonials -- so that they can quickly fill in the needed shots. They can add voiceovers or captions, trim or rearrange scenes, add music, and upload their creations from the app when finished to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Wistia.
Under YouTube ownership, the apps will soon be free. Currently, Directr sells a Basic subscription for $24.99 per month and a Premium subscription for $49.99 per month. An Android version of the app, already in the works, should be forthcoming.
Neither company disclosed the acquisition price. Directr is a young company that has taken in $1.7 million in funding previous to this.
"For now, everything you love about Directr is staying the same and we’ll continue to focus on helping businesses create great video quickly and easily," says a post on the Directr blog.
"Directr is joining the YouTube ads team, where they’ll help us make it easier for advertisers to create and upload awesome videos," YouTube added on the YouTube Creators Google+ page.
Once the acquisition in complete, Directr's employees will join YouTube's video-ads team.
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