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Israel-U.S. Binational Industri-
al Research and Development
Foundation and other private in-
vestors whom Mr. Efrat calls
"angels."
Today the three founders hold
80 percent of the company's eq-
uity.
It took two years to develop
the sophisticated algorithms
needed to make the technology
work, and in spring 1996, Mr.
Efrat took an unfinished proto-
type to Milia, the prestigious
multimedia publishing show in
Cannes. The response was over-
whelming. 'When I came back I
could hardly speak. For four
days I talked endlessly, giving
presentation after presentation."
The show brought Ephyx to
the attention of California's
Macromedia firm, which con-
trols 60 percent of the world's
multimedia offering tool vendor
market and supplies 300,000 de-
velopers worldwide. The two
companies formed a strategic
software alliance, and in August
Ephyx went on show with
Macromedia at Siggraph in New
Orleans.
The company went on to es-
tablish ties with Intel, Apple and
Microsoft. Every day Ephyx re-
ceives some 3,000 hits to its In-
ternet site, many of which are
routed through Microsoft's site.
Though cautious, Mr. Efrat says
that Microsoft may soon invest
in Ephyx.
In 1996, another strategic al-
liance was formed with leading
Canadian multimedia company
Progressive Networks.
The companies are now work-
ing on a system that will inte-
grate V-Active with Progressive
Network's own technology to en-
able the creation and playback
of video clips hyperlinked to Web
pages. Called V-Active for Re-
alVideo, it is due out this month.
Beta testing began in No-
vember. One hundred compa-
nies_ took part, including
Proxicom — the -largest Web site
builders in the U.S.; Anderson
Consulting, Chevron; the Smith-
sonian Institutions; NASA and
one of the world's largest toy
makers.
NASA was so impressed by
the technology that it now plans
to use the software on its Web
site and for a new CD ROM. The
Smithsonian Institutions and
the toy maker also plan to use it
for new projects.
Testing lasted only four
months. "It was too short," ad-
mitted Mr. Efrat. "But we did a
lot of beta sites and the market
was ripe. Digital video is grow-
ing quickly and we saw so much
enthusiasm for our product that
we decided to let it go. The prod-
uct is good and it's stable. It's
only that you always want your
kid to stay in kindergarten a lit-
tle longer."
V-Active 1.0, priced at $695,
left the kindergarten in April.
Sales are via the Internet and
sellers in the United States. Lat-
er this year, a Macintosh version
will be released.
Other products are waiting in
the wings. These range from a
domestic system which will en-
able amateurs to create their
own hyper-videos — say a fam-
ily trip to Paris with comments,
snap-shots and details about
Aunty Ethel attached — to a
high-end product which will cost
about $10,000.
Mr. Efrat believes the poten-
tial market is enormous. U.S. re-
search company UBS Securities
recently estimated that Internet
video would grow by 200 percent
annually over the next few
years. The multimedia author-
ing market is estimated at $1
Ephyx seeks
cooperation with
market leaders.
billion alone. Mr. Efrat antici-
pates that Ephyx will sell some
20,000 software packages a year.
Competitors are out there —
Arts Video in France and Digi-
tal Renaissance in Canada.
"They are way behind us," said
Mr. Efrat.
Untried and untested on the
market, hypervideo could go the
way of other gimmicky products
such as the videophone which,
despite much heraldry, failed
dismally.
Aware of the pitfalls, Mr.
Efrat said Ephyx is constantly
seeking cooperation with mar-
ket leaders. "We will make our-
selves visible through partners."
The United States is Ephyx's
main market, and the company
has firmly embraced the Amer-
ican way. Aside from an office in
San Francisco, marketing, pub-
licity and business techniques
all have a slick American polish.
Mr. Efrat even speaks with an
American twang picked up, he
says, from long childhood hours
spent watching "Starsky And
Hutch."
"One of the things we are
strict about is learning from oth-
er people," he said. "We see how
U.S. companies act and do as
they do. We want to start in the
right way."
What about the future? Mr.
Efrat hedges. "We plan to target
Japan and Europe. There's
many things in the air, applica-
tions for TV, DVD etc., but it's
too premature to say. It's im-
portant to focus. Without focus
we could get distracted.
'We have so many ideas. We
just have to suppress them all,"
he said reluctantly. Then he
added with a smile: "For now
anyway." O
(c) Jerusalem Post 1997