Totlol
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Totlol was a Vancouver kid-friendly video site launched in mid-May 2008 by web entrepreneur Ron Ilan as a one-man company. It aggregated the best kid-suitable videos from YouTube, curated with the help of a parent community: parents submitted videos, helped screen them and watched with their children. Ilan's original set of a dozen bookmarks grew to over 15,000 clips, and by mid-2009 the site — complete with an iPhone web app and an active user community — was getting 150,000 visits a month.
02 / Totlol FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Its founder could not find sustainable monetization or sponsorship and could not continue alone.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launched
Ron Ilan launches Totlol in Vancouver in mid-May 2008 as a one-man, kid-safe YouTube curation site built with a parent community.
- Shutdown
On July 1, 2009 (Canada Day), Ilan shuts Totlol down after failing to find a long-term sponsor to sustain it.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On July 1, 2009, founder Ron Ilan shut Totlol down: the one-man site was loved and growing — 150,000 visits a month — but had no sustainable business model, since a kids audience and YouTube's platform terms blocked normal advertising, and no long-term sponsor emerged.