What Do YouTube, Hulu and Yahoo! Have In Common? (GOOG, YHOO)

What do YouTube

, Hulu, Yahoo!

, and MySpace have in common? They all host videos from

, a media technology company that focuses on producing high-quality how-to videos. Thus far, that focus has proved to be quite successful: Howcast videos are played more than 25 million times per month. “We started the company about two and a half years ago,” Sanjay Raman, co-founder and Chief Product Officer, told Benzinga during a recent interview. Full Interview:

Raman said that he and his co-founders started the company when they discovered that there were a lot of people searching for instructional videos online. Some of the examples that he gave include “how to make sushi” and “how to clean a hardwood floor.” “We have a lot of really popular videos, and one of the most popular is

,'” Raman said. “We have a video that we made in combination with Twitter showing people how to use it. They actually put it on their website.” In addition to YouTube and other traditional, Web-based venues, Howcast videos are viewable on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

, Android, and BlackBerry

. So how does Howcast profit from making videos that are being distributed all over the place? “We make money two ways,” Raman revealed. “The first is running advertising in the video itself. When you're watching a video, you can actually run targeted advertising against the video.” As an example, Raman pointed to a how-to video on purchasing a digital camera in which Canon

and other camera manufacturers have the opportunity to promote their products before the video plays. “The great thing about that is that there's some intent in the action of watching that video,” Raman said. “So if you're watching a video about cameras, you can really match the advertiser extremely well against the intent of the user when they're watching that video.” Second, Howcast makes money by producing content specifically for large brands. “We've done a lot of great things for large companies – General Electric

, Home Depot

, or Staples

,” Raman said. “Those companies come to us, asking us to create how-to videos showing people how to use their products. “Those things can be useful for a variety of reasons whether it's marketing a new product that they're launching, or helping users understand existing [products]. Videos have proven to be a really instrumental way to educate consumers.” Raman said that one of Howcast's most important and most impactful campaigns was with GE. “[It's] called

,” he said. “What we've been able to show there is that we can not only create content but we can engage YouTube stars to produce content and engage their community as well. We're actually merging content creation with a sense of social marketing and tapping into the power of existing YouTube celebrities to get the message out, and it's been hugely successful.” To hear more from the Howcast founder – including his best and worst investments – don't miss Benzinga's

with Sanjay Raman.