This got me thinking. With JTV removing feature after feature, what makes JTV special anymore? What differentiates JTV from Ustream, Livestream, Vaughnlive, iVlog, uVlog, Just Cast and others? Yes, I know there are some points of differentiation, but they are getting fewer and fewer.
One thing that JTV continues to lose is the "network effect". Put briefly, the network effect says that a property has value simply because lots of people are connected to it and use it. AOL used to be valuable in large part because of the network effect. YouTube and Vimeo have many technical similarities, but YouTube's great value lies in the fact that everyone uses it.
Looking at JTV's declining popularity, they are losing the value of being a go-to site. And as they remove features, they offer fewer and fewer reasons for people to continue to use the site or to begin using the site, over a competing service. Their analysis might say, "Only 1% of people use this feature. We can get rid of it, save some money, and only lose up to 1% of our users." That analysis overlooks that the friends of the 1% might also leave, even though the friends never themselves use the unpopular feature.
Here's another way to look at it. In fine dining restaurants, people almost never buy the most expensive bottle of wine nor do they buy the cheapest. Yet having those two bottles in the wine list frames the other selections. The $150 bottle makes the $50 bottle look like a prudent yet still very good choice. Coming from the other direction, the $12 bottle of plonk makes the frugal diner feel like less of a cheapskate if he pops for the $16 bottle. Take away the $150 bottle, and you might not sell the $50 bottle. You might sell the $40 bottle instead. Take away the $12 bottle, and you might not sell any wine to the price-sensitive diner. JTV keeps taking away the framing options. And losing diners.