The player: Brian Shin, CEO of Visible Measures

The play: Visible Measures can measure how audiences interact with video on the Web, such as the percentage of a video a viewer watches, when a user hits fast-forward or whether the video is sent to a friend. That’s a level of granularity that goes beyond data that’s available today, which consists primarily of reporting on the number of views. “We see an opportunity where a great deal of advertising can move from offline to online if online can demonstrate greater [return on investment],” Mr. Shin said. “The way to gain more of those dollars is to have increased measurement and improve visibility as to what’s going on, and then advertisers can make better decisions to optimize their spend.”

The pitch: Visible Measures is different from a Nielsen or a comScore because it’s not aiming to monitor all Web traffic. “We employ active measurement, and our goal and vision for this space is to measure 100% of audience interaction with video across all video sites,” Mr. Shin said. Visible Measures’ technology integrates with video players to track how users interact in real time with videos online. That helps produce a metric for the amount of time spent with a video, which advertisers consider a reasonable proxy for engagement.

In the mix: Visible Measures works with online video sites and services as well as with advertisers. Clients include FunnyorDie.com, Boston.com and the Tribune Co., and Visible Measures expects to announce more deals in the coming weeks. It’s also expanding its capabilities to track interaction with videos virally across the Internet. The company works closely with online TV technology provider Brightcove.

The backstory: Visible Measures officially launched in 2005 to track how consumers interacted with rich media online. Since then, Mr. Shin has fine-tuned that mission to focus on video.

The money guys: Visible Measures has raised three rounds of venture funding to the tune of more than $19 million, with lead investors including General Catalyst and Mohr Davidow Ventures. Visible Measures makes money by licensing its technology to Web publishers and is paid on a per-campaign basis for the work it does for brands and advertisers.

The pros: The need for more precise measurement in online video is great. “Any time a new ad-supported medium matures, it gets proliferation first and then there is a demand for how to monetize it, and online video is tough because the audience is so fragmented,” Mr. Shin said.

The cons: Working with both sides—publishers and advertisers—can be challenging, Mr. Shin said. “We need to be a trusted independent third party,” he said. “Also there is a lot of hype and excitement, and we have to show value.”

Background: Mr. Shin was born outside of Detroit and raised in Pennsylvania. He earned a degree in biology from Tufts University and then worked at Allaire Corp., the company started by Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire. Mr. Shin then started a software company called Cambridge Intelligence Agency that he sold. He earned his MBA from MIT. He lives in Boston with his wife and young son.

Who knew? Mr. Shin collects refrigerator magnets from places he visits and has a collection of more than 200 from locales including Monaco, Tokyo and China.