Is Yahoo planning its own version of YouTube?

By David Nield March 29, 2014

Image used with permission by copyright holder

If the weekend tech press reports are to believed, Yahoo is planning to take the fight to Google with a video sharing platform of its own, and is prepared to poach the biggest YouTube stars in order to make it successful. According to a report by Re/code, the plans are still being worked out, and no definitive decision has yet been made.

Yahoo will certainly have a challenge on its hands if it decides to go ahead: YouTube attracts over a billion visitors a month who watch more than 6 billion hours of videos between them. Over 100 hours of content are uploaded to the site every single minute.

Re/code says that Yahoo’s plan is not to duplicate the YouTube platform but to provide a showcase for the most popular content producers: “Yahoo executives have told video makers and owners that the company can offer them better economics than they’re getting on YouTube, either by improving the ad revenue or by offering guaranteed ad rates for their videos.”

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer spent many years working at Google and has been busy trying to turn the Web giant’s fortunes around — the Yahoo portal has been attracting a larger share of overall traffic, while the company’s Flickr service has been through not one but two redesigns in recent months. Yahoo also bought the social blogging platform Tumblr last year.

Sources suggest we could see Yahoo launch its own video streaming platform within the next couple of months. Whether or not it can attract some of the stars of YouTube — together with their faithful followings — will play a big part in determining whether or not it gets off the ground. Would you welcome another alternative to YouTube? Or has Yahoo left it too late?

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Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…

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