Yahoo! is planning to create a platform rival to YouTube

28 May 2014

Internet portal giant Yahoo! is understood to be planning to reveal a video search engine that will rival Google-owned YouTube, which is currently the second largest search engine on the planet.

Yahoo! has been in talks with video producers about creating a platform that offers more generous revenue-sharing deals, as well as fixed ad rates, according to marketing bible Advertising Age.

Currently, YouTube takes a 45pc cut of ad revenue, which is a sore point among video creators.

Yahoo! is also believed to be planning a fixed ad rate of 50pc or 100pc higher than YouTube’s ad rate.

After signing a contract with Yahoo!, video producers will reportedly be given a publishing dashboard that will allow them to distribute their content across Yahoo!’s various properties, as well as blogging site Tumblr.

The video producers will also be able to create their own channel pages and embed their videos on websites.

Yahoo! was supposed to have revealed the service in April but has been held up by contract negotiations.

Another interesting idea is Yahoo! isn’t requiring exclusivity in its contracts, allowing video producers to post content on both Yahoo! and YouTube.

It will be interesting to see what YouTube does about this and whether will it demand terms that bind video producers to its service.

Yahoo! image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com