Yahoo relaunches video services with new features
By Erina Lin, Monday 18 February 2008 at 22:03 :: World Digital Media Trends :: #1274 :: rss
Yahoo Videos has been relaunched with new features, including a larger media player, in order to increase users’ engagement with the site, Media Post reported.
In addition to the new wide-screen player, the site now aggregates video from all of Yahoo’s other sections. It also provides upgraded tools for playing, sharing and organising videos. For example, users can upload bigger files up to 150 megabytes, which can accommodate longer and higher-quality videos.
The relaunch came right after Yahoo's US$160 million acquisition of Maven Networks last week. However, it has not yet reflected integration of Maven's technology or content.
With this acquisition, Yahoo is expected to bolster its video technology and expand the video inventory for advertisers, Media Post reported.
Yahoo's latest push in video is seen as an attempt to compete against Web video leader YouTube, owned by rival Google. Google sites, including YouTube, reported a 32.6 percent market share in online video, while Yahoo’s only accounted for 3.4 percent in December 2007, according to comScore.
The Maven deal signals the different focuses between Yahoo and YouTube – an advertiser-friendly professional video site in contrast to a user-generated material focused site, respectively.
While announcing the acquisition, Yahoo also said that video is projected as the fastest-growing online advertising segment, which will reach $4 billion by 2001.
However, it's still not clear how Yahoo will use Maven's assets to add benefits to Yahoo Videos. At present, the Web portal is probably more concerned with how to fend off Microsoft's offer, Media Post reported.
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