Yahoo! is poised to launch an online video platform similar to Google’s YouTube pending final contract resolution issues with content creators.
In a similar offering to Youtube reports say Yahoo! plans to offer creators the ability to set up their own channels, host videos and also set up a publishing dashboard that can distribute across Yahoo properties such as it home page and blogging service Tumblr.
Yahoo is reportedly talking to content producers to offer lucrative revenue-sharing deals, said sources familiar with the matter.
Industry observers say that taking on YouTube, with video views of 6 billion hours each month, will prove to be a herculean task.
Unconfirmed reports say Yahoo! could offer content creators revenue sharing rates of 50% or even 100% return on revenue generated.
"Talks with the video creator community have been ongoing since the beginning of the year. Yahoo is even recruiting producers that have been packaged as part of Google Preferred, which allows big brand advertisers the ability to buy videos produced by the top 5% of creators," said Ad Age.
Yahoo has not yet confirmed any detail.
Yahoo has been focusing on video as a way to revive its sagging fortunes. CEO Marissa Mayer hired TV news personality Katie Couric to host an online news program and acquired startups Blink and blogging platform Tumblr.
