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Yahoo-Microsoft or Yahoo-AOL, Web Video Rolls On

Apr 14, 2008  •  Post A Comment

While Yahoo debates whether it would rather link up with AOL than Microsoft, a combined Yahoo-AOL would not have much impact on the business of online video, experts say.
Microsoft made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo earlier this year, but the most-visited group of Web sites rebuffed Microsoft. The software company remains interested, but AOL subsequently entered the fray, kicking off discussions with Yahoo about creating a combined company.
Neither combination would have a great impact on the development of the Web video economy. That’s because the leaders in online video already have established a firm beachhead.
“The trajectory of video on the Web would remain similar to its current path,” said Bruce Leichtman, president of Leichtman Research Group. “I don’t think that a merger or a sale would mean that the evolution that is already taking place in the realm of video on the Web would be far different from its current course.”
In fact, numbers released this afternoon from online audience measurement firm Hitwise indicate that YouTube and MySpace have a commanding lead in the online video world.
For the month of March, YouTube accounted for 73% of all Web visits in the U.S. that went to an online video Web site. MySpaceTV came in second with 9% of visits, followed by Google Video with 4%. Yahoo Video was fourth with 2%, followed by Break with nearly 2%. However, YouTube was the only one of those five sites to increase its market share of visits over the same time period last year, with a 32% rise. Yahoo Video fell 18% in market share of visits to its site.
Neither AOL nor Yahoo immediately responded to requests for comment.
(Editor: Baumann)

One Comment

  1. I totally agree. Yahoo!’s been lagging in the social networking scene for some time. The fact that they haven’t made a huge dent in their 360 product, it’s follow-up, Profiles is indicative of how they’re prioritizing their properties. They also do not capture a huge percentage of the youth market, which strongly hampers performance in any of the social networking products including video. Only Answers his the anomaly. Surprisingly it has beat Google, and Ask hands down.

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