Amazon is stepping up its
game in the short-form video space by pitching a distribution partnership with
YouTube. Amazon already offers digital
video downloads (to compete with iTunes) and on-demand streaming (to compete
with Netflix and Hulu), and the addition of short-form videos would round out
their digital media service offering.
Some prominent investors assert that Amazon’s video service is the
biggest threat to YouTube’s dominance and has the potential to become YouTube’s
first viable rival.
Amazon is positioning the
short-form video as another channel for brand marketers to reach their
customers rather than just another video sharing platform. These ‘native video ads’ would be paired with
Amazon’s online offerings to help drive sales, “For
example, a network with a library of video gaming or how-to videos would
display that content to people searching Amazon.com for related products”. The company is also seeking to partner with
online video networks and media companies to display their editorial content on
their platform in exchange for a portion of the advertising revenue that is
generated.
But would Google’s YouTube
really be as naïve as Border’s was when it partnered with Amazon for its online
book sales? Does Amazon actually have the capability to knock YouTube off its
pedestal? Stranger things have happened in the digital space so I suppose we’ll
just have to stay tuned.
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