By Stevie Smith Jun 29, 2007, 13:18 GMT
The undisputed placement of YouTube as the Net’s premier destination for the uploading and social distributing of video clips may be about to face a seriously heavyweight challenge for the rights to its current online title with news that social networking powerhouse MySpace is set to launch its own dedicated video and television service.
Google’s massively popular video-sharing Web site has remained relatively untouched in terms of online popularity, but the appeal of News Corp-owned MySpace may emerge as the first significant threat to YouTube’s Internet dominance – not least as MySpace is the world’s most popular social networking destination and also presently the leading traffic draw in the United States.
MySpaceTV, as it will be know, will arrive as a specific platform for both user-made and professional created media, including news broadcasts and webisodes related to existing television shows from the likes of NBC Universal and Fox. The initial test version of MySpace will run in seven separate languages so that a variety of MySpace users across 15 different countries can enjoy the new features. It’s also worth noting that online users not connected to MySpace will not have to first acquire an account before utilising the content of MySpaceTV.
"This works just as well for NBC and Fox and for the aspiring Steven Spielberg as it does for the kid doing skateboard tricks on the weekend," trumpeted Jeff Berman, general manager for video at MySpace, in a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP) outlining the explosive social impact of video sharing. "Video has become a bigger and bigger part of the way MySpace users consume culture," he noted. "We want to make it easier and more appealing to use."
Stat tracker Hitwise reports that the market share attributed to MySpace has rocketed forward by some 70 percent through to the end of May 2007, gaining on YouTube’s leading traffic position as a result.
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