YouTube planning big mobile push in 2008
If you’re on Vodafone here in the UK, you can already watch selected YouTube videos thanks to a deal signed between the two companies a while back.
However, it seems YouTube has its sights set on making a bigger splash in the mobile world in 2008. Co-founder Steve Chen has told a Web 2.0 conference that YouTube will focus more on getting its content onto phones next year, portraying commuters as the ideal audience for clips of up to 10 minutes in length.
Will it take off? Mobile users haven’t exactly been falling over themselves to watch existing mobile TV services, but maybe an injection of Chinese Backstreet Boys and handholding otters is just what they’ve been waiting for. Maybe.
A lot depends on the business model though. Will YouTube try to make mobile users to watch videos on their phones, or will they be funded by advertising – presumably inserted at the start of video clips? And if this big push involves working outside the mobile operators, will users pay through the nose in data charges to stream YouTube clips? Watch this space.
(via International Herald Tribune)
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