YouTube has started testing a new integrated payment feature that allows fans to donate to their YouTube channels of choice. Officially dubbed “fan funding”, this new feature is unlikely to replace revenue from advertising for most YouTube channel owners, but it does mark a significant step in YouTube’s ongoing effort to monetize its growing viewership and making its video content shoppable.
Tag: youtube
Google Reportedly Buying Game-Streaming Platform Twitch For $1 Billion
One billion dollars. That’s the reported price Google is willing to pay to get Twitch, the biggest real-time game-streaming platform, into its digital empire. The deal has yet to become official, but the industry is already buzzing about all its implications. Twitch provides the players with platform to broadcast their gameplay sessions on PC, Xbox One, or PlayStation 4 live to online viewers, building a community of over 50 million of monthly active gamers around the world, which would provide Google with a enormous advertising opportunity. Furthermore, this billion-dollar deal, if confirmed, would not only validate the emerging market of live-streamed gameplay, but also seem to signal an upcoming transformation of YouTube’s current streaming model. It’s an acquisition that could potentially upend the status quo of OtT video market, bringing Twitch’s live-streaming model into the mix.
Update : In an interesting turn of events, Amazon has closed a deal to buy Twitch for $970 million. — Aug. 25, 2014
YouTube Blames ISPs
Shots fired, again! Joining the blaming game that was just played by Netflix, YouTube is now publicly shaming the internet service providers for the low streaming speed experienced by some users. Now when your buffering speed is less than optimal, a blue notification bar pops up under the video that directs you to a comparison page between other ISPs in your area, which ranks providers based on the average speed they provide for their customers on YouTube.
The message is loud and clear: ISPs are responsible for whether your video playback is smooth. As the heat between OTT service companies and ISPs continues to rise, especially with the debate over net neutrality caught in recent media spotlight, Google, along with other internet-based companies, is no doubt working this user-experience angle as a subtle PR campaign. The effectiveness of this campaign, however, remains to be seen.
Line Offers Free PSY Stickers After Watching New YouTube Single
Korean messaging service Line, which we featured in our Messaging Whitepaper, announced a new partnership with singer PSY to offer free stickers in exchange for viewing his new single on YouTube. It’s a unique marketing strategy to boost YouTube numbers for PSY, whose continued YouTube success is integral to his career in the West. Pushing Line users to the video will certainly do just that, as the messaging service’s massive userbase is enough to push the video towards virality on its own.
YouTube Enforces Paid Streaming
YouTube has wanted to roll out ad-free streaming music services for some time, to compete with other, Internet-based streaming services, and it’s going to begin testing this new service within days. The idea is to charge users to watch, listen to, and download music without ads, and the situation looks bleak for independent artists who don’t like the idea: Google has said that it will take any artists and labels who don’t sign up for the service off of the platform entirely – paid or non-paid, traditional video streaming. It’s a bold play from YouTube, and it’s ostensibly a strong-arm of the music industry, owing to the fact that YouTube is now indispensable to the marketing industry at large. If or when the pushback comes, YouTube’s response, if any, will be telling, and could shape the future of streamed media at large.
Google In Talks To Acquire Twitch
Did you know that some of the most engaged audiences are gamers watching other gamers play games? Yes, you heard correctly. Twitch, the video game streaming network has 45 million monthly uniques who gather around displays, armed with Slim Jims and Cheetos to watch videogame play. Not surprisingly, Google is in talks to acquire the service which outpaces YouTube Live. We’ll have to wait and see how this pans out but there is a larger story around live audiences given the huge market for streaming gameplay, concert series, cooking lessons and more.
KFC Releases The Chicken Corsage
KFC has released the Chicken Corsage which pairs baby’s breath flowers with room for a drumstick. The corsage costs $20 and comes with a $5 gift check for the poultry adornment. Clearly KFC’s aim is not to sell more chicken through the corsages directly, although wearable food does seem like a good investment. In reality, it drums up a great deal of buzz as they connect with a younger audience around the awkward hilarity of prom. So far, the marketing stunt has garnered over 200K views on their YouTube video also hosted on a microsite.
Advertisers Can Purchase Nielsen Ratings On YouTube
Google – and by extension YouTube – have been trying to get accurate Nielsen ratings for months, and are finally confident enough in the system to begin selling ratings next month. The Online Campaign Ratings product features pre-roll ads on the video platform, and will include guarantees to advertisers starting n month from today. By the end of the year, Google wants to have OCR directly integrated into the Doubleclick platform, so advertisers will be dealing directly with Nielsen ratings in their plans. If the deal is as set in stone as Google is portraying, it would mean deliverable metrics for advertisers looking to expand their online presence and digital campaigns in a fashion that is designed to guarantee results. As OCR and this type of technology develops, the more granular marketers can get about their strategies.
YouTube To Offer Advertisers Guarantees
In YouTube’s latest attempt to pull advertisers away from the TV, the Google-owned company will offer marketers some time guarantees; they’ve pledged to air ads across its channels until a certain number of target viewers see the ads. The company will also reserve ad space for companies that purchase time in advance for the best performing 5% of shows on its channels. One could view the move as a reaction to Yahoo’s move into the online-streaming community, as well as a reaction to CEO Marissa Mayer’s statement that Yahoo is very advertiser friendly. The new ad scheme will go into effect in the coming months, and is a big concession to advertisers for a medium that, at least in the past, was slightly averse to advertisers coming into its fold.
Google Features Music Videos In Search
If you’ve searched Google in the past day or two, you might have noticed a new card-like format at the top of your search results. That’s because Google has started to showcase links to YouTube videos with large, Google-Now styled cards at the top of its pages. You can’t play the music video within the search engine, but when you click on the post it takes you to the YouTube page. Not all music videos will show up this way, however; only uploads from VEVO and official artist’s accounts will be shown like this, as well as special videos that have, ostensibly, gone viral. It means that we’re officially entering the age of promoted video search on what, for many, is the front page of the Internet. As well, it’s an attempt to keep music streamers off of Spotify and Rdio, and on YouTube.
