Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry

Vevo May Switch Hosting To Facebook

CNET NEWS – Jan 20 – Knowledgeable sources today told CNET that music-video service Vevo has met with Facebook at least twice about possibly moving their hosting to the social networking site and away from Google-owned YouTube. Though Vevo still has another year remaining in their contract with YouTube, at least two meetings have taken place with Facebook, most recently within the last two weeks. If Vevo makes the move, Facebook could finally provide a compelling music service to its members that would keep them on the site longer. Launched in 2009, Vevo offers music videos from three of the four major record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music.

by Greg Sandoval
See full article at CNet News

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YouTube Agrees To Modify Terms Of Service

GOVT TECH – Jan 17 – After nearly 18 months of discussion with the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), YouTube has agreed to modify its terms of service to help state government agencies with faster adoption and safer usage on the site. NASCIO has had recent success with getting Facebook to update its terms of service last year, and hopes to develop similar agreements with other social media sites, including Twitter. Under the new agreement, state agencies may skip over YouTube’s standard “click through” agreement and instead have the option to adopt the newly developed content license agreement. Under this new agreement, state agencies would not be responsible for paying legal fees in the event that YouTube gets sued.

by Sarah Rich
See full article at Govt Tech

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YouTube Reportedly Purchasing TV Type Content for $100M

TECH CRUNCH - Oct 4 - According to the Wall Street Journal, YouTube is finalizing a deal with studios and networks for high-quality TV-like content to the sum of $100 million. The new content will help YouTube sell targeted ads for increased revenues.

by Devin Coldewey
See full article at Tech Crunch

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YouTube Posts Biggest UK Traffic Month Ever

READ WRITE WEB - Aug 12 - According to Experian Hitwise, YouTube had its biggest month of traffic ever in the UK. In July, YouTube accounted for 1 in every 35 UK Internet visits, period. The boom in traffic is due to massive growth in mobile viewing. Since January, mobile visits to YouTube have doubled in the UK.

by Jon Mitchell
See full article at Read Write Web

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YouTube Moves Past 3 Billion Views a Day

CNET NEWS - May 26 - YouTube celebrated its sixth birthday with 3 billion views-per-day. That's a 50% increase over the previous year.

See full article at CNET News

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YouTube Was UK's Fastest Growing Social Network In April

PC ADVISOR - May 6 - YouTube was the fastest growing social networking site in the UK in April, says Experian Hitwise. The site accounted for 20.03% of all visits to social network sites by Brits last month. That's 0.98% up on March 2011, and 4.11% up on the same month last year. Furthermore, YouTube is the third biggest website in the UK.

by Carrie-Ann Skiner
See full article at PC Advisor

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YouTube To Invest Up To $875,000 In Rising Stars

MASHABLE - Mar 17 - YouTube is launching another campaign to cultivate more original, quality content on its servers, promising to invest $35K in up to 25 of its partners. The new initiative, YouTube NextUp, is not focused on discovering new talent, but more on “accelerating the growth of the next big YouTube stars.” Existing YouTube partners (those with less than 300K subscribers) are asked to apply with a 3 min. video, demonstrating their talents and discussing the projects they’d want to pursue on YouTube. Once applications are submitted, YouTube’s users will get a say in who will get the company’s money.

by Ben Parr
See full article at Mashable

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YouTube Acquires Service That Makes Your Videos Better

READ WRITE WEB - Mar 15 - In order to improve the quality of those videos, YouTube has acquired an Irish company that makes video enhancement magic technology. Called Green Parrot Pictures, YouTube says the 6 year old company has built "cutting-edge video quality improvement technology that has been used in major studio productions from Lord of the Rings to X-Men to Spider-Man. Their technology helps make videos look better while at the same time using less bandwidth and improving playback speed."

by Marshall Kirkpatrick
See full article at Read Write Web

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YouTube To Expand Staff By 30%

MASHABLE - Mar 10 - YouTube expects to have its biggest hiring year in 2011, with plans to grow its staff by 30%. The company currently has ~650 employees. A 30% increase would mean YouTube could hire close to 200 more staffers this year.

by Emily Banks
See full article at Mashable

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YouTube Acquires Next New Networks

TECH CRUNCH - Mar 8 - YouTube has acquired Next New Networks, a firm founded in 2007 that focuses on producing high quality original video content for the web. Alongside the news, YouTube is announcing ‘YouTube Next’, a team of experts who are setting out to “supercharge creator development and accelerate partner growth and success”. YouTube is going to give certain partners access to a team of experts that can help them produce better content.

by Jason Kincaid
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Next New Networks SEC Filing Pretty Much Confirms YouTube Buyout

TECH CRUNCH - Feb 17 - While YouTube is reportedly in talks to buy Web content producer Next New Networks, the New York-based startup has just filed with the SEC in relation to $19.4M in equity financing. NNN also raised $1M in debt funding last year. The potential acquisition of NNN, which also manages a network of independent filmmakers alongside producing its own channels, would give YouTube its first step into producing Web videos in-house. According to the WSJ, a deal between YouTube and Next New Networks worth ‘tens of millions of dollars’ could be announced in the coming week. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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YouTube Acquires Fflick Recommendation Service

READWRITE WEB - Jan 26 – Google subsidiary YouTube has acquired Twitter sentiment analysis and recommendation engine fflick. YouTube will use the talent and technology of the fflick team to help users “enjoy and discover new videos to watch.” YouTube content is shared around the Internet to the tune of 400 tweets per minute, with "over 150 years worth of YouTube" watched on Facebook every day. FULL ARTICLE @ READWRITE WEB

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Next New Networks Raises $1 Million

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 30 - While Google’s YouTube is reportedly in talks to buy Web content producer Next New Networks, the startup has just raised $1M in debt financing. According to this SEC filing, the fledgling company is raising a round totaling $1.2M. The potential acquisition of NNN, which also manages a network of independent filmmakers alongside producing its own channels, would give YouTube its first step into producing Web videos in-house. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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YouTube: 700 Billion Video Views In 2010

MASHABLE - Dec 23 - YouTube users have uploaded ~13M hours of video content to its servers in the last 12 months, resulting in ~700 billion YouTube video views. It means that YouTube’s users have uploaded 850,000 minutes of video and watched 1.9 billion videos per day in the past year. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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YouTube Wants To Buy Next New Networks

CNET NEWS - Dec 15 - YouTube has plans to acquire Next New Networks, a Web video production company known for producing video hits online. Google is most interested in Next New Networks' video-production abilities. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

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YouTube Begins To Remove Its Video Time Limits

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 12 - YouTube limits for videos stood at 10 minutes for years. In July YouTube bumped it up to 15 minutes. But today, YouTube is announcing that it’s removing the limit entirely for some users. YouTube says that it’s going to “begin allowing selected users with a history of complying with the YouTube Community Guidelines. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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YouTube Launches Skippable Ads

MASHABLE - Dec 2 - YouTube has officially launched its new TrueView ad format, allowing site visitors to avoid watching ads they’re not interested in. A countdown button will visitors skip an ad after it plays for five seconds. In some cases, viewers will be able to select which ad to watch out of three pre-roll options. Advertisers are reacting positively to the new ad format. Some have said TrueView is a cost-effective advertising option that provides them with a better ability to target their audience. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Hulu Generated 1.1 Billion Video Ad Impressions In Oct

TECH CRUNCH - Nov 15 - According to ComsCore, Hulu saw 1.1 billion video ad impressions in Oct, compared to 793M video ad impressions in Sep. Video ads reached 45% of the total U.S. population an average of 34 times during the month. Whereas Hulu served the highest frequency of ads to its viewers in Sep (~of 27.5 over the course of the month); CWTV.com served served ~50.8 and took the top spot in Oct. Google Sites (whose traffic is mainly YouTube) had 146.3M unique viewers; Yahoo took the second spot again with 53.8M viewers, followed by Viacom Digital, which jumped by 4 positions in October with 52.9M viewers. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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