AOL Launches Video Site to Compete With MySpace and YouTube
Posted on May 16, 2006
AOL has made a beta launch of UnCut Video, a new video sharing service. The service is powered by VideoEgg. TechCrunch calls it a "near perfect clone of YouTube.com." When talking about video sharing everyone mentions YouTube.com but MySpace claims that they are actually the leader in web videos and they probably are based on HitWise's March figures. TechCrunch explains how the launch of UnCut Video follows AOL's launch of AIM Pages.
This is right on the heels of the launch of AIM Pages, which is directly targeting Myspace and other social networks.AOL is probably targeting MySpace with its new video service as much as they are targeting YouTube. MySpace is beating AOL in profiles, blogs and videos. MySpace also recently debuted its own Instant Messenger service. Two companies are definitely competing head-to-head.Look for a launch in the next week.
I am seeing an increasing trend of the big guys simply copying what successful startups are doing. AOL with this product and AIM Spaces. Google with Google Notepad and a flurry of other projects, etc. The only large company that is even experimenting with unproven concepts at this point is Microsoft with its various Live.com ideas. I'd like to see more experimenting at the big company level.