• BusinessWeek, Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:45 PM

Online video sensation YouTube could have a real competitor on its hands in Europe. A French video site called Daily Motion is growing steadily, already boasting 16 million page views per month, while adding 9,000 new videos per day. The Paris-based company mostly caters to a French-speaking audience, which makes it poised to grab a significant share of Europe's fastest-growing Web audience. YouTube, by comparison, commands 64% of the online video market in the English-speaking U.K.

Still, YouTube has a greater share than Daily Motion across Europe--with a 10% to 12% reach versus Daily Motion's 2%, according to comScore. In France Daily, Motion has a slight lead of 10.3% versus YouTube's 9.1%. More than half of the content on Daily Motion is in French, while most of the rest is in English.

Daily Motion also has a few tricks up its sleeve that YouTube does not. For example, users can directly upload video from their Webcams, and it also draws heavily from local content--news clippings about Ségolène Royal's bid for France's presidency or highlights from the French soccer league.

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