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MySpace Revamps Video Offering

About two years ago now, millions of MySpace users began uploading YouTube clips to their profile pages, which helped drive the YouTube movement to its eventual $1.65 billion conclusion. YouTube videos drove both companies, but since Google scooped up the online video giant last fall, MySpace hasn't known what to do with its partner/competitor. MySpace has now decided to challenge YouTube on its own turf by setting up an independent Web site for its video service.

Called MySpace TV, the site will launch in 15 countries and 7 different languages. A few weeks ago, YouTube announced a similar international expansion. As company CEO Chris DeWolfe says, "We haven't really freshened up our video offering since we launched it. We wanted to highlight the fact that we have a video destination on the Web."

MySpace's market value may have grown nearly twenty-fold since News Corp. acquired it in 2005, but analysts note the site is still monetized poorly relative to its size. MySpace TV is an attempt to separate video content from the social network to create incremental ad inventory--and content sponsorship opportunities. Surprisingly, YouTube and MySpace serve nearly as many videos in the U.S.: in April, the News Corp. site had 50.2 million viewers compared to YouTube's 57.9 million, according to comScore.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »

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