Bebo is taking on YouTube (and Hulu). Recently, it opened up its social
network to video
partners who want access to its
captive audience. Launch
partners include CBS, MTV Networks, ESPN, the BBC, Channel Four, BSkyB—Bebo is very popular in the UK—Next New Networks, Crackle, Ustream, Last.fm and JibJab. On the surface it is a system that allows broadcasters, like Sky, BBC, ITV and so on, to put videos onto the social networking site whilst also retaining copy protection. Essentially, it’s just a player that pulls videos from the broadcaster’s site. The partners can keep all advertising dollars from the videos (and from music too). Bebo gets to keep its members on its site. Bebo is a British social
Network, but a slew of new media deals may give the site the reach of a traditional broadcast network. In separate deals with CBS, BSkyB and the BBC, Bebo will bring free video to its 40 million users. Members will be able to create and share their own video and music playlists. And media companies will get their own profile pages. There is no doubt that media needs to go wherever the audience happens to be hanging out.Every media company is looking for better ways to deliver their content online. While the deals include traditional media companies, web video startups are also getting in on the action. Crackle, Sony's user-generated video site, will push its content across Bebo's network, which is populated primarily by younger users. Bebo, which has traditionally competed with Facebook and MySpace, see the venture as a way to lure users away from its rivals. However, its new video model also puts it into direct competition with the likes of YouTube and Hulu, a joint venture from NBCU and News Corp. The software that is powering the new video element to Bebo is called VideoEgg, which enables uses to upload videos and enables Bebo to essentially echo the content from other sites. They also have various pages that are just embedded YouTube videos. Essentially, the way the system works is that a user, even if that is a corportate user like Sky or the BBC, uploads a video using the VideoEgg application to their profile. The videos are then aggregated on a special video page where users can see what’s current, what’s hot and jump to various videos around the site. It’s all very simply really and quite easy to replicate even with an open-source CMS like Drupal.