Yahoo!'s Flickr expands into video

Wed Apr 9 2008, 15:54 PM

Yahoo! will show user-generated videos on its photo-sharing site, Flickr. For a USD24.95 per-year subscription, members will be able to upload videos of up to 90 seconds. Videos will be available for all Flickr users to view, unless the author chooses to restrict the access. As the site is primarily designed for families and friend's groups, Flickr recommends users to filter their videos, adding that accounts will be terminated if inappropriate content is uploaded. The firm says that videos which violate copyright laws will also be deleted. The service will be available in English and seven other languages: French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and traditional Chinese.

Yahoo!'s move is an attempt to gain a larger share in the video-sharing market, currently dominated by YouTube. Google's site alone accounted for 53.9% of all US visits to video destinations in Feb, according to a report by Hitwise. In comparison, Yahoo!'s video service - Yahoo! Video Streaming - received 2.06% of visits.