‘Video Direct’ Amazon’s New YouTube-Like Video Service, Lets Creators Monetize Their Videos

This is good news and new opportunity for aspiring content creators as they now have a new platform for displaying their work. The leading e-commerce company Amazon Inc. has introduced a new service called ‘Video Direct’ which is similar to YouTube and also lets creators monetize their videos by uploading their original or licensed videos to the Video Direct.

Hence, Seattle based online retailer Amazon.com will be giving a good competition to Google with a new ad-supported video service that resembles YouTube by letting anyone upload clips. The decision will rest with the content creator as to whether they want the uploaded videos available to rent or own, to view free with ads, or be packaged together and offered as an add-on subscription.

Scope for Earning Royalties with uploaded videos
What’s more exciting is that there is a chance to earn royalties by posting videos and hence, the world’s biggest online retailer will be competing directly with Alphabet Inc’s YouTube. Amazon, though, has a long way to go to catch up with YouTube, the go-to venue for video on the internet since 2005.

The content creators will be paid 50 per cent of the revenue earned from rental receipts or sale of the videos, according to the company’s license agreement. For ad-supported videos, the creators will get half of the net ad receipts. The service, called Amazon Video Direct, will make the uploaded videos available to rent or own, to view free with ads, or be packaged together and offered as an add-on subscription.

Amazon’s fast-growing Prime loyalty program already offers original TV programming and access to digital entertainment products such as Prime Music and Prime Video, as well as one-hour delivery of purchases, for an annual fee of $99.

YouTube offers a free, ad-supported service as well as a $10-per-month subscription option called YouTube Red. “I don’t see 50 million Prime users making a huge dent in the 2 billion YouTube user ecosystem,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in an email to Reuters.