Online video-sharing services are hot. Microsoft just
announced their service, Warner Music
announced a deal with YouTube. Yahoo! and Ebay have their own offerings. This is another market where the player that exploits the multi-sided market wins. On one side you have users creating content for these sites. These users could be amateurs or movie studios with video content. On the other side are users interested in browsing this content. Finally, there are advertisers who want to reach these users. Each side is dependent on the other to create value. The platform providers (Microsoft, YouTube, etc.) have to subsidize one side to attract and keep the other. While YouTube has the early lead, the others can bring the user community from other properties and tip the market in their favor. While major changes are possible in theory, let us see who executes the best on this.