MSN Unveils Video-Sharing Site
MICROSOFT MONDAY NIGHT ENTERED THE burgeoning consumer-generated
video space with its own video sharing site, MSN Soapbox.
The site, now in beta testing, will eventually be integrated with
other properties in the Windows Live Network. Ultimately, users
will be able to watch videos together through the messaging
program--and with Windows Live Spaces, users will be able to tie
their uploaded videos to their profiles and control who can see
which videos, said Rob Bennett, MSN's general manager for
entertainment and video. For now, the site is open only to a select
few beta testers.
Bennett said that MSN believed it could still stake a claim in the
nascent video-sharing arena. "Obviously YouTube has a big audience
today, but it's still Act I in this space," he said. "We think
there's a lot of room to keep innovating and provide some unique
features that some services don't."
Currently, the site is relatively no-frills, with the same core
functionality offered by competitors like YouTube, Bolt Media and
Google Video. Bennett said the goal for now was to test the site's
scale and volume and get feedback from users.
Bennett also said that, in contrast to competitors like YouTube,
Soapbox presents a number of out-of-the-box marketing
opportunities. "One of the nice things about having Soapbox as part
of the overall MSN portfolio--there are limitless ways we can
monetize user-created video," he said. "We could feature them on
the MSN video home page with pre-rolls, possibly--we could build a
channel for MSN Autos that lets people upload videos of people
customizing their cars," he said. "These are all things that we
could start doing today before we even put the first ad on the
Soapbox pages."
