Yahoo Wants to Buy a YouTube Clone

Is Yahoo YHOO CEO Marissa Mayer trying to re-create the magic of her former employer? Before coming to Yahoo, Mayer was VP of Local, Maps and Location Services at Google GOOG. She was the 20th person hired at Google and became a prominent figure for the firm, often taking the spotlight as both a leader and a speaker. "Back in about 2003, I correctly called cupcakes as a major trend," Mayer told CNN last year. "It was a business prediction, but it's been widely interpreted as [that] I just like them. (Truth is, there's other sweets I like far more, like vanilla fudge)." Mayer's ability to pick a major trend may have factored into her company's decision to acquire Dailymotion, one of the largest Web video properties in the world. According to The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo is in talks to buy as much as 75 percent of Dailymotion. The firm is currently owned by France-Telecom Orange, which acquired Dailymotion for $170 million. That's a small sum compared to the $1.65 billion that Google paid to acquire YouTube. It is not yet known how much Yahoo would pay for a stake in the firm, but the Journal's sources said that Dailymotion "could be valued at around $300 million." While Dailymotion plays second fiddle to Google, it is still quite successful, amassing 116 million unique monthly visitors. It is hard to imagine what those visitors are watching, however. The United States hub, located at dailymotion.com/us, is currently spotlighting a video on the 10 scariest movie aliens. As of this writing, that video has received 439 views. Meanwhile, YouTube is currently hyping a video entitled, "Guy picks nose on TNT and owns it." That video has received more than 4.6 million views. In a side-by-side comparison of equal or similar videos, YouTube dwarfed Dailymotion. The performance of "Never Gone" by American Idol contestant Angie Miller garnered 80,000 views on Dailymotion. On YouTube, that same video has received more than 580,000 views. To be fair, the YouTube edition was published by the official American Idol YouTube account, which likely provided the clip with additional promotional opportunities not available to Dailymotion. Total views were not any better for The Kitchen, an indie flick whose trailer is currently in main page rotation on Dailymotion. The most successful copy of the trailer received 1,352 views -- but some, including a copy posted by the official Hulu account, received just one or two views. On YouTube, a search for "The Kitchen Trailer" reveals that more than 25,000 people have viewed one copy of the trailer, while another 7,991 have viewed another. An additional 7,600 viewed a slightly shorter clip. These results are not limited to obscure videos and indie movie trailers. Blue Core Studios produced a Sonic the Hedgehog fan film that garnered 1.2 million views on YouTube. On Dailymotion, it has received a mere 606 views. A search for "incredible stunts" revealed a number of videos on Dailymotion, including an amusing motorcycle stunt where a guy rides his bike on a bobsled track. It has gained 152 views since it was posted 18 months ago. Two of the other top-listed "incredible stunts" received less than 100 views each. Only one video, a clip from the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, earned more views. But its total was still rather small -- just over 1,400. By comparison, YouTube contains several "incredible stunts" that have garnered more than one million views each. One of the most popular is entitled, "People Are Awesome." That clip showcases a number of outrageous stunts and has received more than 60 million views. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis@benzingapro.com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ