Amazon competing with YouTube for advertisers

[Crown]

• Amazon is taking meetings about getting serious on including more advertising opportunities on its video content.
• One potential program would pair vetted video creators and companies to create sponsored content, and Amazon would take some of the deal revenue.
• It has also met with technology companies to discuss preventing inappropriate content from appearing next to ads.

Amazon is taking meetings about launching programs to bring more advertisers to its video platforms and make it a stronger competitor against YouTube.

The company has had multiple meetings where it suggested it would be launching more advertiser-friendly initiatives. Several people said Amazon suggested it would be more open to giving advertisers more data on what viewers were watching and what they were doing online. Another potential program would pair companies with vetted video producers to create sponsored content, one buyer said. Since the production is technically an advertisement, Amazon would get some of the deal money.

Amazon has also met with several technology companies regarding how to prevent inappropriate content from appearing next to ads, an issue called content adjacency, several people with knowledge of the meetings told CNBC. The industrywide issue was put in the spotlight when several ads on YouTube and on other Google-owned platforms were seen running next to neo-Nazi and jihadist content in March.

Full article and source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/09/amazon-more-serious-about-battling-youtube-ad-industry-sources.html

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I'm not sure how I feel about this.

This is definitely a smart move by Amazon, a company I'm a huge fan of btw. But my concern is that this may result in yet more advertisers leaving Youtube. Or at the very least, it could result in advertisers reducing their ad budget on YouTube because they'll also be spending part of their budget on Amazon.

Amazon are really turning into a serious and successful tech company. For example - Their AWS cloud division is bigger than all of the 14 companies below them put together! It's hugely successful and profitable. They are a serious contender IMHO.

Thoughts ?

 

[ShyJosh]

To me there is no logic in one stuff: if Twitch is going to be next youtube. There will be bad words and bad stuff on Twitch too. So why would they choose twitch over youtube if bad words are not what some company stands for? I hope you got what I wanted to say. No sense in that.

But I really like amazon move.

 

[HKTechTony]

I think competition in this market is a good thing.
Even on YouTube there are very few people making good money - and the way youtube runs its monetization is quite unfair. If competition means creators get more options to make money, then I'm in favour of it.

 

[KiddieToysReview]

Amazon is a serious threat to Yt in video. My concern is "vetted" creators. This will likely be by invitation only, something that Facebook is also doing. It will be a very long time before independent small creators, such as most of us here, can join the platform and earn revenue. Ad budgets will certainly have an allocation to Amzn, as they do to Fb. The continued rise of alternative platforms, together with the low barriers to entry into Yt and the flood of new channels, will see creator revenues squeezed even further in 2018+.

 

[ShyJosh]

I think problem is this part: if WSJ wanted to destroy internet personalities, they will do it. It doesn't matter if it's amazon or google. To me: there are some chances to do that with amazon too.

 

[xingcat]

Data collection is the big thing that Amazon has over YouTube or Twitch. YouTube is more of a search engine, but it's a search engine for video results, which is very specific and doesn't lead to active participation, since the results are things you watch. Twitch is more of a video-enabled chat program (in data collection terms), but the consumer base skews a little bit young for advertisers (while younger folks buy a lot of things, it's not a lot of things that your general-level advertisers are going to be interested in, beyond entertainment), so they're not as helpful either.

Amazon is an incredibly sophisticated data collection tool. Every single thing you look at, rate, and especially BUY is logged and recorded. Therefore, advertisers can target you on a transactional level (meaning, they know what you buy, when you buy it, what drives you to buy it, what you like to look at before you buy, etc., even what you buy for your friends and family through wish lists).

The only thing that advertisers want you to do is buy. You don't do that on Twitch or YouTube or any other platform with the regularity you do on Amazon, so it makes total sense that Amazon would take advantage of it.

 

[Hirudov]

Amazon is a serious threat to Yt in video. My concern is "vetted" creators. This will likely be by invitation only, something that Facebook is also doing. It will be a very long time before independent small creators, such as most of us here, can join the platform and earn revenue. Ad budgets will certainly have an allocation to Amzn, as they do to Fb. The continued rise of alternative platforms, together with the low barriers to entry into Yt and the flood of new channels, will see creator revenues squeezed even further in 2018+.

If Facebook video and Amazon video stay invite only, then YouTube will get back to what it was created for in first place - a platform for everyone to express themselves with video. The big commercial only oriented creators will move to more greener (better paid) fields (Facebook and Amazon) while the small creators will stay on YouTube. YouTube will return back to what it was before 2010 and it will be a win-win for everyone.

 

[Conso1727]

I agree that it's a smart move by Amazon, but unlike you I see it as a potential positive move, by giving Youtube a proper competitor hopefully the quality of the service will improve, and it also gives an avenue to some creators to spread their content, I guess.

 

[ShyJosh]

In the worst case scenario, you will have 2 descent platforms to put videos on ... it means double the money.

 

[Crown]

Amazon is an incredibly sophisticated data collection tool. Every single thing you look at, rate, and especially BUY is logged and recorded. Therefore, advertisers can target you on a transactional level (meaning, they know what you buy, when you buy it, what drives you to buy it, what you like to look at before you buy, etc., even what you buy for your friends and family through wish lists).

That's a very good point. Amazon has the data on people's buying habits. By definition, anyone watching with an Amazon account has a debit card or credit card and is comfortable with making online purchases and Amazon knows all their interests. YouTube on the other hand is full of "tyre kickers" and people who expect everything for free and/or whose income isn't particularly high. YouTube's advertisers have often complained that adwords for video traffic coming from YouTube doesn't convert into sales and it doesn't surprise me. I can definitely see how advertising on Amazon video would be a better deal.