- Re/code reports Yahoo (YHOO) is "working on a plan to lure some of YouTube’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) most popular stars and networks" using a mixture of higher ad splits, guaranteed ad rates, and free promotion (including on Yahoo's home page).
- Yahoo has been hungry to grow its library of professional video content, and thereby its video ad inventory. It already has deals with NBC and ABC, as well as one for a Katie Couric show.
- The Web portal is hoping to appeal to some of the many YouTube content providers disgruntled over the online video giant's traditional 45% ad cut, among other things. But to succeed, Yahoo has to convince them its deal terms and promotional work will offset YouTube's colossal Web/mobile reach.
- eMarketer estimates YouTube had 2013 gross revenue of $5.6B. comScore estimates Yahoo had 45M unique U.S. video viewers in January, and Google/YouTube 158M. Globally, YouTube has 1B+ monthly users.
- Separately, The Information reports Yahoo has held talks with AT&T, Amazon, and Samsung about having its apps pre-installed on mobile devices, but hasn't yet reached any deals.
- Though Yahoo claims to have 400M+ mobile users, many of them stem from pre-installed iPhone apps that aren't monetized. Google, of course, has its apps/services pre-installed on the lion's share of shipped Android devices.