Vodafone has inked an agreement to offer its customers YouTube content across Europe.
The deal, which comes just days after Vodafone partnered with MySpace, is no doubt key to CEO Arun Sarin's goal to have 10 per cent of the company's revenue coming from social networking, mobile advertising and mobile video in within four years.Launching in the UK initially, the agreement is expected to offer Vodafone cusomers the chance to access a pared down version of the YouTube service on the live! portal.
Google-owned YouTube will provide a daily selection of new videos and users will be able to forward links to friends and family, upload their own content from their handset and search across multiple video categories.
In November last year YouTube signed a similar deal with US operator Verizon Wireless.
Steve Chen, co-founder and CTO at YouTube, said: “People want to view and share favourite YouTube videos seamlessly wherever and whenever they want. Partnering with Vodafone will accelerate those efforts to serve our loyal YouTube users as well as allow new mobile audiences to enjoy YouTube.”
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Frank H. Rövekamp, Vodafone's global chief marketing officer, said: “Today’s announcement with YouTube further expands the range of Internet services we’re bringing to the mobile. Through attracting the most popular internet brands onto Vodafone mobile devices we will continue to ensure our customers can access and share the best entertainment anytime and anywhere."
Vodafone and YouTube said they will continue to explore ways to develop the offering and cooperate closely in the coming months.
