YouTube may be well-known, but it’s not the only game in town.
That’s the message from mywaves after YouTube’s announcement this week that it was opening up its service to millions of mobile devices worldwide. Previously, YouTube just had deals here and there with the likes of Verizon Wireless on a limited video-viewing basis and Helio for its Ocean, as well as for the Apple iPhone.
But mywaves has been around longer, and while it does have some user-generated content, most of it is professionally produced by companies like CBS and Fox or lesser-known but no less creative outfits such as RipeTV. “We look at this [YouTube expansion] as validation that the mobile Internet is really going mainstream, which is really exciting for us,” says Susan Cashen, vice president of marketing at mywaves.
Most mywaves users are 18- to 25-year-old males, but the user base is starting to include more young women, she says.
Mywaves boasts that its carrier-agnostic platform is the fastest-growing mobile video destination for consumers, attracting more than 4.5 million unique visitors worldwide every month to its free video service. About half of its users are based in the United States.
Filed Under: Carriers, Devices
