News I’m Following

Some news tidbits I’m following:

Gaia Online gets $12mm venture round. Investors this time include Sony (a previous investor) and Time Warner. What intrigues me the most about Gaia these days is that the teen-oriented VW has been building its audience by using a widget on Bebo. Bebo members can sign on to Gaia and play a trimmed-down version of Gaia right from Bebo (via VentureBeat).

MTV extends its video syndication play. New artners include iMeem, Veoh and Dailymotion, joining existing partners AOL, Bebo, Joost, MSN and Comcast’s Fancast. MTV will handle ad sales, giving a cut of revenue to the video sites. And because MTV will allow its video clips to be widgetized, it will also gain revenue when its content is picked up by individuals and placed on their blogs, social network profile pages, etc. (via MediaPost)

Usage of video sites growing exponentially among young adults. According to a new Pew Internet & American Life Project survey (conducted in October-December 2007), 48% of US adult Internet users have ever visited a video site such as YouTube, up from 33% a year ago. 15% did so “yesterday” - i.e., the day before they were surveyed. That’s up from 8% a year ago.

Among people ages 18-29, 70% had ever visited a video site, up from 55% a year ago. And 30% said they had done so yesterday, double the 15% from a year ago.

As video proliferates across the Web (thanks to syndication deals such as MTV’s and the ease of spreading video virally by using widget technology) these figures will continue to rise.