Amazon plans YouTube rival?
December 21, 2017
Amazon’s feud with Google could soon escalate, as reports say it is planning to launch a rival to YouTube.
Amazon, it is said, has filed two trademark requests with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the terms ‘AmazonTube’ and ‘OpenTube.’ The applications make no mention of YouTube, but the descriptions sound very similar to the Google-owned service.
In the filings, TechCrunch says Amazon describes AmazonTube as a “searchable database featuring entertainment information, news, commentary, and reviews, all in the field of audio, video and audiovisual content, namely, movies, TV shows, videos, and music.”
It’s not the first time that Amazon has been rumoured to be working on a free video service; earlier this year there were rumours that the company was planning a “freemium” version of Prime Video, although the company later released a statement debunking the plans.