06/02/2018

No Comments

3154

Silicon Valley startup Lino is preparing to compete with YouTube by creating a decentralised video content platform using the technology behind bitcoin - blockchain, which aims to cut out the middleman for paying content creators.

Lino faces competition from platforms Streamspace, Flixxo, Viuly and Stream, which are developing similar concepts, but received a $20 million vote of confidence from Chinese investment fund Zhenfund during a token sale, reports CoinDesk.

Explaining the startup's mission, its website states that YouTube holds "enormous power" over content creators and is focused on maximising profit.

The solution is to create a collectively owned and decentralized distribution medium that ensures direct distribution of content value to content creators and affiliated contributors without going through a private entity as an intermediary, according to information available on Lino website.

Lino tokens will function as the currency of the system and will be earned through the creation and sharing of video content, as well as the development of infrastructure and applications that will be based on the blockchain system. In other words, users who use their devices to host content will earn tokens, as will content creators, according to a post by the startupu on Medium platform.

Lino could attract content creators unhappy with revenue-sharing deals with YouTube, Snap and Facebook, points out TechCrunch.

Lino's three founders are using the funding raised to build the platform and attract talent from the world of Korean celebrities and Chinese artists, according to CEO Wilson Wei.

While the entrepreneurs behind these types of businesses may be motivated by a desire to help artists and vloggers (and take a few billion of YouTube's market share), the investors' actions seem a little different.

Zhenfund has backed at least one other video streaming platform - Stream, in addition to its investment in Lino.

One of the startup's founders claims that those who create content for Lino will be able to make three to five times more money than they get on traditional platforms like YouTube or Twitch.

However, all this value is contingent on the cryptocurrency market.

Source: techcrunch.com