Sony has announced that it will launch a video-sharing site in Japan as part of its “quiet software revolution”.

Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said that the new site will be “an opportunity to transmit user-generated video anywhere you want to, anytime to anybody, in a protected environment.”

The new site, which will be called eyeVio, will be first launched in Japan, although Sony hopes to also launch it overseas should the Japanese version prove a success. It will be free to users, and the idea is that Sony will eventually generate revenue through advertising.

Sony believes there is a need for a “clean and safe space” where companies can advertise.

In a bid to avoid billion dollar lawsuits (ie Viacom suing YouTube over copyright violation), Sony will monitor content uploaded to its service and delete unauthorized copyrighted material.

With a tag line of “my life, your emotion” the information currently on the site emphasizes the creation of content on what could be Sony camcorders, digital cameras and mobile phones, and the consumption of that material on what could be Sony televisions, games consoles and mobile phones. Perhaps the idea is that because people use Sony camcorders to capture video, that they’ll also be keen to upload their videos to a Sony video-sharing site.

It seems that in its desperation to turn around its sliding financial performance, Sony is placing wild bets.

No doubt Sony believes it has a chance of taking on YouTube (which was acquired by Google last year for $1.76 billion). Someone should point out to Sony that even though YouTube is a very popular site, even the Internet powerhouse Google hasn’t quite worked out how to make money out of it.

Someone should also point out to Sony that competition in the video-sharing market is set to intensify further, with News Corp and NBC Universal forming a joint venture to launch a free video-sharing site during the northern summer. No doubt News Corp will leverage some of its online properties, like MySpace, to garner traffic for its new service when it launches.

Perhaps Sony has something up its sleeve that will make eyeVio compelling. At the moment, however, it sounds like an ill-conceived attempt at taking on YouTube by a company that has no real sustainable competitive advantage in the video sharing market.

For this reason I suggest Sony renames its new service from eyeVio to MeToo.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 11:34 am under Web2.0, YouTube.

Read more entries by John Pospisil.
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