Google's YouTube seeking to expand

Google Inc.'s YouTube site, after signing deals with Verizon Wireless and Apple Inc., is in talks with other mobile-phone makers and service providers to make homemade videos available to more users.

Google is in "active discussions" with phone makers and carriers worldwide, said David Eun, a vice president at the company, based in Mountain view, Calif. Current partners include manufacturers Motorola Inc. and Nokia Oyj, and Telecom Italia SpA, Italy's largest phone company.

To expand beyond Internet search, Google bought YouTube last year for $1.65 billion and said this month that it's working with 33 companies to build a mobile-phone operating system. Google is using acquisitions and new products to capture more sales in the Internet and mobile ad markets, which this year will total almost $45 billion.

"As more and more users are using mobile devices to get information, we want to be there," Eun said from Google's New York office. "We're trying to give people a YouTube experience on the mobile platform."

YouTube clips were made available on a limited basis a year ago to customers of Verizon Wireless, based in Basking Ridge, N.J., who have video-capable V Cast phones. Google signed a deal with Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., to display YouTube videos on the iPhone before the combination mobile phone, music player and Web surfing device went on sale in June.

YouTube is the most-used site for watching videos on the Web, with 26 percent of clips viewed in July, according to researcher ComScore Inc. Yahoo! Inc. is second with 4.3 percent, ComScore, based in Reston, Va., said.

Google wants to bring that popularity to mobile phones, which outsold personal computers 4-to-1 last year. Co-founder Sergey Brin said in an interview last month that mobile ads and services may make up half of Google's business in 10 years.

Worldwide revenue from online ads will rise to $40.6 billion this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Spending on mobile-phone ads will be about $2.17 billion, according to Informa Plc, a London-based research firm.

Google gets 99 percent of its more than $10 billion in sales from advertisements, mostly by selling sponsored links on its own pages and partner sites. The company introduced software last month that lets Web sites run YouTube videos and related ads alongside articles.