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While YouTube dominates the consumer video web area, one untapped area of growth potential is mobile video networks. It is not surprising, to see T-Mobile launch a proprietary video sharing portal in Hungary called VidUP.

Mobile video sharing portals differ from YouTube because of a number of reasons.

First, mobile carriers can localize their content because, in general, their customers share the same language, culture and country. This can create more relevance to the community site for that particular carrier.

Second, compared with other ways of uploading the videos, the videos are transferred over carrier-supported networks that can include cost incentives such as free uploads to the carriers social network platform.

Third, mobile phones are very convenient to carry compared to digital cameras, and thus there is a greater chance of capturing candid moments that make the viral videos that support such community sites.

This means that video sharing on mobile networks will be a different experience than web video communities, allowing for capturing “instant comic moments” wherever, whenever, compared to a web-based version which requires some degree of preparation to transfer images from cameras, edit, and then upload.

For mobile carriers, this becomes a lucrative opportunity to not only lock in existing customers but also attract new customers. A proprietary video network ensures that all the videos uploaded will remain accessible only to subscribers of that carrier. If one such network manages to collect enough viral videos, that carrier could in turn become popular through word-of-mouth.

This is perhaps the reason why other mobile carriers are also making traction in the video sharing space, such as Telstra’s WotNext in Australia and Qualcomm’s investment in PixSense.

That said, giants such as YouTube are not far behind. Youtube already  has the ability to upload videos via MMS messages and there have been talks about a deal with Verizon to stream YouTube videos on VCast.

As soon as YouTube’s mobile website becomes live, it could become a contender for the mobile video space provided that it can solve the complex issues of serving cross-carrier video on mobile phones.

- Osama A