The video site is not worth very much compared to its much better known competitor YouTube

Jun 11, 2012 13:40 GMT  ·  By

France Telecom already owns almost half of Dailymotion site, the video site particularly popular in Europe and surrounding parts of the world. Now it's looking to buy the other half.

The site is one of the largest of its kind and the one big competitor to YouTube internationally, but it is significantly smaller than the Google-owned behemoth.

As such, the site isn't exactly breaking the bank when it comes to price, France Telecom (Orange) is reportedly (in French) paying no more than €72 million, $90 million for the remaining 51 percent of the site.

Google paid $1.65 billion, €1.31 billion for YouTube six years ago and the site should be worth significantly more now, certainly a lot more than Dailymotion's roughly €140 million, $176 million valuation.

France Telecom has owned 49 percent of the video site since early 2011, but won't buy the remaining stake sooner than January 2013. The company paid €62 million, $78 million for the 49 percent stake. The site raised close to €66 million, $70 million, in funding since its launch in 2005.

The French telecom company is likely looking for outside investors and partners, but only after it closes its acquisition. Since the site has a large foreign audience, with only about 15 percent of viewers being from France, outside partners are an obvious expansion. The site needs to expand the most in the US where it is largely unknown.

Dailymotion has about 135 million unique monthly visitors, nowhere near YouTube, which has over 800 million, but certainly large enough to push it high in the top websites in the world. The site serves about 1.8 billion videos per month, that's less than half of YouTube's daily views.

YouTube has struggled to bring up revenues enough to cover expenses. Google still hasn't said whether the site is profitable, though the company is investing a lot in YouTube in the hopes of even more growth. However, it's clear that online video isn't a hugely profitable business, which should explain the low price of Dailymotion.