Today, Google's YouTube faces the first major challenge since the search giant's acquisition in October 2006 for $1.6 billion, as Sony announced the release of eyeVio, a similar online video sharing service. As I informed you yesterday, the new YouTube killer is meant to represent an updated version of the Google product that will be able to avoid the problems encountered by the Mountain View-based firm. At this time, eyeVio is available only to Japanese users but Sony plans to expand the service as soon as the project becomes the leader in its category. According to SiliconRepublic, Sony's online video sharing service will split the channels in two parts: private and public. The public area will allow any users to view the clips while the private one will restrict the access to the members placed in the friends list created by the uploader.

At this time, the users are free to upload any video content that doesn't infringe the guidelines, using their PC or a mobile device. However, the size of the clips must be less than 150MB because this is the only limitation imposed by the parent company Sony.

As you can see, YouTube faces a serious challenge that might make the YouTube employees think twice before releasing a new function. Recently, the Internet looked like it was split in two parts: YouTube and the others. More and more companies are trying to make alliances and design similar services to compete with Google but the main goal is surely to dethrone YouTube. However, I believe the Mountain View firm will reply soon, the upcoming Claim Your Content function being a good chance to avoid copyright problems. YouTube also announced the plans to place 30 seconds pre-clip ads that will generate some new considerable revenue and share it with the uploaders.