GoPro is taking steps to make some cash on the back of the vast troves videos its users are creating. The company just announced a platform that lets content creators license videos to brands and media companies. With this platform, your GoPro videos could make their way into advertisements and get you (and GoPro) paid.
Since this platform is designed for the professional in mind, both the buyer and seller must apply for access. GoPro is billing this services as only providing high-quality videos so that video of you jumping into the pool probably won’t make the cut. It even allows content creators to watermark preview videos so ad agencies cannot bypass paying the fee.
At launch the service features videos produced by GoPro, professional athletes and GoPro users. There are 572 videos available — 8 are available in 4k. Some of the videos feature ripping sound tracks and others just have background noise. The system is not designed for video consumption like YouTube, but rather content discovery with a robust filtering and tagging system. Users can even search by an athlete’s name.
Videos start at $1,000 apiece and the term of the license is six months. It’s unclear how much of that fee is retained by GoPro.
This service is a big first step in transitioning GoPro from a hardware company into a media brand, but its success is not a slam dunk. There are countless stock video services that already offer plenty of videos shot in a point-of-view perspective reminiscent of a GoPro video.
Since before GoPro went public, Wall Street pundits have called for the company to monetize the zillion videos its customer base churns out. This new platform does just that along with putting the brand in front of ad agencies.