Dailymotion is a French video-sharing technology platform primarily owned by Vivendi. North American launch partners included BBC News, VICE, Bloomberg, and Hearst Digital Media. Dailymotion is available worldwide in 25 languages and 43 localised versions featuring local home pages and local content. It has more than 300 million unique monthly users.
History
In March 2005, Benjamin Bejbaum and Olivier Poitrey founded the Dailymotion website from the living room of Poitrey's apartment in Paris. Six individuals pooled together €6,000 to start the business. In September 2006, Dailymotion raised funds in collaboration with Atlas Ventures and Partech International. They raised 7 million euros which was considered to be the most funds raised in 2006 from the French Web 2.0. In October 2009, the French government invested in Dailymotion through the Strategic Investment Fund. On 25 January 2011, Orange acquired a 49% stake in Dailymotion for €62 million, valuing the company at €120 million. On 10 January 2013 Orange bought the remaining 51% for €61 million. On or about 2 May 2013, the French government blocked Yahoo's acquisition of a majority stake in Dailymotion. On 25 February 2014, Orange revealed it was in discussions with Microsoft about a deal that could see Dailymotion extend into the US market. In an interview with a local television station in Barcelona Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, said there was "great hope" an agreement would be reached. Any deal would see Orange retain majority ownership of Dailymotion. Richard said his company was in talks with other potential partners as well with a view to expanding Dailymotion's international appeal, but said discussions with others were more in relation to content. In 2015, Vivendi purchased an 80% stake in Dailymotion from Orange S. A. Vivendi increased its ownership to 90% that September.
Global locations
The head office is located in the Immeuble Horizons 17 in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. It was inaugurated by CBRE Investors. The 10-story building has of space, with occupied by offices. Previously the company was headquartered in the 18th arrondissement. Dailymotion began expanding its physical presence internationally in 2007, when the company opened its office in New York City. Since then, Dailymotion offices have been opened in London, San Francisco, Singapore and Abidjan. In 2017, Dailymotion expanded its US presence with the announcement of several key executive appointments, including the addition of Mel Behassa as SVP of Advertising, Claudia Page, VP and Head of Partner Products, and Shana Eddy-Grouf as interim Head of US Content. Dailymotion is available in 43 countries and areas including: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States.
Blocking of Dailymotion
Dailymotion was banned in India in May 2012, but in the following month India unblocked access to video- and file-sharing sites including Dailymotion. The Madras High Court changed its earlier order, explaining that only specific URLs carrying illegally copied content should be blocked, not entire websites. Dailymotion was again banned in India in December 2014, due to Government concerns that the site might be hosting videos pertaining to ISIS propaganda. On 31 December, however, Dailymotion was again unblocked in India. Dailymotion has been banned in Kazakhstan since August 2011. In 2017, Dailymotion was blocked in Russia for repeated violations of Russian copyright law.
Copyright cases
In June 2007, Dailymotion was found liable for copyright infringement by a Paris High Court. The judges held that Dailymotion is a hosting provider, and not a publisher, but that it must be held liable for copyright infringement, as it was aware of the presence of illegal content on its site. Such illegal content may be copyrighted material uploaded to Dailymotion by Dailymotion users. The Parisian judges held that Dailymotion was aware that illegal videos were put online on its site, and that it must therefore be held liable for the acts of copyright infringement, since it deliberately furnished the users with the means to commit the acts of infringement. In December 2014, Dailymotion was fined €1.3 million. The Paris Court of Appeal found that the site had infringed the copyright of French television station TF1 and news channel LCI. The court ruled that Dailymotion had failed to take action against users illegally posting TF1 content online. According to Guillaume Clément, Chief Product & Technology Officer, as of 2017 the company employs a combination of human curation and automated tools to ensure copyright holder rights are protected within the destination, and it is able to remove questionable or illegal content within two hours. Dailymotion has been permanently blocked in Russia since January 2017, because the Moscow City Court ruled that the site was repeatedly violating Russia's copyright law by providing access to illegal TV content.
