Google plans ‘to guarantee French YouTube stars’ income’

Google has approached the top 20 young YouTube stars in France to offer them a minimum guaranteed income of €100,000, according to a report by the country’s BFM TV Business.

According to the report, Google will ask the YouTube stars to make their videos exclusively available on YouTube for a specified number of days or weeks before they become more generally available.

According to BFM TV, Google is concerned by growing competition from the likes of Dailymotion, now owned by Vivendi and with exclusive access to content including popular satirical show Les Guignols, as well as by Vivendi’s wider investment in internet content, such as its acquisition of Studio Bagel.