YouTube teams with iTunes, Amazon to offer e-commerce feature | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

That’s why you’ve seen the launches of music streaming services within MySpace and Google’s AdSense program extended into Web-based video games. Now, YouTube has partnered with Amazon and iTunes to to incorporate an e-commerce element into its video pages. The idea is that, with a click, you can buy and download anything from music, books, games and other products related to the content within the YouTube video directly from the YouTube platform.

The company said its eCommerce Platform will be rolled out on a larger scale over the coming months to allow a number of industries - music, film, TV and publishing - to identify a new channel for selling their content to consumers who are already engaged with it - without having to click away from it. For now, it’s only available in the U.S.

Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube not quite two years ago but the video site, while a popular destination and brand name, has not had a solid revenue model for monetizing that brand equity. Sure, there are some ads on the site itself, but a good chunk of YouTube’s traffic - and appeal - stems from the feature that allows users to embed YouTube videos into their own blogs and Web pages. In those instances, there are no ads.

The traffic and the eyeballs are already in place. If a user is tuning into music videos or movie clips on YouTube, there’s a fair chance that the user might actually like what he or she is hearing or seeing enough to make a purchase. They may not be inclined to go search for that song or DVD on iTunes or Amazon. But if it were right there in front of their face - just like the candy bars at the grocery store - suddenly, that translates into a quick sale.