Who says the twos have to be terrible? Vevo's second birthday came and went this past December, but the music video site's biggest presents may yet be forthcoming, as New York Post sources say that both Google and Facebook are vying for an equity stake and an advertising deal with the up-and-coming company.
Vevo is a joint venture between Universal Music Group, Sony Music and the Abu Dhabi Media Co with additional content provided by EMI. The company currently has a deal in place with Google's YouTube, which hosts Vevo's videos in exchange for a cut of the advertising revenue the videos generate.
That revenue's nothing to sneeze at, either: in January, Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff said that the company made $150 million in 2011 on the back of roughly 3.5 billion video views each and every month. A lot of those page views come directly via YouTube, where Vevo is one of the top partner channels.
The YouTube deal is set to expire at the end of the year, however, and Vevo's growth rate exploded when it shifted to Facebook-only registration and embraced the social network's Open Graph with open arms. CNET first reported rumors of Facebook's interest in becoming Vevo's new host way back in January, but this is the first talk we've heard of a possible investment by either Facebook or Google.
Vevo has been working hard to transition to new platforms -- for example, it just launched an Xbox 360 app in March -- and the Post's sources say new partners could help fund continued expansion efforts.
