Dailymotion: the French platform's combative journey to the smartphone screen

Dailymotion was born at a time when video was taking over the web. The platform quickly became a French-style testing ground: initially focused on UGC, i.e., content created and uploaded by users themselves, then gradually organized around editorial selections and media partnerships. It also explored VOD, video on demand, and streaming on connected TVs. This timeline, recounted by the media year after year, helps us understand how our habits shifted to the phone screen. This is exactly the territory of duanju, the short vertical fiction designed for mobile: very brief, full-screen episodes, linked together in a continuous stream. Rereading the history of Dailymotion is to see the technical, editorial, and economic building blocks that make this new format possible today being put in place, step by step.

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2006: Dailymotion is described by Le Monde as the “French YouTube.” Founded by Benjamin Bejbaum and Olivier Poitrey, the platform leverages its own encoding and hosting technologies to compete with YouTube, recently acquired by Google. It quickly became a key player in Web 2.0 and online video in France. Sources: Le Monde

2007: Dailymotion affirms its media ambitions. Its co-founder Benjamin Bejbaum presents the Motion Maker program, designed to highlight original content and professionalize the platform. That same year, the company raised €25 million to accelerate its international development and offer its service in fourteen languages. The Studio Phocéen association, chaired by Guillaume Sanjorge, then joined this creators' program and appeared permanently on the front page of the "Best of Marseille" section. Sources: Clubic / Challenges

2008: Dailymotion escaped a tax on advertising for video-on-demand services. That same year, comedian Jean-Yves Lafesse sued it alongside Google for the exploitation of his videos, illustrating the emerging tensions between platforms and rights holders. Sources: Numerama (tax ) / Numerama (Lafesse)

2009: Dailymotion is launching its first paid video-on-demand offering and is partnering with Numericable to stream its content directly to televisions, expanding its model beyond desktop viewing. Sources: Challenges / Première

2010: Dailymotion continues its diversification and strengthens its role as a content distributor. The platform signs a major agreement with the INA (National Institute of National Television), which makes 50,000 archived videos available to Internet users, marking one of the most important partnerships in its history. That same year, it launches DM Kids, a portal specially designed for toddlers, and opens a branch in Morocco, consolidating its presence in North Africa and expanding its strategy outside the European market. Sources: 01net / Famili / Le Matin (Morocco)

2011: Dailymotion experienced a strategic turning point with the arrival of Orange as a shareholder. The operator acquired a 49% stake for €58.8 million, valuing the platform at between €120 and €200 million. This merger marked Orange's desire to strengthen its position in digital content, following the failure of negotiations with TF1 the previous year. The CEO at the time, Cédric Tournay, stated that Dailymotion was "not threatened by YouTube," believing there was room for several players and banking on a rise in power thanks to this partnership. Orange also committed to investing an additional €30 million, with the objective of tripling revenue by 2016 and accelerating international expansion (Spain, Japan, Canada, Brazil). Sources: 20 Minutes / ToutLaCulture / Tradingsat / Challenges

2012: Orange is preparing to take over Dailymotion, with completion expected in 2013. The platform is experimenting with paid video on demand and is considering integrating the OCS offering. The release of the film Artificial Paradises, which was canceled after a free online preview, has rekindled the debate on media chronology. Sources: Europe 1 / Numerama / Les Echos

2013: Yahoo attempted to take control of Dailymotion, but Minister Arnaud Montebourg opposed the move, and the deal was halted. The platform's CEO publicly criticized the blockage, while Orange announced that development would take place "within the group," while discussing possible industrial mergers with Vivendi. The year also signaled a move in favor of creators with the opening of a 600 m² film studio in Paris, intended for producers and videographers. Internationally, Canal+ in Canada began broadcasting programs via Dailymotion, a sign of expanded distribution outside France. Finally, a film posted on the platform was withdrawn from theaters, illustrating the ongoing tensions between new distribution methods and traditional distribution. Sources: Le Monde (Montebourg) / Challenges (Orange) / Challenges (resignation under pressure) / Challenges (Yahoo resignation) / Challenges (CEO criticism) / La Dépêche / Le Parisien / Franceinfo (veto) / Franceinfo (Montebourg tackle) / Le Point /Les Échos (fated destiny) / Les Échos (December studio) / Les Échos (December studio, encore) / CNEWS / Ouest-France / Le Monde (Orange) / Le JDD / L'Express / La Presse / Europe 1 (Vivendi) / Europe 1 (Orange)

2014: Dailymotion is described as a "start-up with a thousand lives": the platform is seeking its balance between its legacy of user-generated content and more premium programming. It is relaunching its strategy under the aegis of Orange and preparing new partnerships to expand internationally. At the same time, Golden Moustache is strengthening its presence on the platform, a sign of a refocusing on young audiences and highly identifiable comedy formats. The year thus marks a deliberate editorial repositioning and a desire to rely on strong creative labels to boost the offering. Sources: Les Échos / Airofmelty

2015: Dailymotion is named the "world's leading French website," with 109.5 million unique visitors in 2014 and a positioning increasingly geared toward professional uses. On January 15, the platform launched Dailymotion Games, a streaming service dedicated to gaming, accessible on the web, mobile, and consoles. At the same time, an "inevitable divorce" with Orange is looming, heralding a strategic restructuring. On the content side, the return of Olive and Tom confirms the attractiveness of popular licenses for the platform. Sources : BFM Business (1st French site) BFMTV (Olive and Tom) / BFM Business (Orange) / JDN / RTL

2016: A year after Vivendi's acquisition, the promised "convergence" is stalling: around a hundred departures in one year, a low contribution from Canal+ content (around 0.1% of the audience) and the absence of Universal catalogs severely limit the platform. On April 1, a gas explosion on Rue de Bérite in Paris damaged the adjoining Dailymotion studios and injured several people, immediately disrupting operations. Sources: Le Monde / HuffPost

2017: Dailymotion is relaunching its platform with a new app and a redesigned website, focusing on news, sports, music, and entertainment, and refocusing on so-called premium content with media partners. The strategy prioritizes editorialization and exclusives over YouTube stars, targeting a more mature audience. Despite this repositioning, several analyses describe a difficult period and limited resources. Sources: Challenges / Megazap / PhonAndroid / Purebreak

2018: The CNIL fined Dailymotion €50,000 (July 24th deliberation) for security breaches following the leak revealed at the end of 2016. The media reported that tens of millions of accounts were affected (around 82.5 million emails and 18.3 million passwords). Sources: Village of Justice

2019: Updated Dailymotion channel on Neufbox SFR: new black and yellow interface, simplified navigation, direct access to tops and search. The platform also highlights Dailymotion Games with live gaming, chat, game search, and a multi-screen experience. Sources: Ariase (Neufbox SFR ) / Ariase (Dailymotion Games)

2020: Dailymotion Advertising launches "Vertical Video," a full-screen mobile ad format. The first campaign with Givenchy in September 2020 achieved 76% viewability (ad actually viewed) and 77% completion (ad watched to the end). Sources: DNA

2021: The return of Hello Geekette, the iconic web series from the 2000s that left its mark on Dailymotion, has been announced in an animated version. Publication begins on October 1st, with the voice contribution of Brigitte Lecordier. Sources: Eklecty-City

2022: Dailymotion Advertising presents its “Green” offer, an approach aimed at measuring and reducing the environmental footprint of advertising campaigns (creative eco-design, file reduction, optimization of purchases and distribution). Sources: The Media Leader

2023: Dailymotion is relaunching with a new app and a redesigned interface, aiming for 1 billion users by 2026. The player remains ubiquitous in France: 9 out of 10 Internet users use it, often via white-label media sites. The platform is launching a monetization program with €2 million per year to compensate creators. The app introduces the “change your feed” principle, allowing users to adjust the algorithm to discover other content. Sources: CNEWS / BFMTV / Les Gens d'Internet / I have a friend in communications

2024: Dailymotion refines its "pro" shift: one year after its overhaul, the company launched Dailymotion Pro on March 28, boasting 3,000 customers with a target of 10,000 by 2028, 400 million monthly active users, a fivefold increase in time spent, and an "audience cleanup" to restart growth. The "change your feed" line and the reconquest of young creators initiated last year continue, with an interface and positioning designed for exploration rather than algorithmic repetition. On the governance side, Vivendi decided on September 20 to transfer Dailymotion under the aegis of Canal+, to strengthen distribution and management synergies. Several business media outlets also highlight the target businesses and institutions, with the ambition of nibbling away shares from Vimeo, JW Player, and Brightcove. Sources: BFMTV / Le Parisien / BFM Business / Les Échos / The Media Leader (young) / Ouest-France / Next INpact / The Media Leader (creators) / Entrepreneurship / Provence / Forbes France

2025: Dailymotion Advertising won the "Adtech Pure Player 2025" award at the Prix Agence Média, organized by The Media Leader. In February, the platform announced that it would delete videos not viewed for twelve months, with a three-month archiving period before final deletion. On March 4, the arrival of "TPMP" on Dailymotion marked a record audience in France for the brand since 2015. In May, Dailymotion announced the acquisition of Mojo, an AI-assisted video creation app, to strengthen its tools against YouTube and TikTok. Sources: MacGeneration / The Media Leader / BFMTV / Strategies / Les Échos

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From "French YouTube" to a European media outlet more geared toward professionals, Dailymotion has undergone a series of expansion phases, constraints, product shifts, and shareholder changes. Its recent choices clearly lean toward mobile: advertising formats designed for vertical screens, a creator compensation program, and offers dedicated to businesses and institutions.

For duanju series (short, vertical fiction) to thrive on Dailymotion, the platform must offer a credible local framework for production, distribution, and monetization: 9:16 publication, episode sequencing, tailored management, and sponsorship. The crux remains discoverability (being easily found) and brand security. But Dailymotion's French itinerary already provides concrete support to studios and authors who want to establish, episode after episode, stories born for the smartphone.