Amazon buys 12 new domains related to cloud video

Online retail giant Amazon recently purchased a dozen new domains related to “cloud video”, according to a report by Fusible.

It also reinforces the notion that the company is stepping up its efforts to become the top service for streaming video.

As VentureBeat has mentioned in the past, the online retail giant is quickly becoming the third major player in the realm of streaming video services behind Hulu and Netflix. However, Amazon is in a unique position to use its Prime Instant Video service to sell movies and TV shows, which makes it a far more attractive option for movie studios. Unlike Hulu and Netflix, the studios can reap profits from both streaming rights and digital sales.

The news comes on the heels of Amazon’s announcement that it now has over 100,000 streaming videos available to rent or purchase via its website — not to be confused with its library of 5,000 or so videos available on its Prime service, which is free to all Amazon Prime members.

We’ve speculated that Amazon could be intentionally blurring the distinction between its Prime library and its vast selection of videos available for rent or purchase because it has bigger plans. The dozen cloud video-related domain name purchases supports that theory.

Amazon hasn’t responded to VentureBeat’s request for additional comment about the company’s future strategy for streaming video.