Yahoo Live to close

Yahoo has announced that their live video streaming service Yahoo Live will close December 3, nine months after launching.

Yahoo Live, from Yahoo’s now downgraded Brickhouse unit was the first entry by a major player into the live streaming space, up against existing players such as Ustream.tv, Justin.tv and others.

The strength of the service, compared to most competitors was the ability to group video chat easily, a feature since copied by some in the space.

The move is surprising: live video has long be regarded as a hot growth vertical with millions in VC funding backing various players. Yahoo hasn’t said publicly why it is closing the service, but as Mashable notes, live video isn’t cheap to provide, and in tight economic times, a marginal service like Yahoo Live may have been an obvious candidate to drop.