Softbank will be investing US$20 million in Ustream, a service that provides live video streaming across the Internet, thereby, gaining a 13.7 % stake in the company. Softbank is planning to raise its investment to $75 million, by July 2011, becoming the biggest shareholder in the company, having a 30% stake.

"Asia offers a significant, untapped market opportunity for streaming video," said John Ham, Ustream's founder and CEO. "Softbank will enable us to develop this opportunity and deliver on our vision of live streaming video everywhere. We look forward to deploying these resources to accelerate our growth in the United States and Asia Pacific", he added.

"In the era of Web 2.0, Twitter is equivalent to the newspaper and Ustream is equivalent to TV stations. With the live streaming users can exchange messages on Twitter so it's not one-way but interactive", said Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank.

Ustream began operations in March 2007, and it is capable of attracting more than 50 million viewers per month. Its usage has expanded with the launch of an application for the iPhone, which allows live streaming from the handset to the Internet.