Remember I said there's no way YouTube is making money with only advertising? Providing free video downloading to the whole world is EXpensive. (When I am right, I'm right, see this TidBITS article.)
... So they ended up solving it in the traditional way. No, I don't mean producing something and selling it, I meant the traditional DOTCOM way: selling an insolvent company for millions of dollars to a bigger company. Makes sense. For the seller at least. In this case 1.6 Billion dollars of sense! Holy mama.
You might be surprised how much you can earn with advertising.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's kind of ironic that everybody thinks that Google is going to make money of off You Tube because they'd put ads on it. There's a whole legal discussion about it, the gist of which I'm too fuzzy to write out coherently at the moment. You might find the following article interesting, though: http://www.hollywoodreporteresq.com/thresq/spotlight/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002802746
On a side note, it's fun watching how information makes its way through the internet. I pay a lot of attention to technology news and most particularly to Google. I saw this go from site to site and then it ended up here. Very cool. :)
It was obvious You Tube wasn't profitable, and that they would soon be acquired by one of the big boys. That it turned out to be Google was a bit of a surprise, though. I thought maybe one of the big TV networks might have been a likely buyer.
ReplyDeleteNow Google is in a bit of a schizophrenic position in operating both Google Video and You Tube. I predict they will kill Google Video. Simply because You Tube is a stronger brand name.
Until now, Google has brought every thing that has been aquired (for example Writely) and stuck a Google logo on it. So it might be a little bit strange if they didn't here.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I seem to remember reading somewhere that Google was going to let You Tube operate somewhat independently... so we'll just have to see how this turns out. Like Skype, which was bought by Ebay but still has the original designers and stuff.
"ironic that everybody thinks that Google is going to make money of off You Tube because they'd put ads on it"
ReplyDeleteGoogle has ads on YouTube?
I never said this, I just said ads seemed to be the only income source for YouTube.
"Until now, Google has brought every thing that has been aquired and stuck a Google logo on it. So it might be a little bit strange if they didn't here."
ReplyDeleteI think it'd ALSO feel a bit strange to say : "I'm watching the GoogTube"!
;-)
"I just said ads seemed to be the only income source for YouTube."
Hey, wassup, Tube? I find you awfully silent in this discussion about You!
E.S., when you said "When I am right, I'm right,...." I was reminded of your MacObsver editorial the next day after World Trade.
ReplyDeleteYou were one of the very few.
Oh look how wrong we are now.