My thoughts…on stuff

My thoughts on…Google buying YouTube

October 11th 2006 -

The big news among techies and Internet users in general is the purchase of YouTube for a whopping 1.65 billion dollars. I wonder what Chad and Steve are doing with all that money? Probably bathing in a pool of champagne and using $100 bills to dry themselves off. That’s the wet dream of every kid that embarks on creating his own little corner on the Internet. I wonder if my blog will get anywhere near that? Not like I’m expecting billions, but I’d like to buy a cup of coffee with my Adsense earnings.

But was that a wise decision? Why pay that much for a site that makes no profit? It does have a strong brand, with 72 million visitors per month. But $1.65 billion? I believe that Google will harness the huge fanbase YouTube has and use it to generate ad revenue. There is huge potential there, with 100 million video downloads per day. But with Universal, Time Warner and other companies breathing down their throats concerning distribution of copyrighted shows and songs, the question still remains.

Most are hoping that Google doesn’t screw up YouTube. It’s the Napster of online media. That’s part of what makes it so appealing. Remember what happened when Napster went legit? That’s the day the music really died. Google seems to know this, as they promise not to tamper with YouTube. But does Google have something sinister in mind? Maybe it will trash YouTube, eliminating the online video giant, allowing Google Video to emerge as #1? Nah. I’d expect something like that from Microsoft. With the purchase of YouTube, MySpace and other big sites, one has to wonder, has the dotcom boom returned?

Related Posts:

1. My thoughts on…boob tube vs YouTube
2. My thoughts on…Google: The world’s most powerful company?
3. My thoughts on…Google Chrome
4. Fun with Google
5. My thoughts on…the PS3 buying frenzy in Japan

11 Responses on “My thoughts on…Google buying YouTube”

1. 
   Melody Says:
   October 11th, 2006 at 7:27 pm

   Offer suppem illicit, sneaky, enticin’ — or just give kids de feelin’ they’re piratin’ some aspect o’ pop culture that they luv, then when your blog gets famous &/or notorious, sell it 2 MSN 4 $millions — oops, U can’t do that, Google own yu a’ready:)

2. 
   Taylor Says:
   October 11th, 2006 at 9:29 pm

   let me enlighten you.. did you know that google makes about 85% probably more if i’m not mistaken of their revenue from advertising.. and they are worried. why becuase 3 other competitors plan to head into the contextual advertising market in full force yahoo has already began testing its own version in the united states and msn to follow suit soon if not already. Google is trying to secure its market share now.. if you have the entity’s online which draw people (websites// social networking websites more now than ever) and you run a contextual adservice (google does this) then your in luck.. especially if you OWN THE WEBSITE (which google now does in youtube’s case). now. instead of collecting 15% of the adrevenue which is all google was getting from youtube they get all 100% right. and the reason why youtube wasn’t making a profit was becucase of all the huge over heads.. can you begin to imagine the amount of badnwidth youtube has to pay for??? with all those videos up there, then there’s server space to host the videos.. yeh its quite a bit but guess what google owns as many servers as there are bullets in tivoli gardens, therefore all the overheads have been removed what does that equal 100% profit hombre.. thats what it is..

   the youtube guys are still gonna work on youtube as it is their own though.. I figure google thought about it and said why make someone else work on it and ruin it. they already got it going good lets let em continue.

   I also highly doubt that google is gonna dare attempt to rebrand youtube to ne other name it would be foolissh to do so at this point

3. 
   De Immigrant Says:
   October 11th, 2006 at 10:05 pm

   I think Google will do anything to wrestle web dominance from Microsoft and Yahoo, plus videos online and instantly available on demand is the new frontier on the net and Google obviously want to be more than just the search engine king. Who owns MySpace? I think Microsoft already controls that. My 2 cents.

4. 
   Cuppojoe Says:
   October 11th, 2006 at 10:45 pm

   Let’s not forget the little detail that most media seems to leave out of their headlines: The YouTube boys got bought-out for $1.65 million… in stocks.

   I really like what tyler had to say here, as well…

   I think it was a great move on Google’s part.

5. 
   Cuppojoe Says:
   October 11th, 2006 at 10:46 pm

   Sorry… billion.

   (Us poor guys don’t know the difference anyway… do we?)

6. 
   Margaret Feinberg Says:
   October 12th, 2006 at 12:33 am

   the internet and gambling are not that far apart

7. 
   taylor Says:
   October 12th, 2006 at 12:58 pm

   um as for what de immigrant said.. microsoft owns no such space on the internet.. they have the lame msn spaces but dont get it twisted myspace isn’t affiliated with microsoft in any way shape or form i’m sure if that was the case google wouldn’t have had the option to buy them for 90million a little while back.

   the joys of social networking.. the word wide web definatlly has come a far way.. i wonder how its creators feel, tim berners-lee should be very proud he developed the web while at c.e.r.n (swiss based nuclear research center).. same guy formed the w3c (world wide web consortium).. yeh i know overboard on info but its my field so.. i tend to do this…

8. 
   Leon Says:
   October 12th, 2006 at 2:13 pm

   I kinda agree Margaret, when it comes to the money you can rake in. Ka-ching!

9. 
   Kingston Girl Says:
   October 12th, 2006 at 5:22 pm

   have to admit to not being overly interested in the whole thing - for some reason my computer crashes youtube whenever i try to use it so so much for that!

10. 
    Anonymous Says:
    October 12th, 2006 at 11:37 pm

    YouTube doesn’t do it for me. Not much of a tv / video watcher. You right about Napster tho Leon. That was the good stuff and when it was sold was the day the music died. Now I just listen to the radio.

11. 
    jhay Says:
    October 13th, 2006 at 8:04 pm

    It would be suicidal for Google to tamper with YoutTube. Then again, Google has been known to pull off a few good ones.

    A return of the .com boom? I seet it more as clear manifestations of the giants monopolies devouring the smaller ones.

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