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lovingbothThis may just be me being dim, but what on earth makes YouTube worth so much money to the otherwise usually sensible Google?
To be sure, it currently has lots of users, but there's nothing special about the technology (see clones like pornotube.com) so the only barrier to entry is the bandwidth bills.
Is this the new way to get rich? Get other people to steal content (much of what's on YouTube is of doubtful legality), run up some enormous bandwidth bills and hope that someone comes along with an offer before the bank calls in the overdraft?
To be sure, it currently has lots of users, but there's nothing special about the technology (see clones like pornotube.com) so the only barrier to entry is the bandwidth bills.
Is this the new way to get rich? Get other people to steal content (much of what's on YouTube is of doubtful legality), run up some enormous bandwidth bills and hope that someone comes along with an offer before the bank calls in the overdraft?
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Date: 2006-10-08 02:28 pm (UTC)It seems what Google wants is not the software but the users. Google had Google Video, it worked just as well as YouTube. However, what Google Video didn't have was the social networking aspect of YouTube. The user base is enormous and the networking between those users was frequent and strong enough to create a loyalty to the service. Google Video could not offer the networking structure, so they went out and picked up someone elses.
Favourites, ratings, commenting with replies to files - sometimes with video files of their own... Google couldn't hope to replicate that right now.
I have heard reports that the money flowing into YouTube isn't even close to what is required to keep it running. 100 million dowloaded files per day? Consider the bandwidth! Then also consider the liability hanging over the head with the copyright violations of millions of files they host. Without Google, YouTube would have been down the tube within the year.
$1.6b USD isn't bad for a company that has been running less than 12 months with a grand total of 25 employees. All hail the internet money machine!
Did I ramble?
Date: 2006-10-08 02:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-08 02:34 pm (UTC)(but otherwise, yes, waste of time/money!)