Google Buys YouTube

notman

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet, but apparently Google inked a deal to purchase YouTube for $1.6B in stocks. Interesting move since google video was already a top used site... although youtube offered better compression quality.

Luxury

according to the article i read, google video only had about 10% of the video share online - youtube had 50%. makes sense to me.

notman

Guess so... I hadn't realized how little of the marketshare google had. Both sites are blocked at work and both seem to get sent to me all the time I don't disagree with the move, but I hadn't even heard rumor that google was interested. Just caught me off guard

Thegodzero

I was talking to my friend about this just yesterday. I'm happy to hear it happened.

MoP

Not bad considering it was only started up at the beginning of 2005 by 3 guys (formerly Paypal employees), and only really got any sort of big funding around November 2005.
Those guys must be rolling in it now. Just shows if you have a really entrepreneurial idea and you market it well, you can make an absolute killing in very little time. Nicely done!

Striff

Good, hopefuly Google with put them on faster servers and my videos with load faster!

hawken

thats awesome!

those guys must have been really struggling for a long time to keep it ad free, which of course made it more popular.

I wonder if they will buy www.pornotube.com too?

KDR_11k

Am I the only one who is reminded of the dotcom bubble? Marketshare is nice but Youtube doesn't make money.

Paul Jaquays

Google = “Deep Pockets”

Deep Pockets = “Sue” instead of “Cease and Desist” when content IP misuse issues come up.

My thoughts … look for a serious purging of potentially actionable YouTube content in the near future.

Mark Dygert

good point Paul, and there goes what made YouTube great. I liked being able to find old cartoons or seeing the south park WoW episode after I missed its air date.

KDR YouTube may not make any money but for google who has plans to expand thier "google video" (which does make money), knocking off the cometition is a smart move. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free. Unless of course the the cow is bought by google and they start charging for milk...

Asherr

google video had the South Park WoW episode on it too. still does in fact.

i think you can find more stuff like that on YouTube though just because it's more popular.

TomDunne

Best thing for Google is that they didn't need to reach in their pockets at all for this one. Buying YouTube for stock shares makes it a cash-free acquisition, and almost a risk-free investment for Google.

sledgy

[ QUOTE ]
Am I the only one who is reminded of the dotcom bubble? Marketshare is nice but Youtube doesn't make money.

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YouTube sells ad space, they're not huge in-your-face blinking/annoyance ads. Bandwidth like they serve isn't free and I doubt they're doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

Thegodzero

Vig i dont think so, as long as the companys who made them dont complain they will stay. Most of the old cartoons are so dead in the peoples minds that showing them for free is helping them.

Mark Dygert

I hope you're right TGZ. Who thinks Google will go after Pandora.com next?

KeyserSoze

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Vig i dont think so, as long as the companys who made them dont complain they will stay. Most of the old cartoons are so dead in the peoples minds that showing them for free is helping them.

[/ QUOTE ]

John Kricfalusi used to post youtube videos of old LooneyTunes cartoons on his blog all the time (to compare and contrast the styles of different animators/directors, to point out his influences, etc), but Warner Bros. started having them deleted after a couple days of being uploaded. I think he eventually convinced WB that he was doing them a favor by promoting their old cartoons, and they eventually worked out a deal where he could post the videos as long as he included a link to amazon for a LooneyTunes DVD, but he doesn't post videos nearly as often as he used to.

Thegodzero

Yeah thats the idea, youtube didnt know how they could use what they had made to make money. Ideas like that are ways that you can. I would love to have that extra info when i'm watching a vid. I would much rather not have to watch a vid then do a google search to find if you can buy the shows anymore. I think haveing you tube be like a tivo of sorts with new shows up there too would rock. Only having the newest episode up untill the next one is put up. They can make boat loads on promotions for dvds of the last season.

I know google will see the options too.

Rick Stirling

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I know google will see the options too.

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Google sees the 100 MILLION hits you tube gets each day.

You can build better tech, but you can't make people use it. But when you buy 1/10 of a billion daily hits thats a big audience you've just got.

thnom

We were discussing this today at uni. I'm not sure either way - it seems a good thing but it doesn't. Why buy it, etc?

chathog159

[ QUOTE ]
I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet, but apparently Google inked a deal to purchase YouTube for $1.6B in stocks. Interesting move since google video was already a top used site... although youtube offered better compression quality.

[/ QUOTE ]


THEY GOT SNOWED

KeyserSoze

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THEY GOT SNOWED

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Snowed?

KDR_11k

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Am I the only one who is reminded of the dotcom bubble? Marketshare is nice but Youtube doesn't make money.

[/ QUOTE ]
YouTube sells ad space, they're not huge in-your-face blinking/annoyance ads. Bandwidth like they serve isn't free and I doubt they're doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

[/ QUOTE ]

Last I heard Youtube needs donations to stay alive since their bandwidth use is so big though maybe that changed in the meantime.