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Why Google and YouTube is Moronic
I resisted the temptation to read everything and organize my thoughts. Just woke up, poured coffee, scribled some notes, turned on the camera and ranted. Here’s the resulting “video rant” about yesterday’s news that Google is buying YouTube for $1.65 billion dollars. Here’s the same video posted on YouTube.
Top 10 reasons this Google acquisition of YouTube is just plain moronic.
As I waited to compress and upload this, I see people are falling into three groups:
- Excited for the kids at YouTube. It’s everyone’s dream, and some get jealous and others live vicariously. I hate the latter, which tells you where I sit.
- Afraid their community will die. Get over it guys. Your landlord needs you more than ever. Expect him to start paying your rent, though.
- The media evangalists that say this is “promising.” You can get an MBA through the McDonalds drive-through to know this is overvalued and ridiculous. Good for Chad and Steve (the self-proclaimed kings of new media), but bad for everyone else.
Web 2.0 isn’t supposed to be about drunk driving like we’re in the first bubble. Some people see this as validation of online video, but I fear it is the ultimate over hype of the medium that we’ll pay for eventually.
Mate, I like YouTube. I have 40-something crap videos of my own up and just about every day I put someone else’s videos up on my sites. Plus…I’ve had 270,000 Viewers. BUT I’m worried. YouTube has a good vibe. Yeah they don’t police the Copyright issue but what-the-hell. I like that about the site. Now that Google has swallowed it up you can bet they are going to address the Copyright concerns. And you can bet that it will soon be painted with the somewhat bland Google corporate brush. Pity.
I’ve been busy making the first episode of our DIY television program for televison/broadband and cells. Shot on simple equipment with your regular joes. Have a look at the 25 second teaser – http://www.mylifeasafrog.com The first 1/2 Hour Episode will be up in a couple of days – unless we die of exhaustion beforehand.
Good points, but I think you’re just bitter that this announced merger doesn’t fall under any of the 3 bubble burst categories.
The closest was, “YouTube announces its sale to a large media player, who…” But we all know that by “large media player” you meant “The Oxygen Network”
This will be good for Marshall, Texas. Marshall, Texas, as sharp patent and intellectual property rights attorneys know, is the home of the Sam B Hall, Jr courthouse and federal building where more patent cases are resolved each year than at any other single court in the nation.
Ask Texas Instruments. Ask Hyundai Electronics. If you want infringement litigation, Marshall is your Huckleberry. I’m looking forward to seeing the two kings down at the courthouse. Mayor Ed is sprucing up the square (‘commons’ for you yankees) for all the attorneys who are going to be flying in. Prosperity is just around the corner. Thank you, Google.
Google has been on the same path as Yahoo! circa 1999 since they went public.
* Both started as tools to find stuff on the Web, a directory and a search engine.
* Transitioned to being portals.
* Both launch stuff and see if it sticks – most don’t (Froogle, Google Page Creator, Orkut).
* And now both bought high flying dotcoms. Yahoo! bought GeoCities and Broadcast.
The strategy has turned Yahoo! into a laggard, the same will most likely happen for Google. The key is focus – Google is search, help me find videos.
The curse of growing large I guess. Great insight, Justin. Thanks.
I was thinking of posting a response video to the Chad & Steve video but i’ve been… kinda busy. I do, however, note that they’ve actually accepted your response video, which is kinda fun, no?
In all seriousness – there may be more to this than expected revenue out of youtube… Last month’s Fortune has an interesting article this month about Google’s strategy… for many of their ventures, they don’t expect to make money directly. Google Earth is an example:
“Google Earth has been downloaded more than 100 million times, and embedded in each download is a request from Google to place a toolbar, a Web gadget that includes a search box, permanently on a user’s Web browser. That seemingly innocuous query is a gold mine for Google, because the ever present box increases the likelihood users will search on Google. The more people search on Google, the greater the chances someone will click on an advertiser’s ads. “We know the lifetime value of a toolbar user,” says Mayer, who offers the example to counter the notion that Google isn’t trying to profit from its fancy doodads. “So we know how much value we’re getting back out of somebody who downloads Google Earth and then subsequently downloads the toolbar.” ”
How long before YouTube starts asking if you wanna install Google Toolbar?
What I find amazing is that YouTube junkies think of it as some non-corporate cafe that Google might now pollute. So I’m wondering how they’ll respond when they see more advertising- especially for Google.
Do we ever get to find out who PC is?
Nalts —
I originally thought it was an asinine purchase, at best.
But now that I’ve had a day or two to think about it, I actually think it has potential to be a, gulp, smart move for Google (necessary ass-covering: I said ‘potential’).
100 million views per day = 100 million extra ad views per day @ est. $.10-.20/click = big money
Here are my thoughts:
http://blog.webvideozone.com/go/videoblog/google-buys-youtube/
joe
Yeah the Google guys went nuts with a check book as they already had Google Video – so why the billions? They say that videos are good for niche marketers to attract visitors with but at the moment it seems like a FAD that is over-hyped and YES we are capable of a BUBBLE 2.0 (and a Google-Burst 2.0 ). Keep innovating Will.