How YouTube Makes Money
Written Jul. 28, 2006 by in Technology with 0 Comments
And the answer is...er....I'll get back to you. While you are waiting, here are a few quick instructions and a short Infinite Dial quiz:
1. Visit this site. Spend a pleasant hour or so watching some Radiohead videos.
2. Refresh your memory about Napster V1
Now, the quiz--
- How much bandwidth did you consume?
- Who paid for it?
- Whose property were those videos?
- Who, if anyone, is breaking the law: The blogger, YouTube, the original uploader, or you?
- Is there such a thing as a free lunch?
I got 2 out of 5 wrong, and I wrote the quiz. But YouTube, like Napster before it, will certainly do at least one thing--it will upset the applecart and lead to progress. Just yesterday I saw a research presentation from Circle 1 that revealed that today's net-savvy kids expect that they will have to pay for content on the Internet in the future, a belief that no doubt stems from the widespread adoption of MMORPG's (Massively-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), which generally have monthly subscription fees. Just as Napster enabled the iTMS and..well..Napster, so too will YouTube give rise to something else, and someone will have to pay for it.
But until that omelet, YouTube is breaking some eggs, no doubt about it.
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