YouTube Worth $1 BIllion? But Who Will Buy It?

VodaHost · #1 08-12-2006, 10:08 AM

This NY Post item caught my eye - YouTube was the toast of Herb Allen's Sun Valley conference, and therefore is now worth $1 billion. I don't buy it. I don't think the founders are smoking this ****, I think the media is - at least I hope that's how it is. Why? Simple really. While YouTube is an amazing service, with extraordinary uptake, I've been told (and it seems obvious on first glance) that its core content is mostly copyrighted material. (I make this statement after being told as much by two very senior folks at major media companies who have studied content patterns on YouTube.)

Now, folks who own copyrights are waking up to the power of letting their copyrighted content flourish on YouTube, but that particular worm has not turned - content companies are very, very wary of letting this genie out of the bottle.

So who might buy YouTube? A major entertainment company, like the ones mentioned in the Post piece? No way. That's buying a lawsuit or ten - if Time Warner bought YouTube, how long do you think it'd be before competitors sued to get their copyrighted stuff off TW's new service? And once that stuff is cleared off (YouTube does make a point of taking down copyrighted material when asked, but policing that massive service is not exactly a hand-rolled affair), what is YouTube worth then?

It's something of a catch 22, and augurs a waiting period of sorts. I personally believe YouTube proves that our culture wants desparately out of the traditional model of force fed television, and wants to move to a model where we participate in it - indeed, where we remix and share it. But change takes time, and Big Media Companies With Alot To Lose don't change that quick.

What about a new media giant buying YouTube - Yahoo, say, or Google? Or Microsoft? Nope, nope, nope. Yahoo is a media company, and acts like one. Google doesn't have it in its DNA to run a service like YouTube (though Google, with its Switzerland like approach to content, is the best fit, in my opinion). And Microsoft? They don't need any more legal headaches over in Redmond right now.

It should be an interesting Fall season, that's for sure. I'll be watching.

FPRob · #2 08-12-2006, 02:51 PM

PhotoBucket could by them.... But I doubt they have that kind of money available. I agree with Google. YouTube works waaaaay better than GoogleVideo. It's a good question and it will be interesting to find out who does dig deep to come up with the funds.

Code-Burnt-Gemini · #3 08-12-2006, 07:42 PM

A Billion bucks for a website? Even being an interactive site backed by a big company, how could they even start to make that kind of money back? I am relatively new to the internet so my question my seem stupid to the more knowledgeable folks here. I just cant see spending that kind of money. I have got to be missing something here ... I mean, spend a billion for the company/website, then have to turn around and spend mucho big bucks defending it in court over and over again seems a lose lose situation to me.

vodafan · #4 11-08-2007, 10:22 PM

by now you know who bought it

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)