Back in October 2006, a few days before Google acquired YouTube, I wrote a post called YouTube is wildy profitable, no doubts about it, it was probably the first I published on this blog that got a lot of attention.  Anyway, I had no proof that YouTube was actually profitable or for that matter generating material revenues, but the point was: it could be in a very strong state despite the alleged hosting fees, which we now know through peering arrangements can be contained.

However, with Viacom and Google disclosing numerous documents, it turns out, that while not profitable (after all expenses), YouTube was indeed generating revenues which covered most of their expenses as early as August 2006.  You knew that if Google was willing to pay $1.65B for a company that was 18 months old, it wasn’t doing so simply for the promise, but still, that is quite impressive. I guess what Steve Chen and Chad Hurley knew then was that at that pace, YouTube’s growth would ensure that its costs would far exceed its revenues in the short term, and a sale to Google would make that concern evaporate. continue reading...

Viacom and YouTube disclose a whole lot of documents.  To summarize:

- Viacom says that YouTube is essentially “Napster in Video” and the precedent is for them to be shut down. continue reading...

We’re big fans of TubeMogul’s hyper-distribution and analytics offerings, but I always wondered if YouTube’s utter domination of online video would make their offerings a bit less “must-have-ish”.  Apparently (I’ve sort of known this for a while but Brett @ TubeMogul would have killed me if I said anything) they have another, more lucrative business: advertising.

This certainly does make TubeMogul’s appeal stronger, I’d listed them in one of the top 10 potential M&As in online video (with the would be buyer being Nielsen) and this ad play only adds to their potential exit scenarios. continue reading...

Last weekend Tech Crunch published Marc Andreessen’s crazy manifesto, something about torching ships.  It sounds really great, but it’s simply not possible:

Marc Andreessen had a really good idea when he invented the first popular browser for the web, but his latest notion – that newspapers should walk away from a business grossing more than $30 billion a year – is just plain nutty. continue reading...

This year in the US, web advertising finally surpassed print advertising:

U.S. advertisers will spend more on digital marketing than on print this year for the first time, boosting overall ad sales, according to research company Outsell Inc. continue reading...

From Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL:

Armstrong, a former Google executive, told Reuters on Wednesday AOL aimed to close the gap between fast-growing methods of distribution on the Web including search and social networks, and media content created for a previous era. continue reading...

Here is my latest article on MediaPost’s Video Insider:

Online video advertising faces its own set of challenges, including: continue reading...

More from Banff… earlier today, I sat through Frank Chindamo’s presentation, he’s the CEO of Fun Little Movies. Frank is also an Adjunct Professor at USC and Instructor at UCLA, teaching Screenwriting and Producing in Mobile and Internet Video.

He shared 12 tips that can help make videos go viral.  I asked him if I can share them, here they are: continue reading...

Via NewTeeVee:

Jamie Wilkinson, aka Jamie Dubs, is the go-to guy if you want to learn anything about Internet memes. He’s the brain behind Know Your Meme, and until recently used to be Rocketboom’s Internet Research Scientist, complete with lab coat and white board. continue reading...