The ongoing question surrounding YouTube and Google’s inability to maximize revenue opportunities on the site is, has been and will be: will marketers embrace the site, which has only 4% monetizable content, according to a recent WSJ article.
But judging by a couple of comments that my post on YouTube’s Nuclear Option on Monetizing YouTube got on Seeking Alpha, I wonder if that is even moot. Judge for yourself:
Commentor Joyful Alternative: But user-generated crap is why I go to YouTube!
Commentor Tom B: I think “joyful” has it right; let’s get MORE “seedier and undesirable content”. In fact, if you make it seedy enough, people might pay subscription fees…..I mean– people pay for cable TV, right? That’s at least 96% junk.
What if YouTube’s users just shun professional content in favor of falling cats and stumbling skateboarders? I mean, our content does very well on YouTube, we’re one of the largest producers - both measured by videos and video streams - but the fact is, the most popular videos will always be random UGC clips of pirated content.
If that is the case, then I pity the fool who shelled out $1.65B for YouTube - well, no quite, I still see oodles of value in Google’s decision… they paid in stock people… stock!
Subscribe: