There has been a lot of talk recently about how YouTube should be making more money than it currently does to justify the $1.65 billion Google paid for it, and to maximise the huge traffic the site receives.
New Advertising Innovations
Back in April, Google CEO Eric Schmidt promised new innovations to come which could finally make YouTube the money making monster it really should be with the amount of users it has.
Now, he has spoken to The New Yorker, reported here via Times Online, about the problems and solutions in monetising YouTube sufficiently, though he did also make it clear that Google’s goal was not “to monetise everything.”
Obvious Intentions
He claimed it “seemed obvious” that Google should be able to generate “significant amounts of money” from YouTube given that the site attracts almost 130 million people every month but the company is not sure yet how to achieve it.
He also cited two facts that are in Google and YouTube’s favour: “We know people are watching it” and “We have the luxury of time to invest.”
The site already has Google Adsense on it, and ‘pre and post roll’ adverts on some video clips, but Schmidt promised more, and new ways of monetisation yet to come.
Conclusions
Monetisation is possibly the biggest problem facing online video companies at this moment, and YouTube is no different from the rest. Until the business model supports the ideal, then Web video will never reach its true potential.
