When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, my guess would be they planned to make some money out of it. So far though, that hasn’t happened.
YouTube has experimented with video advert formats, but overall, the site remains an ad-free, and hence profit-free Web destination.
Eric Schmidt Speaks
It seems that may all be about to change however, after Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in an interview to be screened later today.
He was asked “So, as far as monetizing that business on YouTube, do you think that takes a year? Does it take the next five years? What’s your time frame on that?” He replied:
“We believe the best products are coming out this year. And they’re new products. They’re not announced. They’re not just putting in-line ads in the things that people are trying. But we have a number — and, of course, Google is an innovative place.”
“The YouTube team are trying various new forms of advertising, ones which are much more participative, much more creative, much more — much more interesting in and of themselves.”
“Google believes that advertising itself has value. The ads literally are valuable to consumers. Not just to the advertisers, but the consumers.”
Obviously nothing has been announced as of yet as to the nature of these monetization products or tools, but it’s clear Google is developing what it considers to be a solution to how to make money from YouTube.
A Solution To The Problem
YouTube, and Web video as a whole is so far proving to be a hard nut to crack in terms of viable advertising options which don’t upset or hamper a viewer’s experience.
Could it be that Google, and the tech boffins at YouTube have finally solved the riddle? As is usual with Google, only time will tell, and for the moment, we’ll have to make do with these vague utterings from it’s CEO.
