YouTube has long been the power drain on Google, requiring enormous bandwidth to keep it running and facing monetization issues for years. Finally, however, Google seems to be figuring out what to do to give the video machine a chance at being useful.
First they figured out that they could sell ads to formerly disgruntled copyright owners and keep the clips on site – creating a more amicable relationship and opening the door to revenue as well.
Now they have come up with a truly inspired fit of genius – Click to Buy. The concept is simple – who didn’t check out the Google Android on YouTube weeks before the release? Movie trailers, song clips and video game action sequences are all commonly shown on You Tube – so why not take advantage of these impromptu reviews?
Now a person previewing the latest in film, Playstation or X Box excellence can impulse shop to their hearts content. ITunes, Amazon.com and Electronic Arts links are only a few of the planned sponsors, and the revenue possibilities are endless.
That begs the question – can the ordinary Joe market their own products through ‘infomercials’ on YouTube? How would it work, exactly, and how well would it go over? There are a lot of possibilities and corresponding ramifications, and some fear YouTube may be circling the drain as far as user popularity.
Others swear that this will be YouTubes saving grace, however, and we look forward to new developments in this arena. Google states: “This is just the beginning of building a broad, viable e-commerce platform for users and partners on YouTube. Our vision is to help partners across all industries — from music, to film, to print, to TV — offer useful and relevant products to a large, yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos.”
In an extension to the former agreement, YouTube partners who find pirated clips on YouTube can use their content identification and management system to add the ‘click to buy’ link below the video for the DVD, CD or mp3. They simply have to use Content ID to claim the videos and leave them up on the site.
Not bad, YouTube. Good job, Google. Maybe they can harness the power of the behemoth video site at last – it would be nice if it could at least pay for itself.
Tags: monetization, UGC, YouTube