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Colbert at the White House Correspondent's Dinner [4]

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NEWS: You Tube Spends One Million Dollars a Month on Bandwidth [2]

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4/29/06

Betting on Iraq

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NEWS: You Tube Spends One Million Dollars a Month on Bandwidth

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WilWheaton

Los Angeles, CA

June 2005

APR 30, 2006 10:31 AM

GEEK: YouTube Spends One Million Dollars a Month on Bandwidth

According to Forbes, YouTube is expected to be "the next big thing" on the Internet, and venture capitalists are dumping money into the company faster than you can say "pets dot com," but how exactly do these people expect to make their money back, when YouTube is spewing a million dollars a month in bandwidth costs?

Startup of the moment YouTube, which garnered 12.9 million unique visitors in March, doesn't care what viewers watch, as long as they keep tuning in. Making money is another matter: The site, which has raised $11.5 million in venture capital in the last year, didn't see a penny in revenue until March, when they cautiously began selling ads. Meanwhile the site's bandwidth costs, which increase every time a visitor clicks on a video, may be approaching $1 million a month--much of which goes to provider Limelight Networks.

YouTube streams an estimated 200 terrabytes of data each day, and it doesn't even host porn. Who knew a couple of kids lipsynching the Pokemon song would be so popular?

Tangus

Chicago, IL

November 2005

APR 30, 2006 11:03 AM

what do you get past a terrabyte?

alpo

Portland, OR

OLD SKOOL

APR 30, 2006 11:07 AM

Tangus said:
what do you get past a terrabyte?

1000 terathings is a petathing. (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix

mat8drb

United Kingdom

October 2004

APR 30, 2006 11:07 AM

Tangus said:
what do you get past a terrabyte?

Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte and Yottabyte in that order.

200 Terabytes? Wow. Although I find myself getting more and more links to YouTube these days: Pretty Girls Make Graves ran a competition on there for videos for one of their new tracks that I spent a while looking through.

Plus, that guy who re-enacts speeches from films. Like the Picard one. That cracks me up.

Wren

SUICIDEGIRL

Minnesota, USA

APR 30, 2006 11:09 AM

My little brother is CONSTANTLY sending me links to stuff hosted on YouTube. Mostly Maki Goto music videos.

Margot_Dent

Los Angeles, CA

February 2004

APR 30, 2006 11:15 AM

youtube is probably the best site on the internet. if only you could download the videos.

PaulNikon

Melbourne, FL

February 2003

APR 30, 2006 11:24 AM

How do they make money?

Andvari

Calgary, AB

April 2005

APR 30, 2006 11:28 AM

I'm investing in Limelight Networks.

moniker42

Seattle, WA

October 2003

APR 30, 2006 11:33 AM

youtube vids on the music board

Tangus

Chicago, IL

November 2005

APR 30, 2006 11:34 AM

Tangus said:
what do you get past a terrabyte?

Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte and Yottabyte in that order.

holy shit.

so if you get to the last one, do you get a victory dance done by semi-naked asian men with only leaves covering their na-nas?

alpo

Portland, OR

OLD SKOOL

APR 30, 2006 11:36 AM

Tangus said:

Tangus said:
what do you get past a terrabyte?

Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte and Yottabyte in that order.

holy shit.

so if you get to the last one, do you get a victory dance done by semi-naked asian men with only leaves covering their na-nas?

Yeah, a nanabyte of them.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

APR 30, 2006 11:42 AM

PaulNikon said:
How do they make money?

The Story said:
The site, which has raised $11.5 million in venture capital in the last year, didn't see a penny in revenue until March, when they cautiously began selling ads.

moniker42

Seattle, WA

October 2003

APR 30, 2006 11:44 AM

Andvari said:
I'm investing in Limelight Networks.

hear hear

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

APR 30, 2006 11:45 AM

Wow, it's 1999 all over again. How YouTube managed to convince venture capitalists to give them anything when their business model was, it seems, "Dude! It's the INTERNET!" is entirely beyond me, considering the enormous hit the VC industry took when the bubble burst.

Keith

Oklahoma City, OK

August 2002

APR 30, 2006 11:46 AM

...and they haven't even hit with the inevitable copyright lawsuits, yet.

Lotusmonger

Chicago, IL

May 2004

APR 30, 2006 11:59 AM

Margot_Dent said:
youtube is probably the best site on the internet. if only you could download the videos.

Firefox has

this extension

and you can also try Keepvid.com

TAFKASP

Oakland, CA

June 2003

APR 30, 2006 12:50 PM

bean said:
Wow, it's 1999 all over again. How YouTube managed to convince venture capitalists to give them anything when their business model was, it seems, "Dude! It's the INTERNET!" is entirely beyond me, considering the enormous hit the VC industry took when the bubble burst.

It seems that this is just the internet extension of what network and cable television has been (albeit with "user-generated content"). And since the "brick and mortar" model for this particular industry was already a visual medium, it doesn't seem like a huge stretch to invest in what may be the natural alternative to ABC/NBC/CBS/Cable, so I think VCs will be all over this (I haven't researched yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the VCs were backed by the TV companies). Whereas pouring millions into things like Pets.com or Webvan.com,etc. (i.e. the failures during the dot-com burst) were fairly different business models from their brick and mortar equivalents, changing the entire customer experience around.

Of course, time will tell.

But if I had money to invest, I'd try to get in now before the price gets ridiculous. I have lots of faith in the average joe's desire to be a star (case in point, reality TV), and YouTube seems to provide that outlet.

[Edited to add: I forgot to mention, that YouTube's success will of course depend on how they plan to generate revenue -- my op was just on the site idea itself. So the jury is still out on that one.]

[Edited on Apr 30, 2006 12:51PM]

Genjutsushi

United Kingdom

October 2004

APR 30, 2006 12:52 PM

So they aren't making much profit, if any. It won't be long before charges to view the content start creeping in.

There's not a whole lot of revenue to be made from Ads, especially when the vast majority of people are using Ad blockers anyway.

LinkIsMyHero

USA

February 2005

APR 30, 2006 12:58 PM

Good gravy.

Also, get Hi-Download and URL helper.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

APR 30, 2006 01:02 PM

SuicidePuppies said:

bean said:
Wow, it's 1999 all over again. How YouTube managed to convince venture capitalists to give them anything when their business model was, it seems, "Dude! It's the INTERNET!" is entirely beyond me, considering the enormous hit the VC industry took when the bubble burst.

It seems that this is just the internet extension of what network and cable television has been (albeit with "user-generated content"). And since the "brick and mortar" model for this particular industry was already a visual medium, it doesn't seem like a huge stretch to invest in what may be the natural alternative to ABC/NBC/CBS/Cable, so I think VCs will be all over this (I haven't researched yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the VCs were backed by the TV companies). Whereas pouring millions into things like Pets.com or Webvan.com,etc. (i.e. the failures during the dot-com burst) were fairly different business models from their brick and mortar equivalents, changing the entire customer experience around.

Of course, time will tell.

But if I had money to invest, I'd try to get in now before the price gets ridiculous. I have lots of faith in the average joe's desire to be a star (case in point, reality TV), and YouTube seems to provide that outlet.

[Edited to add: I forgot to mention, that YouTube's success will of course depend on how they plan to generate revenue -- my op was just on the site idea itself. So the jury is still out on that one.]

I think you maybe missed my point. That being that it's amazing to me that VC's would dump $11 mil into a company that doesn't have a solid business plan that includes how they're going to generate revenue. That was the hallmark of dotcom-bubble startups: having a really cool idea that people will really love but planning that you'll figure out how to make money later. Parallels to broadcast media aren't really applicable since broadcast media are funded either by ads or subscribers (in other words, their profit-generating scheme is built into the format), and I don't think it really helps YouTube's case to suggest they borrowed broadcast media's format without borrowing broadcast media's revenue-generating model.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

APR 30, 2006 01:11 PM

Genjutsushi said:
There's not a whole lot of revenue to be made from Ads, especially when the vast majority of people are using Ad blockers anyway.

Sure, if you don't think $12.5 billion is a lot of revenue. The vast majority of people do not use Ad-blocking technology, believe it or not.

TAFKASP

Oakland, CA

June 2003

APR 30, 2006 01:14 PM

bean said:
it's amazing to me that VC's would dump $11 mil into a company that doesn't have a solid business plan that includes how they're going to generate revenue. That was the hallmark of dotcom-bubble startups: having a really cool idea that people will really love but planning that you'll figure out how to make money later.

I agree. It's very risky and I think bad business to invest in something where the revenue stream isn't defined yet. That being said, I think there's no doubt, that the site itself and its numbers will continue to blow up (ala MySpace). These kinds of sites are just so viral, I think the VCs salivate at that potential of a giant pool of consumers and ad-watchers, that they [advertisers] can market their products toward later, that the risk just might be worth it to them. Let's hope for the economy's sake, their hopes aren't burst again though.

[Edited on Apr 30, 2006 by SuicidePuppies]

jason

USA

August 2002

APR 30, 2006 01:18 PM

Lotusmonger said:

Margot_Dent said:
youtube is probably the best site on the internet. if only you could download the videos.

Firefox has

this extension

and you can also try Keepvid.com

holy crap!

this extension + you tube + super converter = avi files = onto my creative vision: m portable player = me really really stoked. thanks!

SonOfAPunk

Maple Ridge, BC

January 2006

APR 30, 2006 01:32 PM

Wren said:
My little brother is CONSTANTLY sending me links to stuff hosted on YouTube. Mostly Maki Goto music videos.

Yeah I hear that. My little brother's always going "You GOTTA see this! You're gonna laugh your ass off! I promise! This time's for real!"

And it's always some college-prank or some fat guy falling or something.

And for the record, YouTube sounds awesome. I'm not overly familiar with it, but it sounds like a good way to host videos and get your shit known.

I'll be using it once a couple projects of mine are complete.

Helter

Chester, PA

OLD SKOOL

APR 30, 2006 02:14 PM

bean said:
Wow, it's 1999 all over again. How YouTube managed to convince venture capitalists to give them anything when their business model was, it seems, "Dude! It's the INTERNET!" is entirely beyond me, considering the enormous hit the VC industry took when the bubble burst.

All over again...

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