Google and YouTube Could Ink Deal This Afternoon
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by Mike Zazaian October 9, 2006 - 1:25pm, 1 Comment
According to an article from The New York Times blogs, Google’s acquisition of YouTube for $1.6 billion could go from fiction to fact sometime this afternoon. While no specific sources were given for the information, the article cited people involved in the talks
for suggesting the deal’s inevitability. The source also noted that both the Google and YouTube camps have adjourned to their seperate corners, each board discussing approval before giving the acquisition a definite thumbs up.
Allegations of the deal come just hours after YouTube’s own announcement that the site will carry music and video content from Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Records and CBS. Content carried by YouTube, primarily music videos and clips from featured TV shows, will be available to users for use in their own artistic works. YouTube has developed copyright-detecting software that will allow the Studios to give the yay or nay on re-produced versions of its video and music.
While there has been no official announcement from either Google or YouTube, it seems that the buzz around the matter is reason enough think it legitimate. Google’s likely been eyeing YouTube ever since it surpassed Google Video in February, becoming the largest video-sharing site in the world. At present, YouTube boasts traffic of over 35 million users daily, while Google Video is graced by only 9 million. We all know that Google isn’t very good at being second best, and in lieu of buying out YouTube it doesn’t seem that Google Video would ever catch up.
But despite its enormity, YouTube has been under attack for its inability to police the illegal posting of copyrighted content. With over 100 million videos viewed daily, and only 60 employees to police them, YouTube users constantly post works that contain copyrighted music and video, which YouTube then becomes responsible for distributing. Marc Cuban, internet billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks commented about the Google/YouTube deal on his blog:
“Dont think for a minute that there wont be lawyers writing songs, having their buddies perform them, and putting them on YouTube, jerry-rigging the number of views via any number of easy-to-do processes and then suing YouTube over it.
While it may be plagued by lawsuits and legal issues, Google certainly has deep enough pockets to combat them. Perhaps it sees YouTube as a shoot first, ask questions later
scenario, where it can obtain a site that has enormous advertising potential for a price that, within in a few years, could inflate to double or triple its current. Either way, if Google decides to buy YouTube it will only extend Google’s internet dominance. And though lawsuits may scare Marc Cuban, the likes of Google Founder/CEOs Sergei Brin and Larry Page aren’t so bashful.
[via The New York Times]
The Foundation of Youtube
Youtube is one of the most popular video sharing sites on the net. A year ago, co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were in between jobs, a pair of twentysomething geeks running up big credit card debts as they tooled around a garage trying to develop an easy way for people to share homemade videos on the Web.
Hurley says, “I do not want to work hard. I want to live a soft life. I want to sleep for three hours every afternoon and nine hours at night. I do not want to stay awake the whole day so that I can get a few 350 grand at the end of each month. I do not want my talents to be exploited by a ruthless employer. I am a lazy man. That is why I choose to live off the net. I am too lethargic to try and survive in the real world. That is why I did not bother to hold down a job though my credit card debt soared.
“On the net things are handed to me by Google. The idea of youtube came to me from a dinner party with a half-dozen friends in the greatest city in the world San Francisco. It was January, 2005, and we couldnt figure out a good solution. Sending the clips around by e-mail was a bust: The e-mails kept getting rejected because they were so big. Posting the videos online was a headache, too. So we created a site and put in basic software.
“What I and Steve came up with is a Web site, now called YouTube, that has become an Internet phenomenon. Show the honey and the bees will flock to it. We worked for about six hours each week for two months designing youtube. We had the idea to create a community around the video.
“Once that was done we knew that tons of millions of dollars would just flow into our laps after the Google buyour. We will not have to work hard. In the old economy you have to work really hard for a lousy promotion which might give you a few more grand if your employer is very generous. You have to get up 3early in the morning and run for a few grand. On the net you can become rich without working hard.
“On the net once you have the idea you just sit at home and then magic will happen. That is exactly what happened at Paypal, Skype, MySpace, Facebook. The basic, simple to design software that I and Chen designed allows people to post almost anything they like on YouTube in minutes. People can jack off on porn. Now we are sitting at home retired early after the Google buyout. Content has been handed to us on a silver platter. We do not have to slog hard to create content like a poorly paid online journalist who makes a lousy 450k each year. We do not have to experience daily financial pressure
because our site does not get enough readers. We are not under pressure to meet deadlines. We get up at ten in the morning and consider that to be hard work. We do not have to work for ten llllong years. That is the privilege of those in the old economy. they take the tube to go to work for a bum 350,000 dollar paycheck at the end of the month.
“We have it easy. The reason why we never held a job for more than a year was because we felt that a rope was attached to out necks. We would have had to stay chained in an office with four walls. It is such a pain to get up in the morning and run for the sake of a few 350 milli grand at the end of the month. The content that we offer is free. That is easy for us to that as we do not have to work to create it. Copyrighted work is there for our users to copy and paste as that is work which we have the right to copy. Other content
comes from common folk wanting to share stuff.
“Revenues will come from advertising. The net is a click and eyeballs business. Google understands this. The clicks come from youtube’s milllions of eyeballs that we have not worked for. It is unearned traffic. We do not have to sweat and bleed for it. That is the privilege of poorly paid online journalists. I do not have to worry about losing my job as my content does not get get enough page views. I do not have to take the initiative about my own life. I do not have to discipline myself. I do not have to worry about having a career. The millions of youtube.com visitors will ensure that this will never happen. I can simply focus on trying to build relationships with my tall, tough women friends in San Francisco. We hang out together. We work out together. We sleep in the afternoon together.”
sivasankaran