The death of free

by Josh Anderson

Posted: 15 years ago 10 replies

OFF TOPIC

This is an interesting article about the cost of free ad supported user content driven sites like youtube and facebook:

The high costs of running YouTube. - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

According to that article youtube will loose nearly half a billion dollars this year alone.

Its definitely been a fun ride but who knows how long companies like Google and the investors who support facebook will be willing to pay so that other people can play.

Some of the new breed of new media and web 2 sites have been introducing paid models like pro level and enhanced publishing services.

#death #free

mywebwork 15 years ago

Good article, thanks for pointing it out Josh.

I've always thought this was inevitable, especially in YouTube's case as the videos themselves likely distract users from ever clicking on advertisements (I honestly can't remember ever clicking on a YouTube ad). Even the inclusion of AdWords at the bottom of videos isn't likely to generate revenue, as most people just turn them off as they block part of the picture. And to top it off, they allow you to embed the videos on your own site and eat up their bandwidth - that alone must cost a small fortune.

One Web 2.0 property whose revenue model has always puzzled me is Twitter. No advertisements, an open API and they even pick up the tab for text messaging - how long can that free ride last?

As Internet Marketers YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have played a beneficial role for many of us. I wonder if they will still be as valuable if/when they switch to a paid service?

Bill
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- Aj Wilson 15 years ago
  
  Thanks for the read...
  
  Products like Niche Socializer and other "Create Your Own Social Networking Site" software
  sales letters wont tell you this...
  
  But I think as technology advances, video compression gets better,
  internet gets cheaper, maybe it wont be so bad in the future...
  
  makes you wonder why the big "G" doesn't start developing it's own solution...
  or maybe they are?
  
  kool little read
  
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SteveJohnson 15 years ago

Twitter is starting to run ads, but they don't look like ads. Top right - they look like dictionary definitions.

According to Marc Andreesen, Twitter is actively working on a monetization model. I guess we'll see what it is when it's finally unrolled.
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GarrieWilson 15 years ago

User generated content can make money. You just have to have limits and upgrades.

YouTube could delete videos w/ no views after 1+ years to save HD space, put comercials on videos even if its a PSA and then let people pay to not see them. Limit the number of videos/space for free members. Give people options of adding domains. Charge people for advance features like clickable thought bubles. Setup PPV so members can sell content. They collect payments and take a cut.

Facebook could limit the amount of pics/videos to say 50 meg and if you need more, charge. They could also charge developers for adding apps. No reason to let people add them for free. Especially big companies.

Twitter could offer a pay-to-read service. I could "block" people and for $1.95/month they could see my tweets. Twitter takes payments, automates it and gets a cut.

There are lots of ways to monitize and still be free.

I'd even pay Wiki a yearly fee for access if I had to.
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- Hyaku_Man 15 years ago
  
  One model I've seen on a streaming video site (I won't mention the site's name because I'll be embarrassed ) is to have free memberships that stream videos at like 3 or 4 frames per second. If you pay a membership fee you get 15 frames per second, so good quality video. I wouldn't be surprised if Youtube started something like that. They could reduce bandwidth usage and monetize at the same time.
  
  The Adsense ads on Youtube just jump out as irrelevant. If I want to watch a video of something, I want to watch a video, I don't want to click on a textlink and read about it.
  
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Steve L 15 years ago

whoops, accidentally started another thread about the same thing...
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Alex Sol 15 years ago

We should all click on some ADS when watching a Youtube video...
Help Google make some money because I am sure they are going broke
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- Aj Wilson 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alex Sol
  
  We should all click on some ADS when watching a Youtube video...
  Help Google make some money because I am sure they are going broke
  
  Google needs more money!?
  
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  myob 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Aj Wilson
  
  Google needs more money!?
  
  LOL! Google earned $4.1 BILLION from Jan - Mar 2009, or $4.93 per share. YouTube is just a minor part of Google's properties. The real genius of these guys is that YouTube is giving them market recognition for attracting even more advertisers. It's absolutely brilliant.
  
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