IT Professionals

YouTube Is A Drain On Google Resources

Posted by on May 11, 2009 | 3 Comments

Can there really be any question that YouTube’s tremendous drain on resources has finally come home to roost with Google? Seems readily apparent to me as Google is faced now more than ever with a situation where monetizing the YouTube content is no longer a matter of “would be nice” — it is becoming critical.

Despite Google’s claims that it finally has video content on YouTube that is ready for advertising, I remain skeptical that it will even begin to offset the sheer volume of bandwidth being used for what most of us would refer to as crap content. Dancing cats, talking paper bags — you get the type of videos I am talking about.

Considering this type of stuff is also a huge drain on outgoing bandwidth for Google, not even considering the fact that Hulu has a massive advantage with regard to professionally produced content that is again, easy to monetize, I fear YouTube will continue to be a money pit.

Am I totally wrong on this? Does Google have enough quality content to turn its YouTube efforts around? However you might see it, hit the comments and share your own perspective.

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  • http://twitter.com/minrice2099 minrice2099

    There’s no way that Google will make YouTube profitable through advertising alone. I think their best bet is to charge an optional “Pro” membership fee (similar to Vimeo and Flickr) to get preferred placement on featured videos and upload bandwidth caps (per week/month) to stop people from uploading a ton of crap.
    These fees would have to be enough to discourage the casual user to pay for the small benefits, but NOT too severe to stop small time professionals from paying for it.

  • http://herosfortony.com tonyflaton

    Why not delete old videos not being watched for a pre determined length of time? that should free up server space.

    Setup gold accounts (ad free) for a monthly fee. Hardcore youtubers and big business would more than likely pay for this to not have ads on their videos. ($14.95 / month or something like that) To help pay for bandwidth. Obviously still have free accounts powered by ads.

    Also place adverts on pages. As you may or may not have noticed is that youtube has very few ads on its pages. This along with the above methods should generate plenty enough revenue to continue running youtube for free to the public.

  • Ashley

    I think that the issue of YouTubes ‘crap content’ as you put it, needs to be addressed by making the experience of sharing videos on youtube more of a community where it is rewarding and even profitable (if you implement adsense) to upload quality content and not just some poor sole getting slapped on the bus home.
    Plus I think if they created a way of filtering duplicate content that would ease the strains they are suffering.

    Due to youtube being so large its a mammoth task but as you yourself said Matt if something isnt done youtube will continue to be a money pit.