It is well documented that Google have not managed to make any money from YouTube. Google acquired the site for $1.65 billion in 2006 but has struggled to make money from the site which allows people to post, share and watch video clips for free.
In April, analysts at Credit Suisse predicted that YouTube would lose [...]
In April, analysts at Credit Suisse predicted that YouTube would lose Google around $500 million this year, but Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said that the video-sharing site is “now on a trajectory we’re very pleased with”.
Jonathan Rosenberg, head of product management and marketing at Google, said that the number of “monetised views” of YouTube videos – that is, the number of people watching clips supported by advertising – had more than tripled in the last 12 months.
“We’re now monetising billions of views of partner videos every month,” he added.
Google has been looking at new ways to make money from the popular video-sharing site. Mr Schmidt said that the company would be experimenting with new advertising formats on the site, such as pre-roll ads, to build a bigger revenue share. Google’s chief financial officer, Patrick Pichette said these new initiatives were already helping to make YouTube more desirable for customers.
“We’re really pleased, both in terms of YouTube’s revenue growth, which is really material to YouTube, and in the not long, too-long-distant future, we actually see a very profitable and good business for us,” he said.
