The cover story on Forbes this week is about YouTube. The article highlights the popularity of the site and how it went from not having a revenue model to building a site with one, using a unique way of advertising. The questions for YouTube is: can they make YouTube the Google of videos, with the ability to search. And, will Google and Microsoft catch up and outpace them. And, can the site maintain its core user while "staying true" to its brand?
It seems to me that many internet companies struggle with this. YouTube's revenue model is based on advertising and lets its users comment (including negatively) on their own sponsors. Can this model last? How will commercials and advertising change when its customers are interracting with the company and each other rather than being "talked at"? It seems that this method coupled with people fast-forwarding through traditional commercials with DVR is sure to change commercials, but how? (In the UK (and other countries), commercials are in between television programs rather than interrupting them; and, they are still running. Perhaps the US is catching up to that model.) I wonder how companies will deal with the dialog that will now be linked to their ads. Can the companies themselves post "dummy" responses? What are the ethics of Web 2.0 and this new form of advertising?
The link to the article is below:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/09/27/tech-media_101606forbes_youtube_lander.html
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