Recent Blog Posts
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Windows 7 Spin May Be on the Money
Nov 23 20098:44 am EDT -
Mapping Company Raises Millions
Nov 20 20094:09 pm EDT -
Facebook Valuations Are All Over the Map
Nov 20 200911:30 am EDT -
The Future of Tech, 2010 Edition
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Automatic Pancake-Making Machine Attracts $2 Million in Capital
Nov 19 20094:53 pm EDT -
Apple Talk of Microsoft's Annual Meeting
Nov 19 20091:27 pm EDT -
There Is Still Hope for the News Business
Nov 19 200911:50 am EDT -
The Google Phone May Be Near
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Amazon Grocery Service Goes Mobile with iPhone
Nov 18 20099:13 am EDT -
How Microsoft Blew It in Mobile
Nov 17 20093:55 pm EDT
Links
- Engadget
- Pandora
- GigaOM
- USA TODAY Tech
- Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
- Somewhat Frank's tech conference list
- BuzzTracker Tech
- The Long Tail
- Tom Foremski
- Roger McGuinn's Folk Den
- John Battelle's SearchBlog
- Mark Cuban's blog
- SciTech Daily
- Romenesko
- Kevin Maney's site
- Steven Johnson
- Marc Andreessen
- TechCrunch
- Fred Wilson
- paidContent
- Spiedies, mmmm
YouTube: Can Something That Big Be a Rotten Business?
Kevin Maney natters: There is a growing, burbling conversation in tech that Google just can't find a way to make money on YouTube, despite YouTube's 130 million visitors a month. CEO Eric Schmidt has all but admitted as much in interviews.
On his blog, Mark Cuban rips YouTube and compares it to Hulu, which in its short life has found a way to make money on Web video. Actually, Mark's rant seems drenched in irony. Cuban is a billionaire sports owner because he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999 -- an investment that never paid off for Yahoo. YouTube may be Google's Broadcast.com.
In another rant, CNET says Google might just want to kill YouTube outright. It costs too much to operate and has become a copyright lawsuit magnet. If there's no way to monetize the site, it will suck money out of Google for years.
Still, I will be amazed if Google can't figure out any way to make money off YouTube. So many smart people with so much innovative mojo, not to mention all the money in the world to spend on a solution. There's gotta be something someone will come up with. You think?
Photo credit: Tony Avelar/AP Photo
Laura Rich is a co-founder of Recessionwire, which provides news, advice, perspective and humor about the recession and the recovery.
