Online Video… Money maker, or taker?
Youtube, is the the second biggest search engine in the world. The reason behind Google’s huge $1.65 bn purchase, was that the media giant thought that they could rake in the bejamins, by selling advertising through popular videos on the site. Well according to Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang, the video site is due to lose $470m this year! That is a HUGE loss, even for Google. The reason?
The problem as he sees it is an inability to sell advertising on most of its pages, coupled with a huge number of users watching a vast amount of video online. Which makes marketing hard since there are so many new videos being uploaded everyday, the incremental cost of every user is actually really high. So this means that having a viral video is actually bad for advertisers!
April 16th, 2009 at 6:47 am
I personally think that video is still trying to find its place in the internet world. You see hundreds of thousands of people putting videos up but are they effective? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Our company (Castlewood Studios) creates a lot of web commercials for companies but I am finding that a more effective use of videos for companies on the web is for informative or instructional rather than advertisement.
We still all fast forward through commercials on TV, what makes people think that others will happily set and watch commercials on their computer screen?
David
http://www.CastlewoodStudios.com
April 16th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I think that a lot of these companies are trying to mix information & entertainment in those advertisements. Infotainment right?! And yes, people always fast forward through commercials but the internet is the “Information Super Highway!” So may be, the audience browsing the net is actually looking for that information & wants to see an advertisement… What’ve you noticed with your clients? More infotainment, or more marketing?