YouTube generates billions of views but no profits. That’s because Google’s video site only sells advertising on a small portion of the clips it shows. That may be changing, argues Bernstein Research’s Jeffrey Lindsay.
Here’s Google’s sort-of answer to Hulu: A newly designed page to showcase TV shows and movies, along with new players and a new ad strategy. What’s not included: almost any first-run TV show or newly released movie. That’s the content that’s made Hulu successful and what’s also driven traffic to offerings from CBS and Disney’s ABC. You can’t accuse the Google guys of overselling this: In a press conference today, they described it as a “first step, a baby step.”
If you’re not paying attention, it may seem as if the cratering economy hasn’t stopped the steady stream of start-up funding announcements.
CrispyGamer, a newish videogame site, for example, just announced that it had raised $8.25 million from J.P. Morgan’s Constellation Ventures.
But unless it can figure out how to boost its ad rates, it’s going to need every penny.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider.
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