Response from: Jean Biri

Sooner or later someone within or outside YouTube.com will figure out a smart way to monetize the content.

In my opinion, right now, YT should be concerned with the increased competition from My Space, Google Video and all the companies jumping aboard the online video trend.

Just think of how Google focused on building a powerful search engine and brand and when someone discovered a way to generate revenue, the company became what it is today.

Response from: TJ

Jean,

thanks for comment.

True but Youtube founders are giving away more and more equity just to stay afloat. If they focus on profitability now they avoid loosing their venture in financial terms while it starts to boom.

Also remember how many companies started like Google, big ambitions, a lot of marketing and pretty little revenue. We all remember Google now but at least 1000 companies started with the same 'strategy' only very few even survived.

Response from: Jean Biri

TJ,
I guess that they are banking on the "A little ownership of something big is better than total ownership of something dead"?

Profitability is important (they should keep an eye on the interesting models Google is doing with companies such as MTV and just land deals with other content providers) but marketshare too. It's the marketshare that YT currently enjoys that makes it the talk of town.
What do you think?

Response from: Andrew Fife

I'm a little bit skeptical of YouTube's long term prospects at billion + valuations. If I were the founder I would focus on generating revenue in anyway that I could while my pageview growth rates are still accelerating rapidly in order to crank the valuation through the roof... before the building collapses. Its not that I don't think they are worth something, but rather that I believe they have a 6-12 month window in which they can maximize their value before economic conditions change, they lose “buzz” and/or someone else (like Google, Yahoo, Myspace or Photobucket) eats their lunch. Once their growth flattens the valuation multiples will take a corresponding dip.

Response from: Tj

Andrew,

Agree with you - profitability makes a company and a management team so much stronger in all negotiations (if that is a financing round or talking to partners, employees and customers). I hope they are making sure they are not only generating enough buzz :)

Response from: Chris

Personally, I think they need to sell ASAP. They are at peak valuation right now and it's only downside from here out. The more people look at YouTube, the more they realize that it's just not a sustainable business at the relatively expensive proposition of serving up 100m videos/day.

And, IMHO, it's not $1B valuation, something in the low $100MM.

There's really no revenue model that can cover their costs, which I'm guestimating to be approaching $20MM/year.

The more they change the offering to focus on revenue, the more people are going to migrate to other sites that are VC backed. It's unfortunate that VC's are subsidizing all of this as it's preventing a real business to arise.

Response from: TJ

Chris,

thanks for that comment - Youtube runs a high risk - we'll see how well it pays off.