Google’s Holy Grail: Monetizing YouTube. Now, E-Commerce Platform

By Anne Shaw
12:39, October 9th 2008
71 votes
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Google’s Holy Grail: Monetizing YouTube. Now, E-Commerce Platform

Two years after buying the largest video-sharing site, Google still has little idea how to turn the trillions of page views into a cash cow.

One by one, Google has tried various models, from displaying AdSense ads in the pages to running in-video ads, but none of these tryouts seem to solve the problem.

Now, Google has come up with a new plan. By enrolling the biggest music retailer in the US, namely Apple’s iTunes and the biggest online retailer, namely Amazon, Google is ready to try a new system: click and buy.

Let’s say you are watching a music video on YouTube. Thanks to the new system, YouTube will display ads to iTunes and/or Amazon, through which you will be able to buy the song with just a click.

Or at least this is how it works in theory, because for the moment the system is offering this new option only on videos from companies like EMI Music.

According to the post on Google official blog, the newly-released game Spore from Electronic Arts is available through the same method.

As the YouTube Team noted on its blog, for the moment the click-and-buy option is available only in the US, but the company plans an international rollout.

Also, YouTube sees this new experiment as the first steps into converting YouTube into an advertise and buy mix. As the YouTube Team explained in the same blog post, things wouldn’t stop at games and music and the video sharing site plans to enroll other products as well, one of the categories mentioned being books.

Of course, although they weren’t mentioned, the downloadable movies are just another logical option. What can be more convenient than buying or renting the movie right after seeing the trailer?

And there are also thousands of product categories that could be built up on such an e-commerce platform, just to mention cosmetics or toys.

Just imagine the possibilities! The desired product can be yours right after watching an ad or an ad included in another video.

However, despite the possibilities, the new system is far from solving the financial issues YouTube is facing. As you know Apple is earning around 20 cents per song. How much will YouTube earn, judging that Apple should make some profit too? Two, maybe three cents per tune? Imagine how many tunes YouTube should sell just to make a buck.

But let’s see what YouTube will make from its new system.



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