YouTube Takes The MySpace Approach To Ad Sales
from the thx-4-tha-add dept
We've wondered just how YouTube would be able to monetize its traffic and justify the sky-high valuations being tossed around for it, and it's now taking a page out of MySpace's book by selling advertisers the ability to create "brand channels" -- their own pages featuring a particular product or brand. The MySpace influence runs deep, as the first such brand channel (for Paris Hilton, natch) has a look that should be pretty familiar to anybody that's visited MySpace. The channel pages can also have their own "sponsors" -- for instance, the Paris Hilton page is sponsored by a Fox TV show -- and YouTube will split the ad revenue with the brand's owners. YouTube is also selling "participatory video ads", dressing up what many advertisers have already been doing (uploading their own content to the site) with some paid placement on the front page. YouTube says these efforts, which have been well-received by advertisers, are just initial efforts, and there's more to come. But will advertisers really find long-term value in paying for a slightly enhanced version of what they can do for free? One aside: the remarkable similarity between the YouTube brand channel page and the layout of MySpace pages (which, admittedly, isn't hard to mimic), as well as the Fox sponsorship, combined with the persistent "Who's Buying YouTube?" talk, almost makes you wonder if there's something deeper than just a sponsorship afoot between YouTube and News Corp.
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eh.
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RE: eh.
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Re: RE: eh.
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Re: Re: RE: eh.
Myspace is somewhat less harmful, as at least some of those users will grow up and develop a more sophisticated sense of design and classiness and become useful contibutors to the internet. At least it is a cesspool much more easily avoided as there is literally zero content of any value to those outside the myspace crowd. So it is more easily ignored and I grudgingly applaud it as a way to promote online interaction.
Just as adolescents are insufferable brats, we are able to view it as a stepping stone to a worthwhile adulthood. Try and ignore it.
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The YouTubes Baby!
Some comments about other posts: YouTube is not about the popularization and homogenization of internet geek culture, this is merely one byproduct of it. YouTube, from an idealist point of view, is about a seperation from traditional media. People don't just choose from a group of preselected viewing material. The people themselves create the viewing material and their peers either give it popularity by large amount of views or small amount of views or they send it into the YouTube sea of mediocrity. In no other format can the crappiest of material actually be something that can become popular [yes, most produced media is crap but that's outside of the base of my point]. And, in no other mass media format, can someone outside of the "biz" create the content. There's also the huge aspect of interactivity. Where else can you actually interact with the stars of the "shows" or help lead the direction of the next "episode"? One, more thing on YouTube, it's absurd to say that true geeks are disgusted by it... that's an irrational generalization, and tell me, are there FAKE geeks? o.O
Myspace on the other hand can't even be compared to YouTube. To the anonymous coward above, how can you possibly think that the users will grow to develop a more sophisticated sense of design? In fact, it would be the complete opposite... anyone who isn't coding and designing their own webpage from scratch and sticks to a generic design that's only mildly flexible does nothing but mantain their mediocrity. Plus, the internet isn't about anything else besides online interaction... "social networking" sites aren't adding anything new, they're nothing but the newest [and quite sad] fad of the day.
One more comment I guess in the form of a question: are adolescents insufferable brats or are adults pig-headed, closed minded, dictatorial asses?
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Re: The YouTubes Baby!
I had conceded the value of youtube in providing a practical public forum for individuals who otherwise wouldnt have it.
The homogenization and popularization of geek culture would be happening all on its own without youtube, but there are some vehicles of this transformation that are more significant than others.
I very carefully but perhaps unclearly said that to some degree, true geeks suffer as their community is invaded by lesser geeks. Whether some or many or most true geeks do enjoy youtube is irrelevant. What is relevant is that some do not and the items or memes in question are no longer for them geek-uniters but everyone-uniters in the best case and faux-geek-uniters in the worst cases, and either of these are distasteful to those who would rather not see their lifestyle turned into a vapid trend.
Regarding my comments on myspace, I still regard them as obviously true. The users of myspace are clearly internet rugrats and so knowing theyre excited and engaged is good as long as I don't have to see them.
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Bullshit....
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wat up peps
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