Best Buy To Offer A Paid YouTube Clone?
from the but-why? dept
Best Buy may have been able to trick people over its fake website, unwanted MSN subscriptions and impossible to obtain rebates, but can it also fool people into believing you need to pay Best Buy to host your home video clips online? Apparently the company thinks so. It's unveiling its own "alternative to YouTube" for customers to host their home videos. The only catch? While YouTube is free, Best Buy's offering will $7 for 100 minutes worth of video hosting. Considering that Best Buy's prices are rarely your actual best buy, perhaps the company has just settled into the fact that its sweet spot is in serving the uninformed customer who doesn't seem to mind paying for what's free elsewhere.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: video sharing
Companies: best buy, youtube
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But really, while you don't have to be a genius to host a video on YouTube, depending on what it is offering, "Grandparents" may flock to such a service
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An advantage...
I don't use YouTube, but can you lock down your videos so only people you specify can see them? If not, this would be another advantage to a hosted service.
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Re: An advantage...
I haven't used YT in a long time, however, because I haven't filmed much lately and the community is terrible. I much more prefer the community when I started (which was right around when YT started.)
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I'm Suprised
I'm a bit surprised by your summation of the Best Buy deal. Since you normally point that free actually adds value to paid products and services, to show your disdain on a company providing paid services that cuts into the market share of a free service really surprises me, and seems to go against your earlier arguments.
The paid service appears to offer a better value by adding services such as limited access, extended video length, and possibly better compression services. ( youtube compress the quality of the video as the length of the segment increases )
I guess I was just curious how all your other arguments about the value of how free and paid services coexist and build on one another doesn't apply to this Best Buy venture?
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Re: I'm Suprised
Because if a paid service is going to compete with a free one it has to offer significantly better value that's easy and clear for people to understand. That doesn't seem to be the case with the Best Buy offering. You can get longer videos on YouTube. If you want better quality there are other free sites like Vimeo, which also offers privacy features like the Best Buy offering.
If you're going to offer something that's a paid service, it really needs to be for the types of things that aren't already free elsewhere.
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Re: Re: I'm Suprised
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For a long time, I've said I'd pay to have an enhanced account that kept the quality of my videos intact. If Best Buy offers something like this, I would consider using it.
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The competition is a few ad-supported free sites that haven't reached critical mass or shown real scalability yet (primarily Vimeo). A name-brand, scalable, easy-to-use, ad-free service may just have a chance, particularly if it offers guaranteed full-quality backup of digital video.
Now, what *I'd* pay for would be a service that would take my old 2-hour home videos and artfully edit them down to something watchable. This seems like the type of time-consuming task that an army of low-paid but talented kids in a developing country would be perfect for.
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Free Money for Best Buy
However, there are enough ignorant people out there who (believe it or not) know nothing of YouTube (or assume that it too is a paid service). Best Buy WILL make money off this... probably a healthy sum.
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to JGM and Cathy...
When was the last time a Best Buy staff member was even the least bit knowledgable about a product, or online service?
Would you really trust a company that has done what Best Buy has done in the past with website pricing versus store pricing?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070209/124307.shtml
I'd much rather go with a company with a strong online rep for this sort of thing. Sounds like a 'me too' type thing for BB to get in on this space. You're right poster #1, it is 'for grandma'
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Adam's comment (Re: to JGM and Cathy...)
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oh yeah, completely unrelated to the thread...
http://www.improveverywhere.com/2006/04/23/best-buy/
check that out !
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to Adam...
I also stated, if YouTube were to offer a paid upgrade to keep the quality of my videos intact, I'd stay with them.
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Buzz hit the target
Best Buy is going to sell this service like crazy to the millions of first time computer buyers that have no idea what is out there.
They will eventually learn like we all did but never assume the average consumer is Tech savy and is able to make an informed decision. The sales person is going to be king when it comes to signing these people up.
I just hope the service is easy to cancel for those that wish to do so as many companies somehow have "problems" when it comes to cancelling an automatic payment from your credit card or bank account.
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YouTube clones: can you buy them?
Apparently, you can. I just found one site: http://www.deccanbazaar.biz/search.php?what=youtube&x=0&y=0
Can someone educate me:
1> Is this a scam?
2> If genuine, once I pay $60 and download the script, what supporting software do I need to buy additionally?
3> Is it "scalable"? Probably not!
Thanks
PH
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