YouTube to add paid subscription

[jeffman]

http://mobile.news.com.au/technology...-1226635896574
If this carries over to decent channels ,goodbye youtube

[Caged Great]

And that's the end of Youtube.

[Minnie]

Well that's some craptastic decision making by the mucky mucks.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Good for youtube! This gives competitors a chance to get a bigger foothold into the industry. I have friends who will LOVE this decision!

[Rathji]

My first reaction is I would hate to have a channel that was paid access only, but I assume that they would up the pay per view on those videos enough that it would more than compensate, to make sure the high traffic channels considered changing.

[KTrain]

I would pay a subscription to YouTube if I could watch all videos without ads.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by KTrain

I would pay a subscription to YouTube if I could watch all videos without ads.

There's a free add block extension on chrome you can download.

[Azure]

How is this a bad thing?

There is a lot of original video production on YouTube, some that is apparently pretty popular. If they producers think they can offer this content for a subscription, by all means they should go for it.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Azure

How is this a bad thing?

There is a lot of original video production on YouTube, some that is apparently pretty popular. If they producers think they can offer this content for a subscription, by all means they should go for it.

I think they're overestimating the quality of their content. A lot of people watch these original productions because they're free. I doubt many are going to want to pay for it, but that could just be me. I'm certainly not a heave YouTube user by any means.

[jammies]

Generally what people do when a previously free service starts to cost money, is to not use the service anymore, or go elsewhere for their needs. What value does Youtube add, other than to aggregate free content? I suspect that a distributed model of the same kind of service is coming in the next 3-5 years anyway, and this will only accelerate their eventual irrelevance.

I've never understood their business model. They don't really own anything, so how can they expect to sell anything? All they have going for them is popularity, and that can vanish pretty quickly on the internet.

[Igottago]

I don't really know if youtube has anything worth paying to see. I have a hard enough time paying for a normal cable package with real TV shows and live sports. A lot of content on youtube is pretty trivial in comparison.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja

There's a free add block extension on chrome you can download.

You just made my day.

[3 Justin 3]

I've seen some of the biggest channels on youtube and half of them are just vlogs, news sites, or guys playing video games.

Outside Freddie Wong, I can't see anything worth subscribing too. Freddie Wong at least has fairly high production value, but his videos are only a couple minutes long.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by jammies

I've never understood their business model. They don't really own anything, so how can they expect to sell anything? All they have going for them is popularity, and that can vanish pretty quickly on the internet.

Same business model Google's been using for a while now: Sell advertising.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by jammies

Generally what people do when a previously free service starts to cost money, is to not use the service anymore, or go elsewhere for their needs. What value does Youtube add, other than to aggregate free content? I suspect that a distributed model of the same kind of service is coming in the next 3-5 years anyway, and this will only accelerate their eventual irrelevance.

I've never understood their business model. They don't really own anything, so how can they expect to sell anything? All they have going for them is popularity, and that can vanish pretty quickly on the internet.

Youtube is a Google application. It serves the same purpose as every other Google application: it creates advertising space on the Internet.

[UKflames]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Youtube is a Google application. It serves the same purpose as every other Google application: it creates advertising space on the Internet.

I would argue that nearly every web page serves this purpose, not just Google applications. How many of your favourite websites feature adverts and I bet the majority of them come from Google one way or another.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Same business model Google's been using for a while now: Sell advertising.

Ok, let me rephrase that: I understand their business model, but it's not sustainable and I don't see how it ever could be. Regular Google ads are placed within pages unobtrusively, and use up tiny amounts of bandwidth, whereas Youtube videos use vastly more bandwidth and have annoying adverts everyone either skips past or installs a plugin to block. When you couple that with the anemic profits Google currently makes from doing the former, you can see why they are starting to think about a pay model for the latter, as poor an idea as that still is.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by jammies

Ok, let me rephrase that: I understand their business model, but it's not sustainable and I don't see how it ever could be. Regular Google ads are placed within pages unobtrusively, and use up tiny amounts of bandwidth, whereas Youtube videos use vastly more bandwidth and have annoying adverts everyone either skips past or installs a plugin to block. When you couple that with the anemic profits Google currently makes from doing the former, you can see why they are starting to think about a pay model for the latter, as poor an idea as that still is.

“We had a very strong start to 2013, with $14.0 billion in revenue, up 31% year-on-year,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google.

I seriously have no idea what you mean when you say Google's business model is not sustainable.

In terms of bandwidth, YouTube is massive, however Google doesn't bear the full brunt of that - peering and the massive amount of dark fibre Google bought during the Web 1.0 bubble means they have massive reach.

I'm pretty sure they've thought this through.

[Ashasx]

I can't think of any channel anyone would pay money to subscribe to, especially when it's currently free.

These Youtubers had better be pumping out 2-3 videos a day, instead of 2-3 per week, to make it worthwhile.

[sclitheroe]

I'm surprised people are generally thinking in this thread that it's the amateur crap Google is going to monetize via paid channels.

This is Google's foray into the world of Spotify, Pandora, NetFlix, and Hulu, using the biggest and best known online streaming brand in the world. In particular, it addresses the streaming music segment very nicely for their mobile division.

Think bigger.