In 2006 we all sat around kicking ourselves, wondering why we didn’t think up a little site called YouTube. That was when Google bought the video-sharing site for a whopping $1.65 billion. Since then, though, the search giant has been unable to get the site to turn a profit.
That’s all about to change, at least Google thinks so. In an earnings conference call this past Thursday, CEO Eric Schmidt said YouTube is heading in the right direction, making it very easy for advertisers to get profitable ads up on the site. Recent months have brought a few changes to ad possibilities, which now include pre-roll ads like you’ve seen on Hulu and other video sharing sites.
Google’s head of product management and marketing, Jonathan Rosenberg, echoed Schmidt’s enthusiasm. He said monetized views, meaning videos with ad support, had tripled in the last year. According to Rosenberg, YouTube is now “monetizing billions of views of partner videos every month.”
Even the company’s CFO, Patrick Pichette chimed in, saying, “We’re really pleased both in terms of (YouTube’s) revenue growth, which is really material to YouTube, and… in the not long, too-long-distant future, we actually see a very profitable and good business for us.”
Just another step closer to world domination…
