by Ray Langley

Created on: September 22, 2010

Assessing the future of YouTube under Google

 YouTube was born out of the necessity of a video sharing service online. The founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim used existing technology, and their expertise to create and design the video sharing site. The Wikipedia story goes that Chen had video taped a party in San Francisco that Hurley questioned had occurred, and in an attempt to convert and send the video via online Chen experienced a number of challenges. It was possible at that time, but too time consuming to send anything that was more then a few seconds long, and the receiver had to have the same software to view it whenever it arrived.

Like a cultural bomb, immediately YouTube was a hit, a fad and an addiction all at once. Web surfers could watch and share videos anonymously and only had to register for the free membership to upload video and comment. The Adobe Flash player is widely available, and also was available for free for visitors that did not have the video player. In less then a year from YouTube’s launch they reach 65.000 videos uploaded a day, and over a million views. While other video viewing sites were emerging, very few were allowing user content, and not many were free for the users.

 Google purchased YouTube late in 2006, yet left it intact beneath its corporate fold, keeping Chad Hurley as the CEO. Many had wondered why, seeing that Google Video had already existed, and as Google TV prepares to roll out in fall of 2010, the answer becomes clear. While both video hosts are within the Google family, YouTube maintaining autonomy will give it a distinctively different flavor from Google video. In addition to converting, the full YouTube library of videos could have taken years to complete, and a simpler process is to link the two together seamlessly.

 As Google TV enters the market, the need for inexpensive content is apparent for the service to succeed. It is a market that has come back into the attention of Apple, inc. with iTV, as well as mobile providers like TV To Go (togo.tv). The control, or at least influence over YouTube gives Google a legitimate platform to launch original programming, which could be a more complicated step for the competition. Do not be surprised by the creation of “Google Studios,” rising to challenge the tradition networks in production of original television programming.

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