'Free' YouTube a Moneymaker? - Chris Anderson

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/16/Chris_Anderson_on_FREE_The_Future_of_Radical_Price

In response to Malcolm Galdwell's review of FREE in The New Yorker, WIRED editor and author Chris Anderson expands on the ways Google makes money from YouTube's free services. "Google wants you to use the Internet," says Anderson. "Your actions let Google make more money by selling ads."

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Chris Anderson is the Editor in Chief of WIRED magazine and author of The Long Tail and FREE: The Future of Radical Price. The Long Tail concept has found broad ground for application, research and emperimentation. Now, in FREE, he makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. - Los Angeles Public Library

Chris Anderson is editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, which has won a National Magazine Award under his tenure. He coined the phrase "The Long Tail" in an acclaimed Wired article, which he expanded upon in the book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006). He currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife and four young children. Before joining Wired in 2001, he worked at The Economist, where he launched their coverage of the Internet. He also has a degree in physics from George Washington University and did research at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has also worked at the prestigious journals Nature and Science.

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[CharlieShaughnessy]

Chris Anderson is a freaking badass... Super smart, good points...

[aredditor]

Ever frequent a social news aggregator? Check out the comment system on reddit, and you'll see what I mean. There are a few sites that use basically the same system, but reddit seems to be becoming the most popular. Marry the two, and it will be gold.

Youtube's buggy too. The latest is my account has been showing that I have mail when I've already checked it.

[noezway47]

aredditor - How would you improve the comments on YouTube. What do you suggest?

[emperorzombie13]

just wait for google to sell marketing/advertising info to polling companies for election/product testing/whatnot. people are bitching about what it is now and not what it will become with new technologies and new ways to use old ones. why try to get a pilot on a major network when you can test it online? it will be more about viral and less about getting a network 'hit'. eventually the comment system will be data-mined. opinions are marketing info, once all the flaming is parsed through.

[GumGuts180]

That makes sense, the comment system has no direct relation to the goal of Youtube - harvesting information about the users, so there's not really an incentive to make it any better.

[GumGuts180]

The only reason you can have free mustard is because people are willing to buy the hot dog. You seem to be complaining that when they give you the mustard, they also give a small pamphlet about the hot dog. It's the best way to do it: you get the mustard for free, and they get people to buy the hot dog.

[aredditor]

The problem is that youtube could be so much better, but it's not a money maker for google, so they don't do anything to improve it. Again I have to point to youtubes god awful comment system. Because youtube dominates video hosting, and google doesn't care that it's comment system and other aspects of youtube suck, there's little chance they'll do something about it.

[andid]

Yes, you can just have free mustard. At least on an individual level. I watch and do everything media-wise online for free, and there are no commercials, no pop-ups...if I want to see a video ad, I'll look it up myself.

This is reality. I understand that a large portion of the population isn't going to mind buying hot dogs, and thank god someone has the stomach for it (to keep services like this available), because I don't.

[GumGuts180]

The point he was trying to make though, is that it's alright Youtube in itself doesn't make money - in the larger scheme of Google, and how it fits in to it, it does.

[GumGuts180]

The guy even explained it! You can't just have free mustard. Because you see, reality has a part to play in this.

Advertising offers huge benefits as compared to its drawbacks, to everyone involved.