Move Along, Move Along, Just to Make it Through…

                                                      

 

 

Unlike many other new media companies today, YouTube is beginning to change the way media companies interact with each other.  YouTube officially debut in 2005 by three guys, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who where previously employees of PayPal. Like many new companies, YouTube started from an office in a garage with the goal of allowing users to upload and share videos with others and from there quickly started getting companies to invest in them. Within only six months, YouTube was one of the fastest growing websites, even beating out MySpace. YouTube was literally everywhere you looked. Any trendy site or blog usually had a video embedded on their page from YouTube. Not even a year later and over a billion dollars later, YouTube was bought by Google, which was a beneficial decision for both parties. 

After an intense growth over a very short period of time, YouTube was receiving a lot of publicity. Obviously, one would figure that there could be some issues with posting certain music videos, television shows, or clips from movies. Companies may start getting upset that their material is up on some site, and this can bring problems. NBC was one of the first companies to start having issues with copyright infringement rules. NBC quickly asked for the removal of some of their material from the site, but instead of impulsively suing YouTube, NBC took a completely different path and started a new trend in the way media companies began to interact with each other. NBC deciding not to sue, instead decided to parter with YouTube in hopes of more exposure for them. They set up their own NBC Channel on YouTube, where viewers could go and watch clips for previews of upcoming shows, etc.  After NBC’s big partnership, other media companies quickly followed. CBS was next to partner with YouTube, and Warner Music Group quickly followed. Not only was YouTube going to have television shows, they would soon have almost every music video ever made. This was such a big step for these media companies because not only were they doing the opposite of suing, they took a chance and that chance eventually began to pay off, when YouTube announced that they would be paying it’s contributors/partners a portion of the website’s revenue. So not only were these media companies getting big time exposure, they also had begun to make some money from it. 

In the same way media companies got smart and partnered with YouTube, YouTube did things the right way when it came to their advertising. So in the same way that the exposure for these media companies was free, and then the second earned them money, YouTube first gave free access to users, then the popularity of the site being free gained them consumers who advertisers could potentially sell to more and more as the YouTube audience got bigger. Then YouTube would become a more attractive place for companies to want to advertise, and subsequently increase their advertisement rates and their profit. 

What is so inspiring about these stories is that media companies are now beginning to realize that if you stick to old ways in this industry, you’ll be left far behind. The only way to compete today is to be constantly moving along with the new trends and even making trends of your own in the process that will most likely be followed.  YouTube is one of the most inspiring examples of a media company that is setting new standards and new trends for others to follow. In only 3 years, they have become a phenomenom. This only means that we have no idea what really is going to happen to the media industry in years, or even months from now. All I do know is that it will be moving and moving quickly and in order to survive, you have to move along or you’ll be left far, far behind.

 

 

Question: D 

~ by pennylanelove on March 17, 2008.