Like many architecture students, Jake Moore spends more time in his studio than at home. About a month ago, having a late-night sandwich in front of his computer, he stumbled across YouTube and that day was one of more than 70 million people who accessed the video-sharing Web site.
A friend sent him a funny video and soon he was watching clips of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report,” and episodes of “The Office.” But Moore said he wished that YouTube had even more content.
“I kinda got hooked and for two weeks or so I was watching it quite a bit,” he said. If there was more content, he said, he “probably wouldn’t be doing as much work. It’d probably take over.”
Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, both in their twenties, started YouTube in a garage in February of 2005. They launched the service in December of the same year, the Web site states, and nine months later Internet-giant Google bought the online video-sharing service for $1.65 billion in stock.
This shows that on the Internet, “content is king,” assistant professor of marketing John Godek said.
YouTube’s success is a result of “always generating new and interesting content for the demographic that I would guess a lot of marketers are interested in – the younger, more technologically savvy folks,” Godek said.
He said that nearly all his students use YouTube to find examples of advertising clips.
“That’s what amazes me, it’s a search tool. They can find precisely the ad that’s a great example of their topic,” he said. “That’s the beauty of YouTube.”
Godek also said that Google’s purchase legitimizes YouTube.
“Anytime a company is willing to spend $1.6 billion on an Internet phenomenon … it shows there is potential down the road.” But what exactly is down the road for YouTube, Godek said, is anyone’s guess.
Assistant professor of communications Gabriela Martinez agreed with Godek in regards to YouTube’s appeal.
“Anybody in the world can put their productions up there and their name,” she said.
Google saw potential mainly in advertising revenue, Martinez said. She said Google could have no trouble making that $1.6 billion back by advertising on YouTube.
But if not, “It’s going to be a nice experiment,” she said, adding that Google can afford the risk.
– Abel Patterson