- Start monetizing the reg path. Put up a page of co-reg offers. They could make probably $1/user that registers. Then you make people register to view video's.
- Setup levels of accounts. Level 1 is a freebie acct, here you have limited access to video's. Then do a level 2 where you pay say $9.99/mo and you gain access to all the video's.
- Before they show you a video, display an ad.
Youtube is one of the biggest goldmines out there, but they're making very little mone compared to what they could.
no offense, but all the things you propose would kill YouTube about 1 minute after they incorporated them.
Seriously, if YOU had to start paying for YouTube tomorrow, what would YOU do?
MY guess is that you wouldn't hand over your credit card and say," please auto-bill me every month YouTube!!!". Nope, my guess is you'd find a different site that was free.
You have to understand that YouTube doesn't have to be profitable right this second. Google didn't pay $1.6 bil for it to start turning a profit right away.
Right now, it's all about making YouTube the #1 website for videos. It's also about creating a community where people will go and hang out.
I'm sure that evenutally you'll be able to buy advertising on YouTube just like Adwords. That's a potential profit channel right there.
The important thing with YouTube is how it works out for Google long-term. It's all about convergence in Google's mind. As more people get high speed internet and video technology expands even further, the line between the internet and television will become blurred.
That's where the BIG money will come in.
Google's vision for YouTube is probably much bigger than making it a great "website". It's likely Google feels youTube could become a media center, an interactive form of television.
It would become something like a combination of YouTube, MySpace, and, say, MTV.