I heard this morning that Google has purchased Utube for 1.6b USD. Utube has never ran at a profit but Google seems to see value in owning everything going.

Edit:
News.com.au has something about it now.

YouTube Google's billion-dollar baby
Eric Auchard in San Francisco
OCTOBER 10, 2006
GOOGLE has agreed to acquire top video entertainment site YouTube for $US1.65 billion in stock, putting a lofty new value on consumer-generated media sites.

The deal, the first to value one of the new crop of user-participation web sites at more than $US1 billion, combines two of the most popular internet brands: Google, synonymous with web search and rapid innovation, and YouTube, a Silicon Valley upstart that has spearheaded the video-sharing craze.

link

heh, i was just about to post this.

Ta Boba :)

This doesn't bother me too much because google has a pretty good track record of not raping things it acquires.
Lucky f***ers that started it eh.

1.6 billion dollars. WTF??

how does google make money? it's not as if I pay to do a search :/

google would make s*** loads from advertising

Yep, its all about the advertising $
Apparently Utube has a couple of million visitors per day. Some companies would pay a lot to advertise there. Still, I think 1.6b USD would take a s*** load of time to get back on margins.

you-tube doesnt even turn a profit (yet)

sponsored links yo

plus its a public company

how does google make money? it's not as if I pay to do a search :/

No, but companies would pay a fortune to know what you search on the net.

Will be interesting how they'll deal with Youtube hosting a lot of the copyrighted material.

At the moment they're not making money from the advertisers but, if they're starting making money from advertisers, I can see those massive copyright holders (aka RIAA & MPAA and other big media companies) will whooped their arse.

It's now Google's problem I guess and they're probably have deeper pocket to fight these big boys.

^^ the man has a point. no point in suing someone who is broke - google on the other hand...

google would make s*** loads from advertising

Given that it's basically their only source of revenue, you'd hope so!

What Opec said - this will be interest. Youtube is really mass-market popular because it has heaps of "pirated" stuff. It's a great example of how media companies SHOULD be working - people search for your s*** and they get ad-supported free low quality versions, or links to buy it (which is how Google Video rolls).

Google also are probably the BEST IN THE WORLD now at fighting off copyright violation suits. They have a badass hit team of copyright lawyers that have been working their ass off for years now.

i for one welcome our brightly covered overalls.

i hear google is interested in buying the qgl forums

They run at a 1.6b p.a loss

Given that it's basically their only source of revenue, you'd hope so!

Dosen't google also sell little prebuilt google boxes & provide support? that's another revenue stream.

They seem to have a handle on the copyright issues, see below.

The blockbuster deal was announced on the same day that Google and YouTube unveiled agreements with major studios to post copyrighted music videos online.

The agreements were seen as efforts to pre-empt accusations of rampant copyright infringement at the online video-sharing sites and enlist studios as potential beneficiaries of the trend.

GOOGLE has agreed to acquire top video entertainment site YouTube for $US1.65 billion in stock

So basically it cost them nothing.

The blockbuster deal was announced on the same day that Google and YouTube unveiled agreements with major studios to post copyrighted music videos online.

That's cool however, if I read this correctly this doesn't apply to things like vid cap of TV shows and various other clip from movies which are also copyrighted.

It's definitely a step in the right direction though.

So basically it cost them nothing.

Ummm, NO.

And, Opec, you read that correctly. Its just the beginings of coverin the copyright issues. A good start though.

last edited by E.T. at 15:43:33 10/Oct/06

theyd be able to claim any losses as a tax deduction, right? :p

All the music companies are owned by teh same companies that own TV aren't they? It's all just horizontal integration!

Just saw it on the news. 2.2 billion aussie buckaroos they stated and thats to share between the two creators of the site! omg those guys are lucky!

mad props to youtubes creators - its good to see the little guy get rich :D

why can't one of you nerds create something (and tell me about it, so I can be an investor in early days!)

O wow... I just tried watching some Colbert Report episodes and it came up with this

This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.

SNAP - I was watching some last night....

It still has little clips of shows though:O

removed cause colbert is a wanker

colbert is what? did you even watch the 60 minutes special on that guy? he's done it real tough and he works real hard at what he does ... i for one believe he deserves to be a bit tight with things he can make money from, and i hope he gets a lot more money for it.

utube is hardly piracy. i mean most vids are only a few minuites long its not as if you get the whole show in a decent resolution or anything.