Google CEO Eric Schmidt has insisted that YouTube will eventually become a 'profitable and successful' business, despite suggestions that it will lose hundreds of millions of dollars this year.
Schmidt, who is currently the focus of the Federal Trade Commission over his role on the boards of both Apple and Google, would not comment directly on suggestions that YouTube was going to lose $400 million (£265m).
However, the internet and advertising giant's CEO insisted that Google could turn YouTube into a key asset.
"What we said is we believe YouTube will eventually be a successful and a profitable business and it will take some time to do it,"
Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion (c£1bn) in October 2006, after the site rose to prominence as one of the most popular sites in the world and the leading provider of video.
No thoughts of resignation
Meanwhile, Schmidt insisted that the FTC investigation had not brought about any thoughts of resignation.
"If there are issues on competitiveness, I recuse myself," said Schmidt, adding thoughts of resignation "hadn't crossed my mind."
But he did confirm that Google is having to be much more careful in its dealings, as the company continues to dominate the world of the internet.
"What is changed is that we are more careful about when and how we do things which are going to raise concerns of any party," said Schmidt.
"But it hasn't prevented us from doing them."
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dm_75
May 11th
4. I was reading this article in the New York Times that demonstrates why it will be hard to make YouTube, Facebook etc profitable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/start-ups/27global.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=facebook%20turkey&st=Search
Developing countries put a big strain on bandwidth but contribute very few advertising dollars.
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diamonded
May 10th
3. I don't think God brought more to the table than Google has. It's so easy to snivel at the slightest notion that a provider is trying to recoup or off-set the expense of bringing you this bounty. Where did they learn this incredible behavior. Throughout history I can think of no-one whose put as much back in the mix. What a wonderful world it would be if this sharing was the rule rather than the exception. I hope they are able to sort it out and make it pay its way and I will do what I have to support them in this quest.
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barrylynch
May 10th
2. I wouldn't under estimate the challenge facing Google here.
Sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter have massive costs and in their own right are not profitable. If advertising is the only option for revenue I'd suggest they may never be profitable. Unless another valuable service is introduced that millions of users are happy to pay for even Google will struggle to get a return on their investment.
There is a distinct familiarity with the situation developing here. The big untouchables making massive high risk investments on the assumption the shear volume of users will equal long term revenue. Remember why these users are there in the first place - they don't pay for the service.
The hugely inflated price tags they command are out of this world. Who would've conceived the collapse and nationalisation of our banks! Beware the house of cards.
If Google can do it though, I say good luck to them!
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okpc
May 10th
1. yeeha..google thinks it can do something it said it would do before.
They're just gonna slap adsense ads on it. I notice they already do it elsewhere like on google images and analytics.
I'm starting to hate google. they're slapping users around, slapping adsense publishers and advertisers. company is cost cutting in the worst areas.
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