YouTube Wondering, Whats Next?

Yes sir, or ma’am as the case may be, things have never looked quite so good out YouTube way.

They get twenty hours of video uploaded EVERY SINGLE MINUTE.  People are watching, too, in huge numbers.  Since their alignment with Google, they’re even getting some cash coming back in for a change.  Things must be looking pretty sweet over at YouTube, and they might even be tempted to sit back, relax, and let things go on for a while.

Oh no.  No, no…they’re looking for the NEXT big thing.  The next big development.  And the next big development for them appears to be taking out their chief rival.  Hulu, you wonder?  Maybe Netflix?

Nope.  YouTube’s chief rival is THE tube.  That’s right–television.

From Hunter Walk, YouTube lead engineer:

“Our average user spends 15 minutes a day on the site.  They spend about five hours in front of the television. People say, ‘YouTube is so big,’ but I really see that we have a ways to go.”

YouTube wants people to stick around longer, which gives them loads of ammunition in the ad sales game.  Plus, the more people they get away from television, the more they corner the ad market and thus up their prices accordingly.  And to that end, YouTube’s working on becoming a major content provider by making those twenty hours of video per minute easier to search through.

But can YouTube really take out television?  It’s possible–YouTube’s advertising is a whole lot less intrusive than television’s “commercial break”.  Only time will truly tell, of course, but I look for it to happen.