It would be like the mid-2000s once again, before YouTube, a revolutionary video sharing service (later absorbed by tech giant Google) has found a way to monetize its views. Susan Wojcicki, Google’s senior VP in charge of the video sharing service has announced the company’s plans to offer a paid, ad-free version to its users seeking a different online video experience. The announcement was made at the Code/Mobile technology conference in Half Moon Bay, California this Monday.
YouTube has over one billion monthly visitors, who watch free videos often introduced by short video ads on their beginning, or have ad banners appearing while they are played. This is annoying for a large number of users. This is why Google is considering the introduction of the new service type, to offer YouTube users a completely new, ad-free experience. There is no word about the timeline of the new service type, but that it would be rolled out “near-term”.
YouTube was launched in 2005 by three former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. According to the popular anecdotes about the birth of the service, YouTube was conceived after Hurley and Chen had difficulty sharing videos after a dinner party at Chen’s place in San Francisco. The first YouTube video – a clip featuring Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo – was uploaded to the website on April 23, 2005, and it was followed by millions of others. Today the service has over one billion unique visitors each month, watching over 6 billion hours of videos a month and uploading 100 hours of content each minute. Its reach in the 18-34 adults category exceeds that of the cable networks, according to statistics published by the market research firm Nielsen. The YouTube Partner Program, rewarding creators for their published content, has over a million participants in over 30 countries, and several channels are making six figure revenues each year.
So, the question is: would you pay for a new, ad-free YouTube? I probably would…