Will Ben Ling Be Money for YouTube?
Google’s attempts to make money off of YouTube took another turn today as Kara Swisher reports that former ex-Googler, now ex-Facebooker Ben Ling has jumped back into Google’s warm embrace to head up YouTube’s monetization efforts.
Ling will fill the void left by Shashi Seth, who left the company in June to join startup Cooliris.
Ling was director of platform marketing at Facebook, which doesn’t exactly scream “money,” but during his initial stint at Google, Ling worked on Google Checkout and e-commerce. Ling joins YouTube at a time when it’ll try just about anything to make a buck. It’s mulling over a reversal of its stand on pre-rolls and co-founder Chad Hurley has said that affiliate sales will be a big opportunity.
The news comes on the heels of a recent interview Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money. From the transcripts:
SCHMIDT: BUT EVENTUALLY WE’D LIKE TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF IT, BUT IF WE DON’T, THE FACT THAT SO MANY PEOPLE COME TO YOUTUBE, MEANS THEY ULTIMATELY GOOGLE AND DO GOOGLE SEARCHES AND CLICK ON ADS. SO DON’T BE TOO WORRIED ABOUT ALL THAT TRAFFIC GOING TO YOUTUBE. I’D BE WORRIED IF PEOPLE WEREN’T USING YOUTUBE. SINCE IT IS AN ENORMOUS SUCCESS GLOBALLY WE KNOW WE WILL BENEFIT.
Schmidt must be as tired of talking about monetizing YouTube as we are writing about him talking about monetizing YouTube.
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I agree that Google would just as well leave YouTube as a loss-leader. I’d be curious to see if they ever break out the operational expenses of YouTube at some point in their SEC filings, as it would serve as a useful datapoint. However, Google can operate YouTube much, much cheaper than your average video site.
CD on August 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm - Permalink
I think Google will succeed, just think about Amazon.
Yes the road may be bumpy now, but it will eventually work at fine for them and I don’t think it will take long.
ayo on August 15th, 2008 at 1:46 am - Permalink
[...] Chris Albrecht wrote an interesting post today on Will Ben Ling Be Money for YouTube?Here’s a quick excerptGoogle’s attempts to make money off of YouTube took another turn today as Kara Swisher reports that former ex-Googler, now ex-Facebooker Ben Ling has jumped back into Google’s warm embrace to head up YouTube’s monetization efforts. … [...]
how to download free mp3 music on August 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am - Permalink
I have an idea for YouTube monotization… how about RELEVANT advertisements placed against partner content?!
I still don’t see how my 20-something demo should care to see advertisements for back pain medication while watching a show about video games.
Fraser on August 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am - Permalink