toggle

AAPL Stock: 562.29 ( -3.03 )

Malik: Apple should acquire YouTube

updated 12:35 pm EDT, Mon August 21, 2006

Malik on Apple, YouTube


Apple should purchase YouTube -- a video hosting service, according to one columnist, because the purchase would allow the company to tap into user-created content as well as online ad revenue streams. Apple is one of the leading sellers of direct video downloads, but its current model depends primarily on commercial programming that limits the accessibility and desirability of playing videos on an iPod. A large collection of videos would be prohibitively expensive, according to Electronista, but Steve Jobs purchasing YouTube would change that situation dramatically.


by MacNN Staff

print
email
(16)

TAGS :

 industry

Related Articles

Recent Articles

toggle

Comments

  1. trevc

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2000

    0
    08/21, 01:05pm | report spam | Reply |

    somewhat agree...

    if they don't, someone like Real or even MicroSoft might. They've got extra cash, I'd like to see them buy someone ;-)

  1. QualleyIV

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0
    08/21, 02:04pm | report spam | Reply |

    A Tube of c***

    That "recommendation" is just about as logical as saying "oohh...that's shiny, it must be expensive". So soon people forget about what caused the .com bust. Let me remind you--it was businesses funded by venture capitol (and later investors on the open market) that got a lot of buzz, but had really poor planning in terms of HOW TO MAKE MONEY. Sure, YouTube is popular, but that by no means indicates that they can parlay that popularity into profit. Yeah, I know, advertising you say. But, again, look at the late 90's and we see how well that worked. I'm not saying that it's not possible, but just assuming that they will eventually make money is a pretty poor move IMHO.

  1. telem

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 1999

    0
    08/21, 02:16pm | report spam | Reply |

    OR

    Maybe they should make a function of .mac comparable to YouTube.

  1. ibugv4

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2003

    0
    08/21, 02:18pm | report spam | Reply |

    Apple would be better

    to Acquire TiVo, which more than half (I believe, as was once the case anyway) of the users are patient Mac users waiting for DRM-AAC support, or AAC support IN GENERAL as well as Tivo2Go support. Apple, are you listening? You can do to the set top box what you did with iPod: buy someone else's established product, polish it, lock in the hardware suppliers, and sink millions into advertising it, make profit.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0
    08/21, 02:19pm | report spam | Reply |

    Huh?

    . A large collection of videos would be prohibitively expensive, according to Electronista, but Steve Jobs purchasing YouTube would change that situation dramatically.

    So a large collection would be expensive, but purchasing YouTube wouldn't be?

    But I don't see it happening for more important reasons. There's lots of stuff that gets posted on YouTube that's copyrighted (and the commercial side isn't going to like that), the revenue will depend on advertising, not a market that apple exists in at all, Apple's stuck paying the bandwidth for all that free downloading, and, finally, who really wants to watch much of the c*** on youtube on their iPods anyway? Most of its good for maybe a laugh (hey, let's look at idiots making fools of themselves!), but rarely is anything so earthshaking that it warrants the effort of actually keeping it.

    But, hey, if we're talking about buying up the latest craze, what Apple should do is buy myspace.com and allow people to post content and the like right from their ipod camera phones, and view other sites right on their ipods, all through the magic of Wifi and apple's new nationwide Wifi network.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0
    08/21, 02:21pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: apple would be better

    ou can do to the set top box what you did with iPod: buy someone else's established product, polish it, lock in the hardware suppliers, and sink millions into advertising it, make profit.

    Except the Tivo is already a pretty polished product. My fear would be that apple would try to dumb it down even more then it is, making it useless, or smarten it up with tons of features that makes it that much harder to use.

    And since when did Apple buy an MP3 player from someone else?

  1. Rezzz

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006

    0
    08/21, 02:26pm | report spam | Reply |

    loss leader? good idea!

    We've all heard many bone-head ideas from analysts. This one just makes sense. Buy it. Make it simple and free to transfer to the iPod with NO fairplay encryption.

    Why?

    The iPod is already synonymous with music. Now make it synonymous with movies. The sudden surge of free movies that can be downloaded to your iPod from YouTube will cement that. Who cares if YOu don't like the videos that are out there? Who cares if only 3% of that stuff tickles your fancy? There are 25 million other people who also like just 3% of that stuff. This adds up!

    YouTube gets something like 19 million visitors a day! I think this is an acquisition that makes sense. Especially considering the near non-existence of community around the iPod platform FROM Apple. Even if it were a loss leader due to bandwidth costs, it's a good idea.

  1. porieux

    Baninated

    Joined: Mar 2001

    0
    08/21, 02:36pm | report spam | Reply |

    another crackpot idea

    Apple has no use for YouTube. Content? Ever heard of this little thing called Disney...oh and Pixar also?

  1. Rezzz

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006

    0
    08/21, 03:59pm | report spam | Reply |

    viral marketing

    YouTube is USER contributed content. That's why they call it ... YouTube. Look at the videos metadata. There are videos posted 4 days ago and have been watched over 800,000 times. There are 10's of thousands of videos in their system.

    Apple already has videos from all the major networks including Disney and ...oh Pixar. This would be a value-add of mega proportions. The young folks eat it for breakfast. You can't buy that kind of credibility.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0
    08/21, 04:18pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: viral marketing

    Apple already has videos from all the major networks including Disney and ...oh Pixar. This would be a value-add of mega proportions. The young folks eat it for breakfast. You can't buy that kind of credibility.

    Just because people download stuff doesn't make it "credible", nor would apple buying it somehow make Apple 'credible'. If anything, anyone buying YouTube would most likely cause it to lose its cool factor in no time (unless Google bought it, but people kiss Google's a** more then they do Apple's).

    But buy it to what end. The iPod, as people here claim, is already the defacto standard portable media player. They already have credibility.

    We've all heard many bone-head ideas from analysts. This one just makes sense. Buy it. Make it simple and free to transfer to the iPod with NO fairplay encryption.

    Won't happen. Apple won't allow non-fairplay encryption. Otherwise you'd be able to play the videos in ANY video player. That toast's any benefit apple would get from the service.

    But the biggest problem is that Apple just doesn't need the headaches. They'd have to have a huge staff just to validate the cleanliness of the videos (can't allow the young 'ens to see any nudity or hear swearing), make sure there's no copyright violations, keep up with requests and demands that this or that be pulled due to one reason or the other. And then there's the lawsuits (now currently being sued by RIAA and MPAA and probably everyone else, too) for violations, of which, now, they're arguing by just saying the videos are streamed, not downloaded.

    All this, plus the money to buy it (more than what its worth, most likely). Yeah, great buy.

Show More Comments

Login Here

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

 
close
Photo
toggle

Network Headlines

toggle

Most Popular

MacNN Sponsor

Recent Reviews

iHome iW2 AirPlay speaker

iHome generally isn't known as a luxury brand when it comes to audio, but it is prolific -- the company's docks and speakers are every ...

Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover

One of the iPad's main weaknesses has always been productivity. It's not a question of apps; while it has taken a little time for a na ...

Logitech UE Air Speaker

If maybe a little more slowly than Apple would like, AirPlay is becoming a staple of the wireless speaker market for iOS devices. The ...

toggle

Most Commented

 

Popular News