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IDC: Don't get too used to YouTube

IDC: Don't get too used to YouTube

Molly Wood Former Executive Editor
Molly Wood was an executive editor at CNET, author of the Molly Rants blog, and host of the tech show, Always On. When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else to anyone who will listen.
Molly Wood
Research firm IDC says to leak money, fail in any attempts to introduce either ads or paid content, and eventually just fade away into poverty and ultimate demise (well, I'm paraphrasing a little bit). But the report is pretty grim--Josh Martin writes that YouTube users will reject ads, because the site's been ad-free all along, and that attempts to introduce paid content will quickly be rejected by users who are accustomed to free content. Plus, Martin says, YouTube video watchers pretty much want only copyrighted content, not the promos and hand-chosen snippets that NBC has so kindly agreed to provide. I have to admit, sounds like Martin's got his finger right on the pulse. And I bet he totally saw the dot-com crash coming the first time around, too--same business plan, different day!