I know this is a bit late, but I figured I should do a follow up on the previous blog post about Youtube's initiative to "rent out" films from the Sundance Film Festival line up on its site. The discussion was whether Google could actually make money from this venture. Well, I'm here to tell you.
Mashable. com reported a few days ago that Google made $10,709.16 after their five day rental spree charging $3.99 for each rental.
Now, for me that is a big number but think about how big a company like Google is and how much money they need to actually call a venture a profit. Luckily Google is not currently hurting in the income division as they claimed over $6 billion in their 4th quarter earnings report for 2009.
I guess this is another example of Google at its finest. They experimented with a new service and put it out for the public to decide if it was worth it or not.
So, what do you think? Should Youtube continue to invest in MODs? Is this something you'd be interested in? I mean, these are movies that are only available to the assisting audiences to a very acclaimed Film Festival.
Discuss...
3 comments:
This has the potential to be huge. I went back and read some articles and the biggest impact I can see coming is the annihilation of movie rental stores and possibly even Netflix. I think this is the future of renting video content. I know it is a great idea and I would use this service.
Now look at this from Google's towering perspective. No cars, no store-front, no teenage kid chewing gum and texting instead of working, and no shipping cost. The $3.99 we are used to paying for movies is the same, but the way that $3.99 gets split is different. Google has the funds to launch this, but they are testing the waters at this point. I honestly believe that it will be hard for other movie suppliers to compete in this market very soon.
This does seem like a very successful idea. Modern technological advances are shaping the way we view movies. With computers that can connect straight to the TV to get live internet feed is helping this new idea youtube and google work. Nobody wants to go to the video rental store anymore, and soon nobody is going to want to rent movies from the internet. I could be wrong, but it just seems much easier to rent the movie and get instant access while your computer is feeding to your TV.
I agree. This has a huge profit margin. Aside from small technological improvements in processors and storage, Google and Youtube have no real overhead expenses by offering movie rentals online. as home entertainment hardware becomes better in quality and cheaper in price, this will be very appealing to a large number of consumers. There are TVs now that don't have to be connected to your computer, they are online-ready and simply need a network cable to access the internet. I would rent this way. Heck, if nothing else, it saves the gas used to get to the movie store.
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