Comments on: Is Facebook Worth as Much as YouTube and Why Microsoft Doesn’t Get It http://thomashawk.com/2006/10/is-facebook-worth-as-much-as-youtube_12.html Sat, 26 May 2012 02:31:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Local/Review sites - time for consolidation? http://thomashawk.com/2006/10/is-facebook-worth-as-much-as-youtube_12.html/comment-page-1#comment-27880 Local/Review sites - time for consolidation? Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:45:32 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=1732#comment-27880 [...] I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for MSN to do anything, as they seem much more inclined to build it themselves rather than buy it. [...] [...] I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for MSN to do anything, as they seem much more inclined to build it themselves rather than buy it. [...]

]]> By: Levois http://thomashawk.com/2006/10/is-facebook-worth-as-much-as-youtube_12.html/comment-page-1#comment-11720 Levois Sun, 15 Oct 2006 11:37:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=1732#comment-11720 This post caught my attention with the mention of Facebook. I like Facebook. I agree that it has potential but for the changes that have come out in the past few months there are those who use Facebook who won't like. Right now I just have a wait and see attitude about it. This post caught my attention with the mention of Facebook. I like Facebook. I agree that it has potential but for the changes that have come out in the past few months there are those who use Facebook who won’t like. Right now I just have a wait and see attitude about it.

]]> By: Aaron http://thomashawk.com/2006/10/is-facebook-worth-as-much-as-youtube_12.html/comment-page-1#comment-11721 Aaron Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:35:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=1732#comment-11721 Eh, I don't know. A lot of assumptions there.<br /><br />It's true that MSFT is building a YouTube as we speak (by the name of Soapbox). And it's true that there's a far bigger challenge in growing the community than in building the site. But it's overly speculative IMO to assume that MSFT hasn't considered all of this. <br /><br />I'm sure MSFT is assuming that they can build it for, maybe, several million and then spend a billion on marketing and they'd still come out ahead. <br /><br />It's also quite possible that MSFT took some advice from Mark Cuban. Only an idiot would pay $1.6 billion for a company that losses money and the little bits of revenue that they do generate comes off of copyrighted material that it doesn't own. I mean, how long will it be until the content providers get serious about this site and start fighting it? And how much revenue would YouTube bring in without the copyrighted content? Let's face it, without the hilarious clips from the Daily Show and everything else that's (at best) marginally legal, we'd have "Lonely Girl" and a lot of other useless crap.<br /><br />And look at the bigger picture with the Zune, Xbox360 and MCE. I see the potential for a nice little echosystem where Soapbox fits in quite nicely......<br /><br />Or it could all fail miserably, I'm not one to predict. But I do think it's not dumb to pass on YouTube. 1.6 billion is a bit of a premium for a 65-person company with no profit in sight. Eh, I don’t know. A lot of assumptions there.

It’s true that MSFT is building a YouTube as we speak (by the name of Soapbox). And it’s true that there’s a far bigger challenge in growing the community than in building the site. But it’s overly speculative IMO to assume that MSFT hasn’t considered all of this.

I’m sure MSFT is assuming that they can build it for, maybe, several million and then spend a billion on marketing and they’d still come out ahead.

It’s also quite possible that MSFT took some advice from Mark Cuban. Only an idiot would pay $1.6 billion for a company that losses money and the little bits of revenue that they do generate comes off of copyrighted material that it doesn’t own. I mean, how long will it be until the content providers get serious about this site and start fighting it? And how much revenue would YouTube bring in without the copyrighted content? Let’s face it, without the hilarious clips from the Daily Show and everything else that’s (at best) marginally legal, we’d have “Lonely Girl” and a lot of other useless crap.

And look at the bigger picture with the Zune, Xbox360 and MCE. I see the potential for a nice little echosystem where Soapbox fits in quite nicely……

Or it could all fail miserably, I’m not one to predict. But I do think it’s not dumb to pass on YouTube. 1.6 billion is a bit of a premium for a 65-person company with no profit in sight.

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