When Google purchased YouTube for $1.65B a few years ago there was in expectation that the site would be a money maker, not just a magnetic for video traffickers. Of course Google did not expect the troubled economy that we live in today nor that Viacom to file a $1B lawsuit for copyright infringement. Google’s new offering will allow YouTube users to purchase digital goods from Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.
AdSense for Games
Google also announced beta software called AdSense for Games which allows video, image or text ads to be placed at the start, end, or change of level for online games.
It’s About Advertising
Notwithstanding these complex economic times, recent estimates of global online advertising revenue are an astonishing $81.1B by 2011, and Google is obviously one of the greatest movers. Since the estimates of revenue from YouTube are a measly $200M for 2009, Google’s new sale of digital goods should significantly increase Google hope to generate $27B which they estimate. It’s also hard to image that Google’s 10th birthday will be in November and it is one of the richest companies in the world. In the meantime the US government doesn’t know what to do about Google proposed advertising partnership Yahoo! so that deal is now on hold. We all need to stay tuned, but be assured Google will generate more data about visitors to their kingdom which clearly translates into ad revenue.