YouTube Business Analysis - Case Study Example

Financial analysts who follow the company estimated $4 billion in revenue for 2013, from between $100 million and $250 million in 2008. Despite this fact, critics remain largely skeptical about the site's business model. Its lack of movie content has made it a bête noire of critics. Hollywood producers, however, do not see YouTube as a home for their content, but rather as merely a great promotion tool.

YouTube has several products and services. YouTube has ad products, which are crafted around the way people use the company's website. These ad products have helped transform users' activities on the site, like searching for content, into appropriate advertising opportunities. Some ad products are promoted videos, which are videos with the type of content a particular user has searched for in the past. Another ad product is TrueView, which enables users to skip an ad entirely, but chargers advertisers if viewers choose the content and watch it the entire way through. YouTube also has click-to-buy products, where viewers become product consumers.

YouTube services include Personalized Channels which is a predictive video service, similar to Pandora's service for music. In addition, YouTube has a streaming service, where important live events like sports and concerts from around the globe are broadcast live to viewers. Further, YouTube has a partner program, whereby, YouTube places ads next to popular videos or producers and they share the revenue from these ads. Other services include searching and viewing videos.

YouTube has a competitive edge over its rivals. While other video programs like Hulu and Netflix continue to grow, they have not made a significant impression on the market. Nevertheless, Netflix and Hulu have other services which YouTube does not offer. For example, they have taken a lead in movies, which is still not well implemented by YouTube. Overall, it will take some time and increased efforts, before any competitor makes an impact on the video platform like YouTube has managed.