Wednesday, March 14, 2007
YouTube: The New Netscape
The most lucrative Internet company buys a hot startup that enables people to view content. It's a marriage made in heaven what could go wrong? But are we talking about 2006 or 1998?Well, the $4.2 billion that AOL paid for Netscape turned out to be an awful investment for many of the same reasons: the technology that drove the product was relatively easy to replicate, and there was no business model.
Google is learning the hard way that eyeballs and hype do not a business make. Just as Microsoft's Internet Explorer overwhelmed Netscape, Joost or blinkx or another video search company might make YouTube an also ran within a year. While Netscape had to battle with unfair business practices from its main competitor, Google has the copyright lawyers to content with.
YouTube's technology isn't heavy on the intellectual property, and they don't have any business relationships with advertisers or content providers that give them the upper hand.
There has never been a viable business model for browser software, and user-generated video might fall into the same conundrum.
Google might soon be haunted by the ghost of (the alive) Mark Andreessen.
Posted By John Gartner at 03:13 PM
Permanent Link: YouTube: The New Netscape
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