The Virtual Explosion: YouTube’s Success Soars Off the Charts
The Virtual Explosion: YouTube’s Success Soars Off the Charts
The YouTube.com domain name was first activated on February 15, 2005. Using their own money as well as some angel investment, the duo slowly began to build up their website. But, it was not until the backing of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in November 2005 that the company really took off. Roelof Botha, the former CFO of PayPal and current partner at Sequoia Capital, also took a seat on the YouTube board of directors. Sequoia’s initial investment was $3.5 million, but it later put an additional $8 million into the tech startup.
Combining their artistic and engineering skills, Hurley and Chen created a website that would use Adobe Flash technology, something already installed in most personal computers, to display videos online. They also created an interactive user community by allowing members to tag and search for related videos. It also began using the Google AdSense program to bring in revenue and help cover the enormous costs per month of maintaining the bandwidth it required.
By the summer of 2006, YouTube had become one of the fastest-growing websites on the Internet. It was even ranked fifth most popular by Alexa, beating out the rapid growth of MySpace. Today, Hurley says the company is “three to four times larger than Google Video or Yahoo Video Search. And growing much faster too. It’s a side project for them.” In fact, according to a survey conducted in July 2006, it was estimated that over 100 million video clips were being viewed on a daily basis on YouTube, while more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded ever day. Nielsen/Net Ratings also suggests that YouTube receives nearly 20 million unique visitors each month.
Towards the end of the summer of 2006, YouTube had been doing so well for itself that the inevitable rumours of a buyout began to circulate. Many suggested that purchasing such a company, one whose business model would be fraught with liabilities for the foreseeable future, was a bad move. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban even said, “Only a moron would buy YouTube.”
But, YouTube was doing what it could to escape lawsuits related to copyright infringement. Hurley and Chen even signed deals with three major media companies to allow their materials to be legally broadcast on YouTube. Cuban might not have been interested in the Silicon Valley startup but Google definitely was.
On October 9, 2006, Hurley and Chen made the announcement that YouTube would be sold to Google for $1.65 billion in Google stock, making it Google’s second largest acquisition ever. The deal officially closed on November 13, 2006, and kept Hurley and Chen on board to continue their integral roles in the company.
The Virtual Explosion YouTubes Success Soars Off the Charts
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After that fateful dinner party, where Hurley and Chen wanted to create a simpler way to share their videos of the night, they immediately went to work creating the answer. “In February, we started developing the product,” says Hurley. “In May, we had our first public preview. And in December, we officially launched YouTube. By that time we were serving over three million videos a day.”
The YouTube.com domain name was first activated on February 15, 2005. Using their own money as well as some angel investment, the duo slowly began to build up their website. But, it was not until the backing of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in November 2005 that the company really took off. Roelof Botha, the former CFO of PayPal and current partner at Sequoia Capital, also took a seat on the YouTube board of directors. Sequoia’s initial investment was $3.5 million, but it later put an additional $8 million into the tech startup.
Combining their artistic and engineering skills, Hurley and Chen created a website that would use Adobe Flash technology, something already installed in most personal computers, to display videos online. They also created an interactive user community by allowing members to tag and search for related videos. It also began using the Google AdSense program to bring in revenue and help cover the enormous costs per month of maintaining the bandwidth it required.
By the summer of 2006, YouTube had become one of the fastest-growing websites on the Internet. It was even ranked fifth most popular by Alexa, beating out the rapid growth of MySpace. Today, Hurley says the company is “three to four times larger than Google Video or Yahoo Video Search. And growing much faster too. It’s a side project for them.” In fact, according to a survey conducted in July 2006, it was estimated that over 100 million video clips were being viewed on a daily basis on YouTube, while more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded ever day. Nielsen/Net Ratings also suggests that YouTube receives nearly 20 million unique visitors each month.
Towards the end of the summer of 2006, YouTube had been doing so well for itself that the inevitable rumours of a buyout began to circulate. Many suggested that purchasing such a company, one whose business model would be fraught with liabilities for the foreseeable future, was a bad move. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban even said, “Only a moron would buy YouTube.”
But, YouTube was doing what it could to escape lawsuits related to copyright infringement. Hurley and Chen even signed deals with three major media companies to allow their materials to be legally broadcast on YouTube. Cuban might not have been interested in the Silicon Valley startup but Google definitely was.
On October 9, 2006, Hurley and Chen made the announcement that YouTube would be sold to Google for $1.65 billion in Google stock, making it Google’s second largest acquisition ever. The deal officially closed on November 13, 2006, and kept Hurley and Chen on board to continue their integral roles in the company.
The Virtual Explosion YouTubes Success Soars Off the Charts
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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