Not since Godzilla vs King Kong, or Alien vs Predator or at least Pee Wee Herman vs Mr. Rogers have we seen a battle like the one that took place today in the blogosphere. Teens of people sat glued to their computer screens as Freddy and Jason went to battle over how many millions of dollars of annual net revenue could be generated by that IPO-in-waiting, YouTube.
Freddy came out swinging, with an estimate of around $150 million, thereby making everyone associated with YouTube giddy with Monopoly money joy. About adding a 10 second ad to the beginning of videos- Freddy says that won’t reduce YouTube’s user base or the amount of views because 10 seconds isn’t very long and- I’m almost too excited to type- users might be able to tag their favorite ads. I can’t wait to retirement age so I can spend all my time tagging ads.
Imagine Freddy backing Jason into a corner by beating him over the head with orange $500 bills.
But then, in true Hollywood fashion, Jason flipped Freddy over his shoulders and started chasing him with a chainsaw made of low CPM rates and content provider lawsuits. He lunged at Freddy, wielding his business acumen like a mighty sword:
If I was a video holder I would go to YouTube and say you can have all our stuff for an $8 CPM and you keep all the upside and we want an upfront, non-refundable advance of $3M a year.
And then he tried to finish the battle with a thrusting irony: “If YouTube did that they would be a real business. Of course, of other folks tried that and never got there.”
But Freddy ducked and the battle raged on in the comments to both posts. Freddy, correctly, calling Jason a “YouTube hater.” Jason parrying with another “pay users for their content” speech.
It has been a mighty battle, not yet won or lost. Meanwhile the onlookers place their bets and wait for the sequel.
Newsome.Org 