YouTube’s first step to making money

The big news in the tech world today is that YouTube has teamed up with none other than queen of publicity, Paris Hilton, to launch her own channel on YouTube. Since Paris is promoting her debut album sometime next week, this channel will serve to play her music videos, an inside look at her life, and also will be the launching point for all of her new singles that she debuts.

Apparently, YouTube pays around $1 million per month for bandwidth usage due to the high level of traffic on their site and the high level of data transfer required for streaming videos. Many people thought that if YouTube kept going down this slippery slope of having cost after cost, they would eventually go down under. Though this model is unique, they are capitalizing on two key aspects:

• They have an audience, the biggest audience on earth essentially and stretches to almost all demographics – the Internet is much more easily accessible than any cable tv
• The demographics on YouTube are perfect for a young popstar like Paris Hilton. As we all know, whatever Paris does, people follow suit

In my opinion, this is a huge win for YouTube as they’ve finally realized a method of determining how they make money on an advertising model which is outside of google Ad Sense.  Hopefully we’ll begin to see more players follow suit.  Fox has launched a huge prison break advertising campaign (which is my new favorite show btw…if you like 24…you’ll love prison break…just bought the first season…and i digress) and the impact of that will perhaps cause others to follow suit.  If they can make this into a strong revenue generating model, we will begin to see some huge new possibilities for these ex PayPal boys in San Mateo.

Just my $.02

–SD

Coolest product in the world – The slingbox

If you haven’t heard of the slingbox yet, be prepared to be amazed. This is perhaps the greatest invention for those people who are always travelling or feel extremely homesick and just want to watch some good ol “home tv.” Slingbox is the coolest new toy since sliced bread and can completely revolutionize the TV market worldwide. Here’s what you need to know.

What is a slingbox?

A slingbox is a hardware similar in size to a TiVo which is hooked up to your cable/direct TV at home. From that you hook up your Internet connection and wah la! you’re done. The slingbox sits on top of your TV, almost like a silver candy bar (as they say on their website) and looks like this:

This is a relatively small hookup that you do on your television and now that you’ve done it, you can access your channels anywhere that you get an Internet connection. I’m totally serious, you can be a rural village in India and if it has a broadband Internet connection, you can make sure to watch the A’s game at pretty much crystal clear quality.

Not limited to a computer

Here is the best thing about a slingbox, it’s not just limited to your computer at home…rather you can use it wherever you have an Internet connection, including your PDA or your cell phone that is wifi enabled. I’ve put a video of someone using a slingbox on their dell axiom connected to their Internet.

This combined with access to your tivo means that you will always be connected and will never miss your favorite tv shows.

Pretty cool huh?

It’s yours for only $200….I think I know what I want as an early xmas present.

Just my $.02…

–SD