After nearly a decade, YouTube is still not profitable

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Feb 2015 11:19 User comments (11)

According to sources, YouTube is still not profitable, despite being owned by Google for nearly a decade.

Thanks to Google's new push for premium ads, revenue for the site increased by 25 percent to $4 billion in 2014, but profits were still elusive.

Google says most of their traffic comes directly from YouTube.com or from their mobile apps, but the sources claimed differently, saying a majority of the traffic comes from embedded videos or from links on social media, for example.

Additionally, the audience is very narrow and is dominated by younger people. One source estimates 'that 9% of viewers account for 85% of online-video views,' a staggering figure. Even YouTube's CEO admitted that he had never heard of YouTube star PewDiePie (who has 35 million followers) until he became CEO at the company.

It will be interesting to see the next steps for YouTube in its long road to profits.

Source:
WSJ

Tags: Google YouTube

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11 user comments

126.2.2015 01:16

ZippyDSM

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AfterDawn Addict

Mainly because the copyright system works based off backroom deals and money up front. Heaven forbid they break stuff down on profit and or revenue and split the pennies the fans are generating in bulk......

226.2.2015 09:08

Ryberg360

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Also, they pay people who have the dumbest channels. Just because America likes to watch people getting kicked in the balls and eat an awful amount of food in a set amount of time

326.2.2015 09:16

ZippyDSM

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AfterDawn Addict

Originally posted by Ryberg360:
Also, they pay people who have the dumbest channels. Just because America likes to watch people getting kicked in the balls and eat an awful amount of food in a set amount of time

I like my channel dammit :P

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 26 Feb 2015 @ 9:29

426.2.2015 10:12

Interestx

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Senior Member

Accountancy statistic-babble & fodder for tax-dodging write-offs.

Google is profitable to the tune of $.3.5 billion in the first quarter of 2014 ('only') an increase of 2.9% on the previous year.

Just because so many huge corporations keep sub-dividing & hiving off some of their operations so that they stand semi-autonomously is no reason to lose sight of the over-all picture.

526.2.2015 16:30

xnonsuchx

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Senior Member

Not being profitable didn't stop Vonage or TiVo.

627.2.2015 06:15

qazwiz

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Junior Member

Originally posted by Interestx:

Google is profitable to the tune of $.3.5 billion in the first quarter of 2014 ('only') an increase of 2.9% on the previous year.

but Google has to pay the debts of Youtube therefore if they didnt own youtube their profit would be much much more

but the article isn't about Google, it's about the money sinkhole called Youtube

727.2.2015 14:16

chefdamo

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Junior Member

it's right they do it to off set the taxes.To make more money don't mean you will have more money unless you make enough money to off set the taxes and come out ahead. every big company who owns multiple companies does this of get out of paying the tax they really should be paying. it's like ABC trading as 123 and the same person with another company buying it under cba. it' all to get out of paying tax

827.2.2015 20:59

qazwiz

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Originally posted by chefdamo:
it's right they do it to off set the taxes.To make more money don't mean you will have more money unless you make enough money to off set the taxes and come out ahead. every big company who owns multiple companies does this of get out of paying the tax they really should be paying. it's like ABC trading as 123 and the same person with another company buying it under cba. it' all to get out of paying tax

the false premise here is claiming losses better than taxes....
Supreme court has established that taxes cannot exceed the assets they are based on (IRS tried to collect more than 100% as death taxes) so if Youtube even broke even Google would have had better profits. taxes would have been more too but since taxes are not 100% the extra over taxes would be more (Net Profit)

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Feb 2015 @ 9:00

91.3.2015 00:20

polarys425

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Originally posted by chefdamo:
it's right they do it to off set the taxes.To make more money don't mean you will have more money unless you make enough money to off set the taxes and come out ahead. every big company who owns multiple companies does this of get out of paying the tax they really should be paying. it's like ABC trading as 123 and the same person with another company buying it under cba. it' all to get out of paying tax

I really get a kick out of people who think companies would rather lose several million dollars, than pay taxes on that several million. No wonder people like Obama get elected.

101.3.2015 06:35

voyager

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Maybe because they erase the videos the tells and show the truth of this world.

111.3.2015 18:56

MagengarZ

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Originally posted by Ryberg360:
Also, they pay people who have the dumbest channels. Just because America likes to watch people getting kicked in the balls and eat an awful amount of food in a set amount of time

If that were true, I'd be a rich man by now.

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After nearly a decade, YouTube is still not profitable

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