Introduction
Currently Google is the most popular company in the internet business. This is attributable to its convenience as a search engine. In addition, in part, its popularity is as a result of its acquisition of YouTube. Through this acquisition, Google has been able to dominate the section of internet videos and completely stifle any pre-existing competition.
Initially seen as a time bomb, the acquisition of YouTube has proved to be among the best deals that Google has ever entered into. This occurs because YouTube has been instrumental in cementing Google’s position as the leading search engine in the internet, not only in textual searches but also, and importantly so, in video searches (Cool, K. et al. 2010).
YouTube’s Approach
For a company whose initial offices have been in a garage, YouTube is doing exceptionally well 6 years down the line. Obviously this happens because it resulted out of the will or desire to solve an existing need that previously had no solution (YouTube, 2011). Its primary inceptors had trouble of sharing videos online personally and this pushed its creativity.
The three (Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim) addressed a problem that was being experienced by the majority of Americans at that time and continued to provide even more options to solve the problem (Cool et al. 2010).
Less than one calendar year later YouTube was ranked among the top most popular websites in the world and had indications of even growing further and faster. It quickly captured a 60% market share of all videos viewed online. Its impact in America was immense while it was this young. Americans viewed hundreds of millions of videos through it on a daily basis (Cool et al. 2010).
Its widespread success is attributable to word of mouth style of marketing due to its unique nature of its services that more and more customers pour into its site day in day out. The fact that users could upload and share their videos was a new trend that kept customers glued to YouTube according to YouTube (2011).
YouTube also had a wide range of products and services ranging from music videos, movie trailers, news clips to homemade videos. This in return provided options that were perceivably impossible initially. As a result, YouTube experienced widespread customer loyalty and attracted the attention of other major players in the industry. One year later, Google purchased YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars (Cool et al. 2010).
Google Video Approach
Google video started as a search for videos but it did not provide the real videos. It only provided information such as text snippets and still images plus other textual information. Later on, Google video began accepting user-generated videos. Initially it also concentrated on uploading TV shows, but the idea was later dropped to concentrate on user-generated videos. It tried to introduce means of payment where users would pay for premium videos (Cool et al. 2010).
Despite all its efforts Google only managed to capture a meager 8% of online video market as compared to YouTube’s share of 27%. This prompted Google to strive for acquiring YouTube, which later was bought. After the acquisition, Google tried to operate Google video as a separate entity alongside YouTube.
However, it did not succeed as most of its results were tied to YouTube (Google Video, 2011). Less than one calendar year after the acquisition of YouTube, Google closed down Google video and concentrated on bettering YouTube. The failure of Google video is attributable to its initial lack of a way to view actual videos and finally Google’s acquisition of YouTube (Cool et al. 2010).
The merger of Google and YouTube boosted YouTube’s popularity across the globe and attracted both positive and negative sentiments especially in the area of the legality of the videos uploaded on YouTube (Google Video, 2011). However, as it turned out, Google was adequately prepared to deal with such problems. Google had set aside a hefty amount of money to deal with the potential legal problems. It entered into agreement with other major customers to allow YouTube to upload their videos and as a result share out on the proceeds (Cool et al. 2010).
Disclaimer
YouTube also had a wide range of products and services ranging from music videos, movie trailers, news clips to homemade videos. This in return provided options that were perceivably impossible initially. As a result, YouTube experienced widespread customer loyalty and attracted the attention of other major players in the industry. Its presence on the market makes the process of entering hard for all the other prospective entrants (Cool, K. et al. 2010).
Conclusion
YouTube was instrumental to the eventual success of Google. The merger of Google and YouTube boosted YouTube’s popularity across the globe and attracted both positive and negative sentiments, especially in the area of the legality of the videos uploaded on YouTube. Currently Google is the most popular company in the internet business. This is attributable to its convenience as a search engine. In addition, in part, its popularity is as a result of its acquisition of YouTube (Cool, K. et al. 2010).
References
Cool, K. et al. (2010). YouTube, Google, and the Rise of Internet Video. USA: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Google Video. (2011). Google Video Website.
YouTube. (2011). YouTube Official Website.