Wednesday, October 8, 2008

YouTube teams with iTunes, Amazon to offer e-commerce feature

Youtube is partnering with Amazon and Itunes to allow users to buy any music, books or other content related to the YouTube video that is being viewed. Over time, a viariety of industries will be making money off the content purchased through YouTube. As of right now, it is only available in the US. While it is a popular site, YouTube has not really gained alot of revenue over the last not-quite-two years that it has existed. The only real form of revenue is the ads that are on the site. The idea is that someone may not be as likely to search for something on Amazon or Itunes, but if they are on YouTube watching the video, chances are they will want to make those purchases.

5 comments:

Amanda said...

It is interesting that youtube is now teaming up with amazon as well as itunes. It makes sense though. Whenever I go on youtube to look at music videos, I usually end up liking the song and think to myself I’ll just end up downloading it later. I usually don’t get around to it because I forget or I just figure that if I want to listen to the song than I’ll just go on youtube. The same with movies. Certain quotes or scenes from movies are often looked up on youtube making the consumer want to buy the movie. I think the idea of youtube with amazon and itunes is a great idea that will definitely bring in more revenue since youtube hasn’t brought much in already. With having amazon and itunes as an option, more people will find ways in which they’ll need a certain movie/CD or song.

Kayla said...

That's a pretty interesting idea, and like Amanda, I don't have a lot of the songs that I like because I never really get around to downloading them. Personally, I'd google the song in MP3 format before I'd search iTunes or Amazon. If I can get it for free, then I'm going to.

Anyway, so you can purchase the video as a whole from YouTube whenever this thing starts? If thats true, then I think YouTube is going to have to get moving to make the quality of the uploaded videos better if they want to make any real money off of it. Sure, the quality is also affected by the quality of the original video, but YouTube does make it worse, in my experiences.

It could be a cool idea, though.

William said...

Youtube is a great site and I think it definitely needs this. When I want to listen to a song that I don't have, I usually just go to youtube. Never have i done that and not been able to find the song. Which just shows how affective youtube is. Now that i can just buy the song off of youtube from either itunes or amazon, I wont need to go to youtube. Its a great idea!

ervolsen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ervolsen said...

I think this is a stupid idea. I don't want Amazon and Itune links and advertisements shoved in my face while watching a Youtube video. Youtube is great how it is.

If its on Amazon or Itunes - Its easy enough to find in the first place, so I don't need it served to me.

Bad Idea.