YouTube Could Be Worth $550 Billion as Analyst Crowns Platform 'New King of All Media' (thewrap.com) 34
MoffettNathanson has crowned YouTube the "New King of All Media" as the Alphabet-owned video platform has become a major force in Hollywood, dominating time spent watching TV. From a report: The firm estimates that YouTube as a standalone business could be worth as much as $550 billion -- or nearly 30% of the tech giant's current valuation. The figure is based on the firm's analysis of enterprise value as a multiple of revenue in 2024 for Netflix (10.5x revenue), Meta (8.8x), Roku (2.4x), Warner Bros. Discovery (1.4x), Fox (1.3x) and Disney (1.3x).
In 2024, YouTube was the second-largest media company by revenue at $54.2 billion, trailing behind only Disney. However, the MoffettNathanson analysts predict YouTube will take the top spot in 2025, becoming a leader in both engagement and revenue. "YouTube has the potential to become the central aggregator for all things professional video, positioning itself to capture a share of the $85 billion consumer Pay TV market and the ~$30 billion streaming ex. Netflix market in the U.S.," they wrote in a Monday research note. "On monetization, when comparing YouTube's massive TV screen engagement to its estimated TV revenue, it remains significantly under-monetized relative to its scaled reach and differentiated offering. This signals a substantial runway for improving its monetization strategy."
In 2024, YouTube was the second-largest media company by revenue at $54.2 billion, trailing behind only Disney. However, the MoffettNathanson analysts predict YouTube will take the top spot in 2025, becoming a leader in both engagement and revenue. "YouTube has the potential to become the central aggregator for all things professional video, positioning itself to capture a share of the $85 billion consumer Pay TV market and the ~$30 billion streaming ex. Netflix market in the U.S.," they wrote in a Monday research note. "On monetization, when comparing YouTube's massive TV screen engagement to its estimated TV revenue, it remains significantly under-monetized relative to its scaled reach and differentiated offering. This signals a substantial runway for improving its monetization strategy."
The Network Effect can be a b**** (Score:5, Funny)
Oh great, yet another #%@^$ monopoly. Ads are already increasing.
I was hoping Bing Videos would give them competition, but it's not working out. (Yes, I hate MS, but that's not a reason to have another monopoly.)
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To be fair, it's really difficult to turn video hosting for every idiot with a smartphone camera into a profitable endeavor unless you happen to also be an advertising company. Really, a lot of user generated content hosting has this same problem. Most of us will use it for free, but the second you expect us to open our wallets to see photos of our friends' meals and clickbait videos about "this one weird trick to clean your toilet", forget it, we're out.
Re: The Network Effect can be a b**** (Score:3)
Yes, the ads are an instant deterrent for me also. Perhaps this problem calls for decentralized/crowdsourced CDN where users allocate some space and bandwidth to the content, sort of like torrents, but more user friendly. Something like that is likely in existence already, but perhaps not in wide use. It sure would be nice to get rid of centralized control for the most popular video site.
Some technical obstacles to this remain, such as limited upstream bandwidth for many ISPs, especially in the US, anachron
Re: The Network Effect can be a b**** (Score:1)
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Could you please name it ?
If by web3, it means something tied to Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency, I am afraid I wouldn't be using it to publish my content.
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YouTube Premium is the best 14 dollars I spend every month. The large channels are better content and production quality than just about everything from the major media players, and even some small channels made by one person with a phone camera provide unique and interesting content that I could never find anywhere else. I haven't turned my TV on in years.
I drank the cool aid. I pay for YouTube so I don't have to watch ads and it's worth every penny.
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The average technical acumen of slashdot users has gone WAY downhill, huh?
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I am one of those small content producers. My channel is very niche and only has a triple digit number of subscribers after nearly 20 years. I produce baroque music videos on harpsichord and piano, and the phone camera on a tripod happens to be the best 4K video camera I own. I use semi-professional audio gear. The quality was good enough to get me noticed by a movie producer and get me my first IMDB credit for music.
I still want to move my content off Youtube the moment there is a viable decentralized solu
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YouTube is mostly not about your friend's videos, it's mostly about people creating professional and semi-professional content for the site.
There is a lot of good stuff on there that you can't get anywhere else. To pick a random example, one of my favourite channels is Adrian's Digital Basement, where he mostly fixes old computer hardware. You get to see him go through the diagnostic and repair process in a way that wouldn't be well conveyed in text, and the videos are very informative for people looking to
That Howard Stern line again (Score:4, Informative)
I still remember the show where he was talking about people crowning themselves "The King of Pop" and the "King of whatever", and he decided to be the "King of all Media" , and kept calling himself that until it stuck.
And now it's Yutube . What a long strange trip.
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Well, ever since he locked himself behind the paywall of satellite radio, Howard Stern has stopped being relevant. Might as well pass on the crown.
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I still remember when Emmanuel Goldstein crowned himself King of the Internet on WBAI. Not sure if he still wants that title...
King Of All Media? (Score:1)
Whatever happened to Howard Stern?
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The internet happened. Stern seems tame by comparison to what you can find online.
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I was a huge Stern fan and listener for many years. He didn't get out-shocked by the internet, he went more mainstream and mellowed out. Stern fans call this era "Hollywood Howard" where he gets big names and kisses their ass more than ask uncomfortable questions. Plus he's literally 71 years old now, dude's old.
As for the title "King of All Media", this article is wrong to use it as it doesn't apply. Howard declared himself King of All Media because he was popular on radio, TV, and the internet. This artic
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According to the internet, SiriusXM is paying him $120 million dollars a year. Maybe not the "King" but certainly good money if you can get it. I wouldn't mind it.
meta: maybe hold it to half a dozen stories a day? (Score:2)
idk what consensus on this is if any, but i'd rather fewer, more curated stories on the main feed.
With the thought that there might be some interesting discussion to read or be had about some of them. With the current/recent rate it seems the large majority scroll off w/o much said.
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Interesting. I hadn't heard of it.
How much do i have to think about / worry about its "blockchain" and "P2P" underpinnings ?
Meanwhile, back in reality (Score:4, Funny)
YouTube is where ... (Score:3)
And they wonder why people scrape this stuff from the site?
YouTube or YouTube TV? (Score:3)
\o/ (Score:1)
$550B - awesome!! Finally, they can afford to implement nested comments \o/
To me, you tube is great, but... (Score:2)
...I realize that probably somewhere around 99% of it is crap
I pay for premium to avoid ads, and I am a minor content creator
I watch expert teachers, including Nobel winners teach science and tech
I watch expert craftspeople demonstrating and teaching their craft
I teach machining and glassworking
So far, I'm able to easily find the stuff I like and easily ignore the crap
I hope that I will be able to continue
If they start forcing unavoidable pop culture or "trending" crap, I will quit
MySpace (Score:2)
The demise of MySpace began soon after initiatives designed to bring revenue led to a mountain of ads. Often these ads were misleading or scammy. Or were just your annoying predatory credit card offers. On top of this, MySpace failed to build communities on their site, or support them in any meaningful way. This led to creators leaving the platform and the rest of the traffic followed.
The same fate is inevitable for YouTube. It simply isn't possible for it to be an enduring platform. The most fatal flaw in
Too little too late (Score:2)
2015 called. They want their headline back.
No, not "worth" (Score:2)
I deleted them from my bookmarks (Score:2)
After they banned my favorite creators for no real reason. I occasionally still watch some others on CrapTube now, but only targeted and only with manual input of the URL. And, of course, I run an ad blocker (Vivaldi integrated). If the ad blocker ever stops working, I am gone for good.
Time to tank it, folks. (Score:2)
Make it crater.