YouTube: Time to Charge Users?

Anita  Elberse; Sunil  Gupta

Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2010 (Revised October 2010)

YouTube: Time to Charge Users?

Abstract

In January 2010, YouTube, the world's largest online video aggregator, was still seeking to become profitable. Was the time right for Google, YouTube's parent company, to charge users seeking to upload content, as some analysts had suggested—and if so, who should be charged how much and for what? Could YouTube charge users for downloading content, a model it was now beginning to test? Or would it be better for the online video giant to continue to pursue an advertising model, but perhaps broaden its services to advertisers? Describes the online video market as of 2010 as well as YouTube's offerings to users, content owners, and advertisers. Provides information on the site's revenues and costs. Also contains detailed data on online video users and usage behavior.

Keywords: Online Advertising; Business Model; Cost; Profit; Revenue; Consumer Behavior; Internet; Motion Pictures and Video Industry;

Format: Print

17 pages

Educators Purchase

Citation:

Elberse, Anita, and Sunil Gupta. "YouTube: Time to Charge Users?" Harvard Business School Case 510-053, February 2010. (Revised October 2010.)

Should the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament gamble most of its player budget on superstar player Rafael Nadal, even after the event’s previous two editions saw Nadal and Roger Federer pull out at the last moment due to injury, leaving the tournament without any top-five players? That is the question that Richard Krajicek, former Wimbledon champion and current tournament director, is debating with Jolanda Jansen, the director of the venue that hosts the event. It is June 2017, and earlier in the day, Nadal won the French Open (“Roland Garros”) for a record tenth time. Krajicek’s plan for the upcoming edition was to focus his recruiting efforts on five exciting, mostly younger, players, and assemble a group of top-20 players around them—but after Nadal’s record-breaking performance, Krajicek is now considering pursuing the Spanish superstar for the 2018 tournament after all. What is the best course of action?

Roger Federer, widely regarded as the best tennis player in the history of the sport, walked onto the court to thunderous applause during in the second edition of the Laver Cup in September 2018. Named after tennis legend Rod Laver, the Cup pitted many of the greatest players from Europe against those from the rest of the world. Federer was more than one of the Laver Cup’s main stars—he was an owner and co-creator. In fact, the idea for the event had originated in his boutique company TEAM8, which he co-founded in 2013 with his agent and business partner Tony Godsick. The Laver Cup’s success had not gone unnoticed in the world of tennis. With traditional tennis tournaments such as the Davis Cup attracting new investors and with governing bodies such as the Association of Tennis Professionals planning to relaunch their team event, the competition for top players and for desirable slots on an already very full tennis calendar was stronger than ever before. Was TEAM8’s Laver Cup well positioned for long-term success?

By 2018, Amazon had become one of the world’s largest e-commerce players with over $233 billion in annual sales. Although its profitability had been uneven even after 23 years of its inception, its stock price had risen almost 130,000% since the company went public. During this time Amazon has spread its business across a variety of products and services that some saw as unrelated. Was Amazon spreading itself too thin or were its investments positioning the company for the future?

Faculty & Research

YouTube: Time to Charge Users?

Abstract

Citation:

About the Authors

More from these Authors