Over at NewTeeVee, there’s an interesting post about how YouTube did it. How Chad Hurley and Steve Chen made millions billions and became a mega-success with Internet video. I mean, didn’t everyone have that same idea?
Apparently Hurley spoke at an event in Silicon Valley last week and NewTeeVee recorded the entire thing on video. (Ironically, they couldn’t post the video on YouTube because it was too long, so it’s being hosted on Blip.tv.)
When Hurley and Chen made the rounds among VCs, they didn’t use PowerPoint slides. (How’s that for a breath of fresh air.) Their pitch consisted of actual product and statistics. You’d think the pitch would be very straightforward:
- User-generated content is growing.
- Videos are growing in popularity and are easier to use than ever.
- Allow people to post their user generated videos
- Mix it with social media.
Add a clever name and marketing and … Bam!
So why did YouTube succeed? I believe they had the same idea everyone had, but the main difference was in execution. YouTube made it easier than any one else and made sharing videos fun.
Another big issue, according to Hurley, was the self-policing nature of YouTube. Says NewTeeVee:
One of first companies to automate DMCA — the press misses this, according to Hurley — one of various examples of solutions YouTube has built that set examples for its industry. “What people miss is we built a true community around video. These hundreds of competitors are dealing with the same problems but they’re not having the same growth.”
Yet another reason YouTube went big was that it became popular with the younger generation. If kids are using it often and sharing stuff with their friends (think MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter), then it’s going to be big.
