Chad Hurley: YouTube set to ‘excite’ advertisers
Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube, will open MIPCOM’s first Broadband Video Summit with a keynote speech. The Broadband Video Summit takes place on Wednesday, October 15.
As legend has it, YouTube was conceived back in January 2005 when founders Hurley and Steve Chen decided to share some videos from a dinner party with friends. Sending them by e-mail didn’t work and posting them online took too long. So they decided to design something simpler.
“When Steve and I first started this company, I don’t think either of us ever fully anticipated the kind of growth and engagement our platform would provide the world,” Hurley said. “Today, with over 280 million monthly visitors worldwide, we have the largest and most passionate online video community on the planet.”
Success was quickly guaranteed when in 2006 Google agreed to buy the company for a reported $1.65bn. But that didn’t stop Hurley developing the brand further. “From a business perspective, I think one of the big things we’ve learned is that success is iterative,” he said. “Over the last three years we’ve been busy developing and rolling out tools and solutions for our community of users, partners, and advertisers. In that time we’ve created some terrific products, but we’re always looking to improve on what we’ve developed to provide all of them a better and more fulfilling user experience.”
Advertisers are the key, as commentators continue to debate the right financial model for such a ubiquitous — and free — service. “So far, advertisers are very excited by the opportunities YouTube provides them, and we’ll be unveiling some pretty innovative new features and ad offerings in the coming quarters that I think will surprise and excite a lot of people out there,” Hurley said. “Thousands of companies large and small all over the world have embraced YouTube as a marketing platform and an innovative and engaging vehicle for connecting their brand with key target audiences.”
And the other big issue is copyright. “We abide by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the EU Copyright Directive,” Hurley said. “We prohibit infringing material on the site, and we co-operate with all copyright holders to identify and promptly remove infringing content as soon as we are notified.” He added that YouTube has “led the industry” in developing a content verification tool — Video ID — to help copyright owners locate their content on the site and send notices to the company. “Copyright holders all over the world can use Video ID to decide what to do with their videos on YouTube,” he said. “With Video ID they can block, promote, or even create revenue from their content.”
The Broadband Video Summit provides a venue for the newest internet TV platforms, media owners and cross-platform content creators to talk about the business models, rights and the creativity needed to reach specific audiences. Along with Hurley, key players at the summit include: Erik Huggers of BBC Future Media & Technology; Steve Mitgang of Veoh; Michael Comish, of BlinkBox Entertainment; Mark Zaleski of Dailymotion; Doug Miller of Vuguru; Neil Blackley of Ingenious Media; Alan Callan of iMediaCast; Ashley Highfield of Project Kangaroo; Jason Hirschhorn of Sling Media Entertainment Group, and many more. The day’s proceedings also include a Broadband Video Summit Networking Lunch.
This exclusive interview & more in the full MIPCOM Preview magazine: here!
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