What Could YouTube Be Worth?
By agreeing to pay $65 million for Grouper--a profitless video-sharing company with negligible market share--Sony has helped establish a benchmark for other companies in the space and sent industry insiders speculating wildly about what market leader YouTube may be worth.
Sony's acquisition Wednesday of Grouper, which owns less than 1 percent of the online video market, begs a rather obvious question about its far larger rival YouTube, which owns 43 percent market share: If a company were to buy YouTube tomorrow, what would it have to pay?
"I wouldn't be surprised to see YouTube receive a bid of $1 billion. Whether the company is worth it is another question." said Aram Sinnreich, managing partner of RadarResearch
As for YouTube's competitors, it's a grab bag of companies shouting over one other about which one has better technology, interface, audience and content.
"It's virtually impossible to build a site with YouTube's brand strength, loyal user base. YouTube is a time bomb and a gold mine waiting to happen. The question is which one will be bigger." Sinnreich said.
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