Matti Robinson
3 Nov 2016 15:19
Why would you pay for something that you get for free? That is a question that streaming services like Spotify and YouTube have been trying to figure out for years. There doesn't seem to be a solution or even a good answer to that question.
After twelve months since the release of YouTube Red, the video service is still having trouble finding paying customers, writes The Verge. The service is essentially YouTube with a few exclusive shows and no advertisements. With only 1.5 million customers, recorded couple months ago, it's a far cry from what Google had in mind.
That's just over one tenth of a percent of YouTube's over a billion monthly active users. Obviously Red is only available in a limited market and requires more time to be available worldwide but I assure that Google is not happy with mere million or two million payers. That generates under 200 million of revenue which is peanuts to Google.
Seems that YouTube needs to be investing a lot more (in exclusive content) to get the type of traction it needs to compete against the likes of Netflix which is closing in on 100 million subscribers.