Ben Ling Lands (Back) at Google–This Time, at YouTube
by Kara Swisher
Posted on August 14, 2008 at 12:06 PM PT
Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.
Ben Ling–the high-profile Facebook platform exec who came from Google less than a year ago and then up and left the social-networking site earlier this week–is about to head back to Google, this time taking a job leading monetization efforts at YouTube, according to several sources.
On Tuesday, BoomTown reported that Ling (pictured here) was leaving his job at Facebook, where he has been director of platform product marketing.
At the time, Ling would not be specific as to his reasons for leaving, saying in an interview: “Facebook is a tremendous organization, and I would not leave it if it were not for a great opportunity.”
And that opportunity apparently entails returning to his previous employer, where Ling once worked on Google’s Checkout product and other e-commerce platform efforts.
Ling’s is a move that will surely spur many to rev up the Facebook-versus-Google (GOOG) stories, given that several top Google execs–such as COO Sheryl Sandberg and PR and Platform head Elliot Schrage, as well many others–have been recruited by Facebook over the last year.
Apparently, the Empire does strike back.
Interestingly, Google CEO Eric Schmidt addressed the YouTube monetization issue in an appearance on CNBC’s “Mad Money with Jim Kramer” yesterday.
Here’s a transcript of the section where they discussed YouTube:
CRAMER: LET’S SPEAK ABOUT A QUESTION THAT, AGAIN, I’M TRYING ADDRESS THE QUESTIONS HOLDING THE STOCK DOWN. YOU HAVE TREMENDOUS DOWNLOADS IN YOUTUBE ARE EXTRAORDINARY.
SCHMIDT: IT’S UP TO 1.3 MILLION MINUTES EVERY TEN MINUTES OF UPLOAD? IN OTHER WORDS EVERY MINUTE WE ARE PUTTING THAT MANY VIDEOS IN. IT’S UNBELIEVABLE.
CRAMER: BUT AT THE SAME TIME, WHAT ADVERTISER WANTS TO PUT A 30-SECOND ADVERTISEMENT IN YOUTUBE, WHO WANTS TO LOOK AT THAT VERSUS THE ADVERTISEMENTS WE ARE DOING FOR THE OLYMPICS WHICH ARE JUST GIGANTIC 1.7 BILLION IN REVENUE. ISN’T IT TRUE THAT PEOPLE DON’T LIKE ADS ON YOUTUBE?
SCHMIDT: WE HAVE NOT FIGURED THAT MODEL OUT YET. YOU’RE COMPARING A 50-YEAR-OLD MATURE MODEL THAT WORKS REALLY WELL ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS IN THE OLYMPICS, VERSUS SOMETHING THAT’S JUST STARTING. WE HAVE LOTS OF TRAFFIC.
CRAMER: SO YOU ARE JUST SAYING SOMEONE WILL JUST FIGURE IT OUT.
SCHMIDT: HOPING IT’S GOING TO BE US THAT FIGURES IT OUT. WE’RE TRYING DIFFERENT THINGS WE TRIED PRE-ROLL AND POST-ROLL NOT ANYONE ONE IS REALLY, WE HAVE A COUPLE NEW ONES COMING OUT.
CRAMER: YOU’RE MAKING SO MUCH MONEY YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT. IT ISN’T LIKE IT IS GOING TO HIT YOUR BOTTOM LINE.
SCHMIDT: IT DOESN’T HIT OUR BOTTOM LINE.
CRAMER: SOME ARE SAYING IT WILL.
SCHMIDT: BUT EVENTUALLY WE’D LIKE TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF IT, BUT IF WE DON’T, THE FACT THAT SO MANY PEOPLE COME TO YOUTUBE MEANS THEY ULTIMATELY GOOGLE AND DO GOOGLE SEARCHES AND CLICK ON ADS. SO DON’T BE TOO WORRIED ABOUT ALL THAT TRAFFIC GOING TO YOUTUBE. I’D BE WORRIED IF PEOPLE WEREN’T USING YOUTUBE. SINCE IT IS AN ENORMOUS SUCCESS GLOBALLY WE KNOW WE WILL BENEFIT.
Valleywag ran an item earlier today speculating that Ling might be on his way back to the mother ship, noting he was spotted having lunch there recently.
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Comments
“It is a move that will surely spur many to rev up the Facebook versus Google stories, given several Google execs have been recruited from Google over the last year. ”
Do you read your own articles before you send them? Google execs have been recruited from Google?
Posted by david hill at August 14th, 2008 at 1:20 pmD:
It is actually correct that way, but I made it clearer.
Sorry we are not perfect.
Posted by Kara Swisher at August 14th, 2008 at 1:50 pmHe probably got sandberg’d.
Posted by Dave Esmo at August 14th, 2008 at 4:48 pmTo make money with YouTube, this is what Ben Ling has to do…
On the most viewed clips (clips with, let say, already 1000 views) (doesn’t matter who posted them) YouTube automatically implements a 5 seconds overlay ad that appears over the player and blocks out (darkens) everything else. (It gives a bit of time for the clip to load in the background as well).
This overlay is a 5 seconds spot (can’t be longer than that and it doesn’t link to a company website if you click on it. It’s like a really, really short TV spot. It can be a still picture for outfits with very little budgets…)
Now, people don’t like ads… but they like GAMES and they like to COLLECT stuff.
Each overlay ad is a mini 5 seconds GAME. You have three colored dots on the overlay. The viewer clicks on ONE of them. One is a winner, two are duds. If you’re lucky to pick the winner (you only have one chance) during the 5 secs, you receive a TOKEN that is automatically added to your YouTube account. (It encourages you to stay registered…)
Now, you COLLECT these tokens. If you win a certain number of similar tokens, you can EXCHANGE them against full-length HD Hollywood Films or TV shows on YouTube. The fun part could be that you have different categorires of tokens. (Some would be for specific film genres or just for one TV show and some could be really hard to find, worth maybe ten tokens, etc.) (Tokens are generated randomly by the system.)
Now, you have the problem of guys posting shows and seeing Google make money off their film. Well, they need to be rewarded too. For a succesful posting (ie lots of viewers) they also receive TOKENS… to be exchanged to watch high-quality HD movies or TV shows.
Now, these HD movies or TV shows in the “HD Theatre section of YouTube” can also be sponsored with a longer lead-in spot… That’s even more money for Google.
Now, we have the problem of big brand names not wanting to have their spots stuck on “Jimmy and his weird cat”… Well, they could “control” where their 5 Secs. spots go by teaming with content suppliers through YouTube. Example, a Coca-Cola campaign with Viacom clips… Viacom takes all the succesful shows they own like, for example, “Spongebob”. They cut out little “gems” (two to three minute clips) and they post them on YouTube to watch for free… Viacom via Google sell their 5 second spots to Coca-cola. Everybody is happy. The viewer, who enjoys these mini-clips, can even link to the full episode of Spongebob on YouTube. He can pay by redeeming TOKENS or he can pay with real money for the full episode or combine both. (It’s all streaming anyway! It’s like TV a la carte.)
Now, what about the “Jim and his weird cat” clips. Who pays for these 5 secs ads? Well, it’s like Google’s Adsense, it’s small outfits who purchase so many spots. You can buy a thousand spots or ten thousand spots to be randomly placed on clips or based on the clip’s TAGS and on the clip’s level of viewership. The outfit supplies the spot or the still and pays Google directly up front.
A system like this is not that difficult to implement. (If they’re real smart, they can have it work just the same on imbedded videos on other sites) Anyway, it’s fun for all involved and all get something out of it. Everybody is a winner especially Google who makes tons of money from the big guys but also… most importantly…from the long, long tail of all the little guys. Viewers are hooked to YouTube forever! Even if they’re just there to click on ads and forget about the clips… the most important is done. Money!
Here, you have it.
Twowan,
(If Google wants more ideas like this one, they can contact me. I’m the guy behind laboratoryfilms.com)
Posted by Philippe Ory at November 6th, 2008 at 6:30 pm