YouTube adds Click to Buy, hopes you like it
By Dave Jeyes
In a nod to pop music singer Katy Perry, Google announced a new YouTube feature this morning under the headline, “I clicked to buy and I liked it.” Google is reaching beyond advertising to monetize YouTube by adding links to buy music and games with popular videos.
Click to Buy is a feature that adds links to content provided by YouTube channel partners such as EMI Music and EA Games. These links allow users to buy content from these partners provided by either iTunes or Amazon, with YouTube getting a cut of the profits.
One example of these links comes with the music video for Katy Perry’s hit song, “I kissed a girl.” Directly underneath the video are links to buy the song on iTunes or Amazon’s MP3 store. EA Games videos now have a link underneath them to buy their games online from Amazon’s store, to be shipped to the user’s home.
Much like YouTube’s other attempts to monetize its vast sea of video content, the Click to Buy links only appear on sponsored content from YouTube’s partners. The company has yet to shackle community-generated video with anything more than a banner ad on each page.
One exception to this rule is for video content that is submitted by users if the rights are owned by one of Google’s partners. If YouTube identifies these videos using its automated system, the partner can choose to include Click to Buy links on the video.
YouTube is continuing to focus on ways to better monetize content from major media partners. Its first attempt to do so was the creation of overlay banners that appear at the bottom of premium content. Just last week, the company announced that it was adding post-roll video ads to the end of its content from premium partners as well.
The new Click to Buy feature will likely net YouTube a few pennies any time someone actually buys a song through iTunes or Amazon. The question is whether these pennies can offset the high bandwidth costs of running the largest video site on the Web.
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