Web trends are something that every business out there needs to be looking at seriously. Look no further than the music industry and their lack of ability and vision in dealing with a thing called mp3. News in the technology industry today indicates that Google is very close to announcing their paid subscription channels. This isn’t new and Google did indicate that they were working on some new paid subscription options and content. It looks like the day is nearing quickly for the official launch.
A report today indicates that up to 50 new channels which require a paid subscription will be part of the launch. How much will you pay? Nothing official just yet, but paying as little as $1.99 per month is the rumor right now. Knowing Google and their ability to price below the competition, it’s going to be very good value for the price. This is actually part of the problem.
The usage of YouTube is staggering and it’s only getting more and more popular. Our love for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are designed for content like videos. Watching videos online is going to become the norm in the future. Netflix anyone? The fact is Google is an advertising company so they can offer videos as a means to get you those advertisements. One could even say that video is that last frontier for Google to conquer in terms of monetizing the internet.
Whatever happens with the YouTube paid subscription service, as consumers of video content, we’re going to have to pay somewhere. In other words, if you want to enjoy YouTube or Netflix streaming, your current data plan may not be enough. Video content will have you consuming massive amounts of data if you’re not careful. I’ve seen what most of the major Canadian mobile phone carriers offer and it’s minimal. To get 1GB or more of data it begins to get expensive in a real hurry. Unlimited data is available from Wind Mobile, but that’s only one company. The fact that YouTube requires us to increase our data plans? That’s going to keep some companies very happy. The losers over time are going to be traditional television and that advertising business model. Like the long distance plans we used to pay for, using traditional television will become less common moving forward. People are ditching phone land lines. A few years ago that was hard to comprehend, but look at the statistics and trends today.
It’s clear that YouTube is set to dominate. It will take one company to step up and do something unheard of and everyone will be forced to follow. In general, when something becomes cheaper for the consumer, the high price business models blow up. Consumers become less willing to spend big money. Consumers got used to mp3s and the high priced music cd business model tanked. Having the option to pick and choose and paying less for it? That’s what consumers are getting and YouTube is going to be paving the way for that business model in the future. Pay for what you really want.