It's no secret that Google's YouTube is under-performing in the advertising department.
Forbes estimates that YouTube's ad revenues will reach $200 million this year and $350 million in 2009,
while Citi analyst Mark Mahaney thinks the video giant can make $500 million next year if it does a better job selling display ads Even so, TechCrunch contributor Don Reisinger says the question marks
continue to hang over YouTube, especially compared to Fox and NBC's joint venture, Hulu.
Hulu served about 88 million videos in May, compared to 4.2 billion for YouTube, but the old media
startup has the advantage of being able to serve ads on the vast majority of its videos, whereas YouTube can only serve ads against a paltry three percent-or 126 million videos per month. This,
Reisinger points out, nearly levels the playing field. In fact, according to one estimate, Hulu could rake in as much as $90 million in revenue in its first year, which roughly equals YouTube's
domestic revenue. And Hulu largely caters to an American audience, anyway.
Other advantages for the Fox/NBC joint venture: no copyright concerns, no questionable user-generated content, and
most importantly, its content is familiar territory that appeals to advertisers.
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