Does YouTube actually make any money?

New figures suggest that the video website may be on course to lose nearly half a billion dollars this year. The Guardian reports.

While parent company Google has to divulge certain financial details thanks to its publicly-traded status, it remains highly secretive about the numbers produced by its individual business units.

That's where Spencer Wang, an analyst with Credit Suisse, steps in. By Wang's estimates, the video site is due to lose $470m this year – an incredible amount for a website that Google bought for $1.65bn just two and a half years ago.

The problem as he sees it? An inability to sell advertising on most of its pages, coupled with a huge number of users watching a vast amount of video online.

emily | 8:20 AM | YouTube |
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