YouTube's challenges
1. Another Napster?
A few years ago Napster was the premium website for sharing music on the internet. However, it violated copyright law and hence ceased to exist. There is a very real possibility that this could happen to YouTube as well. YouTube has taken steps in this direction trying to convince media companies that it is a viable business partner. It has made deals with recording studios and television companies like Warner Brothers and NBC. One reason for this trend is that most media companies recognize that the Napster suit was counterproductive, as the number of peer to peer file sharing services since that time has increased exponentially. Even so, it is not clear if YouTube can continue to operate as it currently does. As Mark Cuban, an internet entrepreneur suggests, if YouTube uses just authorized content "it could possibly survive, but there would be so many restrictions it wouldn't be the YouTube we know today."(1)
2. Unproven revenue model
YouTube currently has a large and dedicated viewership, but it has no idea how to monetize this viewership. In fact none of the various actors, the content providers, the distributors or YouTube itself have hit upon a revenue model which would distribute the revenue pie.(2) Since YouTube's popularity is in the main part because of the free content it offers, it does seem difficult to convince users to pay for viewing videos. It has also been suggested that the YouTube adopt a "pay and publish" model where users are charged a fee for posting videos. (1) But developing and sustaining revenue model remains YouTube's biggest challenge.
3. Advertising difficulties
YouTube has started to place banner advertisements on the website. But since there are Ad-blocking ...