YouTube will be profitable

According to this article, the CEO of Google is certain that YouTube will one day be profitable.

Schmidt, who is currently the focus of the Federal Trade Commission over his role on the boards of both Apple and Google, would not comment directly on suggestions that YouTube was going to lose $400 million (£265m).

However, the internet and advertising giant's CEO insisted that Google could turn YouTube into a key asset.

"What we said is we believe YouTube will eventually be a successful and a profitable business and it will take some time to do it."

I'm surprised it isn't profitable now considering the traffic it gets; I thought it was.

If they're hoping to make money by streaming films and currently-running shows like Hulu is doing, they're going to have to change their formatting. Seeing stupid comments right below a video and seeing "related videos" on the side doesn't go with videos you plan to be streaming for a half hour or more, though it's a fine format for short videos. And of course they're going to have to work out a good deal with content providers; the films they have available right now look pretty stupid.

Or maybe Google should just buy Hulu. Hulu, in my opinion, is the top site for streaming professional TV content. I wonder if they're making any money?