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YouTube is not a failure

An interesting article piece of pundrity appeared recently in Time Magazine entitled "The 10 Biggest Tech Failures of the Last Decade". Included are some not so surprising "failures" and one that has sparked quite the stir in the blogosphere. Technology pundit Douglas McIntyre has decided to declare YouTube a failure.

His reason? The inability of YouTube to effectively monetize the platform. While this is true, I don't think this justifies its inclusion into his list.

Doesn't YouTube deserve some credit for being a disruptive, game changing technology? It is, and forever will be, THE seminal video sharing site that paved the way for an american video sharing culture. They gave us that "first hit" and now we're hooked. In a recent blog post by eMarketer, they report that 72% of US internet users watch video clips monthly. That makes it bigger than blogging or social networking.

Simply put, YouTube has forever altered our culture and the way we communicate.

Note: It's my opinion that Douglas McIntyre intentionally included YouTube for the purposes of sparking a debate and ultimately driving traffic to his article and site 24/7 WALL ST.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on May. 28, 2009