The way I'm reading Compete.com's data there's no merit to a lawsuit Viacom is bringing against GooTube this week. Max Freiet of Compete is doing is a good job using web analytic data to answer difficult questions (or attempt to) such as the actual harm to Viacom by their content being shown on YouTube. A couple of points from the Compete.com post:
"…Despite lacking Viacom’s copyrighted content, YouTube has actually seen a 40% increase in the total time spent on the site since the announcement. Though partially due to Super Bowl related traffic, the sustained level of growth indicates a genuine growth in consumer attention."
First, there's' a lot of other reasons to go to YouTube besides looking at Comedy Central clips.
"..Visitor behavior to YouTube and Viacom properties indicate that people visit YouTube for it’s abundance of entertaining and educational content, regardless of who produces it. More importantly, people haven’t been using the site as a source of on-demand Viacom content, and they won’t make much effort to find that content through the official channel. YouTube’s real test will come if all large media companies follow suit. "
I've suspected the real reason for the lawsuit is to attempt to deflate Google's Stock Prices, perhaps to slow Google down from becoming a full fledged media company. I really don't know this …. I'm just guessing.
