What Does Google Not Have to Hand Over? Ad Records
In the all the furor about Google handing over 12 terabytes of user data from YouTube to Viacom, ClickZ noted a small win for the search giant: they don't have to turn over ad data. From the ClickZ article:
While Viacom also asked for records involving advertising transactions for Google's AdWords and AdSense programs, the judge rejected that request. Viacom reportedly had sought an electronic index that shows how data in a database are organized by listing the database's fields and tables, though not its underlying data.While I'm firmly with the Electronic Freedom Foundation and others as saying user data should not be tossed around like this, I must admit a small part of me is sad we won't get to see revenue info. Because if the Forbes estimate is right, Google is still having tremendous difficultly monetizing YouTube. It lends credence to a theory I've heard tossed around, most recently by an entrepreneur-in-residence at a venture capital firm here in San Francisco: Google didn't buy YouTube because of the money they could make, they bought YouTube to silence a potential competitor. With Google Video numbers still anemic, it seems like a wise move.Viacom had contended this information would have shown that Google could or should have known that its advertising revenues were associated with the pirated videos...
Google doesn't disclose how much revenue it generates from advertising or branded video on YouTube. But Forbes estimates it at $200 million this year and $350 million in 2009.