youtube is an awesome example of using the customer as a co-producer in the service process. much like the McD counter that "lets" you pour your own beverage (resulting in one less employee needed per shift), it lets the user upload all the content, and all they provide is the database for people to do it.
It's funny... anyone who is over 25 should remember the 2 Jan 2001 tech bubble bursting. What caused it? Among other things, overinflated value estimates of stocks. Once confidence weens, it's all over. Once the code goes public, politics take over, and/or bandwidth prices drop with the next magic internet wire, youtube is toast. And the google kids know it. They just believe that 1.6 B in stock is less than the value it'll bring to current stock value before the barriers to entry are gone and the technology/database of videos/subscriber base is no longer worth it. Google is worth 80billion - what is 1.6B in stock (that the youtube kids prob have to sell very slowly) really going to do? We're all talking about it, so...
This always happens. Can you believe people once put millions into a company which based its business model on the prediction that people would be repeat buyers of 20-pound dog food bags coming in their mail? I mean, didn't anyone do a simple shipping cost per square foot analysis to see that people were going to be wooed into overpaying by that sock puppet for only so long?
