Google's new gambit: YouTube for business

Google is making another aggressive move to woo business customers with a new product it is pitching as the YouTube for business.

As part of its package of online software that includes e-mail, instant messaging, calendars, word processing and spreadsheets, Google is now offering video to companies.

YouTube helped jump-start the online video craze with consumers. Corporate parent Google Inc. is banking that it can do the same in the business world.

The free add-on to Google Apps allows employees to upload a video -- say a training video, a corporate announcement or highlights of a sales conference -- and then invite colleagues to view it securely. Employees can also comment on videos, add descriptions and tags, embed videos in internal Web pages, search for any video to which they have access or download videos to their laptops or phones.

It's another salvo in the clash of the tech titans, which has heated up with Google's marketing of online software to compete with Microsoft's lucrative Office business. Microsoft, meanwhile, has spent billions and tried to buy Yahoo to compete with Google in search and advertising. And the companies also battle over online maps, cellphones and, yes, video.

Microsoft is fighting back by throwing lots of money and talent to make more of its software ...

... available as a Web service. The test for Google: Can it move beyond search into online software for enterprises, a space dubbed Enterprise 2.0?

Companies tend to move slowly when buying new software. But small and mid-size companies as well as universities are beginning to seriously consider Google's online software to reduce their costs and technology headaches, analysts say. Google charges companies with more than 50 users $50 a year per user.

How big a draw will video be for businesses? Analysts aren't sure. Until now, companies have been slower to adopt video because of the cost and complexity.

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What's a video worth? Leveraged effectively in a business, it could be pretty valuable," said Rebecca Wettemann, a vice president at Nucleus Research. "Google still needs to push the business case why it makes sense."

In making that case, Google will be following in the footsteps of companies such as San Mateo-based Veodia, which also offers companies easier, more affordable ways to use video. Veodia founder and Chief Executive Guillaume Cohen says companies that use Veodia increase collaboration and productivity and forge stronger ties with customers.

Google says it has gotten good results testing the video software internally, for example creating product demonstrations to get real-time feedback.

"We think this is going to change the game," said Rishi Chandra, a Google Apps product manager.

AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy says he's impressed with the progress Google is making in appealing to corporate America.

"Companies are still trying to wrap their arms around what uses video has, but this opens up the door to the possibility that video will become popular within enterprises," Murphy said. "I am starting to field questions from companies about the feasibility of using Google Apps. There are a lot of companies out there still using Lotus Notes thinking about switching to Microsoft Office. That Google has managed to insinuate itself into those discussions is significant."

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Google Video for business. Credit: Google

Comments

[spirit_long71]

Google is looking to do the same thing in China. Subaye offers the premier B2B video platform in China...
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS140109+21-May-2008+PRN20080521

http://investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=13868&mn=18561&pt=msg&mid=5488656

[Donald Wilson]

I recently previewed a website (equedia.com) that is a video network and multimedia social community for business and i must say that it is pretty interesting. funny how all of a sudden I see Google doing the same thing?!?!

I have a been a big fan of Google - until this year. They bash Microsoft and then do exactly what microsoft did to everyone else years back! Its only a matter of time before they get slapped with monopoly-related law suits!

[Guillaume Cohen]

This looks like a nice repackaging of YouTube with an enterprise spin. Our experience selling to the enterprise though is that there are specific requirements that seem to be missing from this new offering:

1. Companies want to integrate video into their existing business processes and IT environments, they do not want to go to a dedicated YouTube page outside of their workflow. Veodia is designed to integrate into other collaboration platforms and learning management systems (single-sign-on, etc)

2. High video quality is a strong enterprise requirement and YouTube quality is not sufficient for enterprise standards, whether you want to use it for executive communications, partner communications, as a support for sales, or employee knowledge sharing.

3. Enterprises need more metrics and reports on usage to measure the success of their use of video. They also need more control for IT departments to be comfortable with it. In fact, many enterprises prevent employees from streaming from YouTube. Veodia provides administrative controls that make it more manageable and preserve enterprise networks.

4. Last but not least: no enterprise will buy a service from you if it doesn’t come with enterprise-level support. Large enterprises don’t just look at functionalities but also what level of support and Service Level Agreement (SLA) they are getting. Expectations from a paying customers are very different than expectations from a free consumer. Vendors serving that market need to have their company structured to address these requirements, with dedicated sales and support people (ask Marc Benioff from salesforce.com how he did it). It’s very hard to make a move from the consumer space to the enterprise, and you can’t run it as a side business... I’ll be curious to see how Google addresses that one.

Now, I agree with Google there’s a huge and growing demand, we’re seeing it every day with our customers, and we’ll be announcing more large customer wins next week that validate the adoption. The use of video in the enterprise is going to be big and it will dramatically change the nature of internal and external communications. Enterprise has been our only focus at Veodia the past few years and this is why we’ve been successful so far.

Guillaume Cohen, CEO
Veodia

[Howard Wang]

There is little doubt that Google is taking direct aim at the core of Microsofts business. The key is the global nature of the Google plan.

One need only look at China and the 5th Annual SME Fair that just wrapped up today.

Over 6,000 SMEs exibited yet the most excitement was generated by Googles SaaS exibit along with Subaye.com, an all inclusive B2B compnay here that is showing explosive growth.