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“As women advanced in education levels and career tracks over the past few decades, Norway moved aggressively to accommodate them and their families. The state guarantees about 54 weeks of maternity leave, as well as 6 weeks of paternity leave. With the birth of a child comes a government payment of about 4,000 euros. State-subsidized day care is standard. The cost of living is high, but then again it’s assumed that both parents will work; indeed, during maternity leave a woman is paid 80 percent of her salary. “In Norway, the concern over fertility is mild,” Aassve told me. “What dominates is the issue of gender equity, and that in turn raises the fertility level. For example, there is a debate right now about whether to make paternity leave compulsory. It’s an issue of making sure women and men have equal rights and opportunities. If men are taking leave after the birth of a child, the women can return to work for part of that time.”

From the NYTimes

I’m fed up. What’s with the general upset over YouTube’s inability to turn a profit? Either everyone’s obsessed with instant ROI or people are just jealous of YouTube’s sell to Google.

Here’s the deal: companies - strong, successful organizations with long term viability - take time to build and profit. Don’t credit Google for making a dumb purchase just yet.

In other industries, long term ROI is more often a fact of life. While everyone in the valley rides the wave and overvalues a company like Facebook, Google is treating YouTube like a sandbox, toying with different strategies to ultimately make YouTube profitable - and that’s okay.

And remember the playland at McDonald’s? Google understands the notion of brand loyalty, and I can only imagine how much web video the pre-high school demo is consuming today. The result is a legion of viewers who don’t have purchasing power now, but will eventually be that coveted 18 to 34 demo.

The bottom line is that true monetization takes patience - I don’t know YouTube’s long term strategy, but it’s clear to me that they’re ignoring the high tides in favor of more consistent, favorable waters. At a time when everyone is frantically groping for a “monetization strategy”, YouTube is building out the most robust - albeit aesthetically unappealing - video destination site. Annotations is just the latest in a long line of awesome tools that no doubt increase community engagement and time spent on site (Hulu begins and ends with text commenting).

YouTube has a loyal (or at least consistent) audience, awesome tools, and the foresight to take it slow. You can make money overnight, but you can also make money over time.