The main flaw in Google Videos was a delay in our upload process. It broke a company rule for product development: Make it fast. User-uploaded videos weren’t immediately available to watch, whereas on YouTube they were—a big problem. By the time we fixed it, we’d lost significant market share. YouTube was out-streaming us three to one, but financially they were struggling. Swamped by demand, they urgently needed capital to build infrastructure. It was clear they would have to sell.
