Online Video Gets $8 Billion From Investors So Far

Michael Learmonth posted an article last week that outlines the amount of money that has been poured into online video companies and platforms for the last several years:

2005: $1.764 billion
2006: $2.117 billion
2007: $2.009 billion
2008: $453 million

SEE ALSO: Online Video Rebounds to Over 39 Billion Videos and 9.5 Billion Ads, Total Viewers Drop

- data from DowJones VentureSource

Just back in March, we posted that investors had already put more than $200 million towards online video in the first quarter of this year.

When you total up those investments along with various acquisitions (Youtube, Grouper/Crackle, Maven, etc...), the total for 2005-2008 is more than $8 billion and counting.  As Michael points out, this excludes the money that has been poured into investments overseas.

In addition, he points out that while this seems like a ton of money, and it is; it pales in comparison to other speculative investments.

"Merrill Lynch wrote off $9 billion in bad mortgages in the first quarter of 2008 alone (and $29 billion since the meltdown began.)"

What do you think?

• April is Another Record-Breaking Month for Video Advertising: 9.5 Billion Online Video Ads Served

• We Now Watch 6 Billion Hours of Content A Month on YouTube

• 181 Million Americans Watch Over 40 Billion Videos Online In January