YouTube Will Be a $1.3B Business in 2011

YouTube has grown up fast of the last several years, with more than 35 hours of videos being uploaded every minute. And with the firm monetizing more than 2 billion video views each week, the amount of money YouTube makes is accelerating dramatically, with one analyst estimating that the video site could top $1.3 billion in revenues this year, according to a posting by Ryan Lawler at gigaom.com.

Citi analyst Mark Mahaney gave an update on the YouTube forecast as part of his “Updating The Long Thesis – Five Key Updates” research note issued this morning. In it, Mahaney estimated that YouTube revenues were approximately $825 million in 2010, and are expected to grow to $1.3 billion in 2011 and $1.7 billion in 2012.

At the same time, the amount of money that Google actually takes home after deducting the revenue share from its partners will grow from $544 million in 2010 to $876 million this year and $1.1 billion in 2012.

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