Quote - I'm not aware of the earnings of CG share, though the proliferation of free hosting (as opposed to hosts who actually pay you to upload) would suggest that there is a value in hosting popular content. YouTube sold for quite a bit of money recently and I wouldn’t define that site as a marketplace. No bandwidth complaints there.

 

True, but as has already been pointed out. Some people will buy anything. LOL! YouTube is successfully making money from advertisers who want to pay to have their advertising on what has turned out to be a HUGE Media Center that reaches a HUGE Audience. It's also been funded by BIG Media players who think they see a way to cash in on it. You may not realise it but Media Center's are GOLD because they're based on information exchange and Information is the new Oil Money!

http://www.youtube.com/t/about

Renderosity wasn't always a marketplace either. It started out as a free community called poserforums.com if I recall correctly. I don't know the whole history of it myself, but it went from being a hobbiest community where freebies and sharing were the norm, to what we have now, a Marketplace moved by cashflow. If they wanted to change directions now, it would be pretty hard to do.

I'd even go so far as to predict that the CG site that finds a way to grow partnerships with big media houses like Pixar or LucasFilms, will soon become the dominant CG site on the net.