Google's £900m purchase of YouTube not only reveals how important both 4C-style engaged community marketing is and how absolutely essential innovation is (see Death of me-to-ism), it could also represent the first giant leap towards the 'better content' that Google's chief recently referred to in a bit of a throw-away line (see here).
I initially thought that might mean choice editors (of the consumer media brand kind) were about to find an increasingly important role in a proliferating world.
But that may be just part of it.
From what I understand from the BBC's reporting of the YouTube sale, the google plan includes paying users for the content they provide. Perhaps learning from OhMyNews (see 'ones to watch) or perhaps just applying their adsense model for good, google will pay the video makers on YouTube.
Exactly how remains unclear. Will you get a share of the adsense revenue generated on ads placed against your content. Will you get a pay for play.
What ever the model the intention is clear - make good stuff that more people want to see and you'll get paid the most.
And when you line that up alongside the UK launch of Al Gore's Current TV... well, where do you think this leaves/takes media companies?
Oh, and here are the YouTube founders laughing all the way to the bank:
I also have to recommend you read Publishing2.0 today (Oct 10) (see recommended blogs) on how the gootube deal raises questions about what media is - has it got anything to do with content anymore, or is it just about the aggregation of audience by whatever means?
The further ahead you look - the faster you go | davidpcushman AT gmail.com | These are my views and my views only.
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The rate of change is so rapid it's difficult for one person to keep up to speed. Let's pool our thoughts, share our reactions and, who knows, even reach some shared conclusions worth arriving at?
Wiktionary defines Medium (pl media) as “a format for presenting information”. It’s hard to see how Google can believe it’s not in the media business. Granted it’s more tech-based than print but hey, Caxton must have been pretty cutting edge back in 1476 compared to quill pens.
ReplyDeleteMonetising by serving ads against content is part of a business strategy. The fact that the content is created by freelancers is irrelevant.
Flixxya and a few other sites have already begun the 'paid user' concept by embedding Google Adense tags...
ReplyDeleteTheir stumbling block is that it's complicated for the user to implement, and no bugger has ever heard of them....
More ramblings at:
ReplyDeletehttp://thewayoftheweb.blogspot.com/