> COVER STORY ‘
Other media companies are beginning to work with YouTube. For example, videos where copyrighted music has been included by users are emerging as an ad platform’
The impact of YouTube and other services like Twitter and Google’s news aggregation service (which includes YouTube video) on media has been profound and it is an accepted fact that many of today’s teenagers and 20-somethings no longer watch linear TV in the living room, but consume their media on their own terms and in their own time. This has spawned a counter revolution among broadcasters to bring out their own catch-up TV products. YouTube itself has added to the fire by introducing full-length shows as well as streaming events like U2’s concert in Las Vegas and experimenting with real-time television. From YouTube’s perspective, Hurley still believes there’s a serious amount of work to be done to improve the quality of experience for every user. “It’s really early in terms of what we can do. We need to continue to focus on making the site easier to use. I still think it’s too hard to find what you’re looking for. I think we need to solve that, not just search, but how do you connect with individuals who want to share content with you from a social networking aspect? We’re also look- ing at building better and better recommendations and related con- tent – that’s always been our strength over linear TV. “It really is a combination of improving all of those things. That’s what we’re focused on today: delivering a consistent experience over multiple devices, so you can consume media from the site and interact with it on your PC or TV and then we can go about tackling more business opportunities such as subscriptions and pay per view services. “It would be great if we became a seamless platform that support- ed all forms of media distribution.”
Future fortunes Looking to the future of online advertising and monetisation of con- tent, Hurley says this area is going to be enormous, judging by the progress of the last five years alone.
“First we needed the sales placement tools in place and integration with Google is something that’s taken time and also shortly after they acquired us they acquired Doubleclick, which we were on and they needed to create the integrated systems. “We needed to prove the format and function – in our eyes creat-
ing a great ad experience is critical to creating great content for the community and we have some way to go in terms of integration with the TV world. TV is still a linear broadcast medium and they will even- tually be pooling ads to serve the individual; that will take time. Once
26 Marketing Age Volume 4 Issue 4 2010
those integrated systems are in place you’ll see a dramatic increase in the number of web dollars.” The advent of internet television clearly has Hurley excited but
before he and his colleagues can enjoy the spoils, the traditional media giants have a bone to pick, especially Viacom, which has sued YouTube and lost.
“The big media guys want to ban copyright violators but really
they’re as concerned about losing control of distribution. The [Viacom] summary judgement ruled in our favour and it shows we were doing the right thing and that we were really the most proac- tive in this space. We had the technology to deal with copyright problems.”
Other media companies are beginning to work with YouTube. For example, videos where copyrighted music has been included by users are emerging as an ad platform. “Some of the biggest fans are creat- ing videos and put some music to them,” Hurley points out. “We could simply remove all these videos but instead of just removing videos, we are able to place ads in them and derive revenue for the copyright holder. “We’re seeing these opportunities with other types of media com- panies and they are embracing it and it helps them create more of a fan base, build more revenue and not view it as a problem but an opportunity.”
As social media becomes a catch-all for all web endeavours, entre-
preneurs and nations around the world are seeking out the internet’s next big thing. Discovering the next Twitter, YouTube or Google or Facebook is a global pursuit. Smartphones will be in the hands of 50pc of all mobile users in the US by next year and the next billion internet users will be accessing the internet by mobile broadband. Hurley’s advice to anyone with a great idea is to surround them- selves with great people and be prepared to adapt. “You may have initial thoughts or ideas of how something would work but you need to observe how your community is using it, how your staff personal- ly are using and then make necessary changes. Do not be afraid of changes in direction mid-course.
“When we began we had this idea it would be a video profile con- cept that you would upload your own content sitting at your own desktop, but very quickly we knew that was too narrow, we knew we needed to become a video platform that accepted all kinds of video communication,” he concludes. “The biggest advice is just be flexible and be willing to adapt.”
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