If Alvin Toffler ever went Shakespearean*, he would have suggested that ‘all ye take heede that future winds of change can best be rode by those ready to learn.’ Having exhausted all possible variations on online models of print, or publishing to be more exact, the eye of the online world has been steadily increasing its consumption of video.

Video Ga-Gadada-Da-Vida!

Think about it, already we have gone through two vast cycles. The lessons from the first were added to those of the second to form the basis of a new sensibility that was tagged as Web 2.0. People suddenly found expression and herded to the great cloud source in the sky; where each one of them was introduced to increasingly enticing and increasingly succinct methods of expression.

While they re-connected online with everyone in their lives, they also connected with new people. Trouble is, besides the fun and games offered by online social networking sites, most of it was still the same – words, messages, notes, comments, photos, links and videos.

Companies Contemplating Visual Frontiers

While the world watches Google negotiate between Murdoch’s anger and public outcry over their intentions to digitize as much of the world’s libraries they can, albeit with plans on the side for instant sale-delivery-and-printing retail outlets grafted into a typical bookshop the action is heating up on the video front. After all, we really are still searching for the ‘next big thing

Facing the wall are existing ideas such as YouTube. They have long since admitted they do not have what it takes to vet all of the user-generated clips on their site. Meanwhile, only about 10% of their content attracts advertising or carry ads. To get more, they would have to assure their advertisers that ads won’t appear near copyright-violating videos and adult content. Despite the fact that 81.9 % of all videos embedded or mentioned in blog posts are hosted on YouTube. They are pushing numbers to the tune of 19 billion videos currently.

Demand Manages Supply – An American Case Study

Searching for a new niche is US-based Demand Studios. One of the largest suppliers to YouTube, they are uploading hundreds of videos on a daily basis to YouTube. Needless to say, these videos are largely ‘How-To’ videos commissioned, edited and vetted to attract advertisers and mass-produced on a scale that manages to profit from Google’s revenue sharing model. Their ‘keywords’ are generated by an algorithm based on traffic patters and keyword rates that figures out what people are looking for.

No more commissioning editors, well-versed in all manner of topics. Writers do up to 10 articles and videographers do up to 40. They get about $15 for the articles and $20 for a video. Demand expects to earn revenue about $200 million this year and is valued at $1 billion by investors. Their payouts to writers and videographers have been a fraction of what newspapers and television companies shell out – $17 million. Do the math; obviously, someone has decided that volume, like size, does matter and is fast climbing up the ladder.

We believe there are people who are willing to pay to advertise on clean content. Just don’t expect a virtual mass media to centralize. We’re glad enough it’s converging. With so much video online, the problem of the future will be bandwidth.

* Which he actually never did; except perhaps for a brief while in ‘The Semi- Literate Shakespeare; Future Shock

 

The author, Arunesh Dogra, is a member of content writing team with Veda Informatics.