OT - The explosion of video-hosting sites.

Stonefield wrote on 8/26/2006, 3:27 PM
As we all know, the explosion of webvideo hosting sites has become quite the phenomenon. YouTube, My Space Videos, Metacafe, Google Video, iFilm, and now one that's new to me, Grouper. ( Now owned by Sony )

My guess as to why Sony wanted to get into the hosting biz, is of course, the access to the hundreds of thousand of emails from all those registered users. As indicated by Microsoft's purchase of Hotmail years ago, if you have access to millions of live emails, you can be a major player in the online direct sales routines and that's gold. The reason why anyone buys an already established website where millions of hits are recorded each month, ( or more ) is the access and attention to all those people. Adverstising is the key. And if you got the biggest billboard, you can call the shots.

What I'm curious about, and this is what I wanted to open for discussion, is how and why any one particular video hosting site becomes popular ? I guess all the talk around YouTube has crowned that site as the king of video hosting. Some may argue of course and I'd like to hear those discussions. But as I say , WHAT makes a site so popular ? Is it ease of uploading ? Video quality ? Ease of registering ? How about additional features ? Like easy hotlinking to another site, blogs, comments, fast searching......all of these I guess would add to a site's popularity and attract people to view and upload their content ( good or bad ) to one site as opposed to another's.

What do you think folks ? What your take on these web video hosting sites and their popularity ? What makes them tick and what can they do for us ?

Love to hear your comments....

Stan ( Stonefield )

Comments

vicmilt wrote on 8/26/2006, 5:49 PM
Once again - it's great to be alive right now!

This video hosting is going to be a huge factor in the development of interpersonal communication.

Not everyone can paint.
Not everyone can sing.
Not everyone can write...
but any moron can pick up a video camera and to a greater or lesser degree express what's on their mind.

In the past you'd need money, distribution and marketing.
Now you can get millions of viewings for just...

well, that's why I'm glad to be alive right now!

It's gonna be one hell of a ride, fer sure!

v
fldave wrote on 8/26/2006, 7:41 PM
They can do a lot for us, this is the start of a new paradigm. The start of "every movie or tv show or Jackass video, ever made, when ever you want it." For a price, though. My future desires are: High Def, full selection, no commercials, download, play a few times like my TIVO-like recordings. Pay a little more to keep on Blu-Ray. That won't happen for a few more years. Decades, if the big studios have their way.

Right now, though, it's all marketing. See the topic on this board for Sony buys Grouper.com, then go to the PBS/Cringely link and read. Cringely has one of the more visionary minds among us, able to see the strategy behind the headlines.

It's about page views, click throughs, targeted marketing, tracking (yes, very easy even without spyware assisting), history, etc.

The sites that win are the ones that are unobtrusive. I don't want bugs crawling across my screen, chase the penquin and click, keyed images floating above the text I'm trying to read, etc. I had hoped all that died after the dot com bust, but that marketing method has come back with a vengance.

Would you pay a little more for no commercials? I thought I was. $115 for Satellite, $60 for basic cable and cable internet. "Buy this." "You are nobody unless you have this." Especially for the kids shows. My son now "has" to have so many crap things, because the TV says he needs it. Though that's no different than when I was growing up. But TV was free then.

So how much is no commercials worth to you? I don't know how much I would pay, but I would be tempted to fork over a considerable sum. Gee, I would miss the Superbowl commercials, though.

Do you want to know the secret of what is going to be successful on the internet?

Teenagers, teenagers, and to a lesser degree, college students.

Edited: I didn't mean to insult those here that make commercials :) I just don't like them when they are not expected!
TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/26/2006, 8:33 PM
that's not true... anyone can paint, anyone can sing, anyone can write & anyone can use a video camera. We're just on a video forum so we don't see that (you've watch Americon Idol, right? See? Anybody CAN sing!).

this is going nuts because it's free/cheap & easy to use. If it wasn't free/cheap, then someone's trying to make you work to share your work & then people give up. Nothing easier then uploading a vid & sending a link. Nothing. Even FTP is harder because you have to make the link yourself. :)

it's not really any different then when bbs's went from call in to on the net. Then suddendly everybody had an opinion because to access a bbs you went to www.bbsnamehere.com, no more dialing the bbs, logging in, navigating, etc.

soon it will just be common place. & if Verizon has it's way we'll be paying by the bit. :)
Sportsterpaul wrote on 8/27/2006, 1:22 AM
Here is a good wrap-up
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=100934

I tried the DIVX site and the videos would not work on Explorer or Opera. Not ready for prime time.