YouTube is a supply-side phenomenon, says The Economist
The Economist takes a look at YouTube this week, and says that the start-up is showing "arrogant " giants like Google how to dance when it comes to video.
It picks up on the trend towards micro-chunked content (looking at lots of short pieces of content) and also places the success of the site as part of the supply-side phenomenon that consumer-generated content:
This emerging clip culture is also a supply-side phenomenon. Only 10% of the clips on YouTube are from film-industry “professionals”, says Mr Chen. About 80% come from rank amateurs, and another 10% from “dedicated amateurs”, such as young comedians hoping to use internet celebrity as a way into a career. Unlike the big media companies looking to recycle their film libraries, Google Video and YouTube are simply giving ordinary people a way to share clips. And compared with big, frightening Google, which Messrs Hurley and Chen consider arrogant, little YouTube seems to be doing it a lot better.
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