Interesting Article

This was passed onto me by a friend from the Wall Street Journal... i'm not sure how old it is but its another validation of the online video market. 2007 will be huge for online video.

So Popular it triples the viewers of American Idol.
An investment of $11.5 million in this new entertainment has already returned 14,247% within a year
And Forbes thinks it could eventually "be more profitable than Amazon.com and eBay"

It was a blockbuster night, surpassing the most optimistic predictions.
On Tuesday, January 16, 2007, America Idol started its sixth season. More than 37.3 million watched the season's premier. It was huge. In fact, it was the biggest audience in Fox's history. Nothing came close. However, on that same day, another "show" tripled America's Idol's viewers. To put it into perspective, one out of every 3 Americans watched it. I'm talking about, of course, the website YouTubeYouTube is an entertainment and Internet blockbuster. Every week, 700 million users watch videos on YouTube. Every single week! YouTube gets so much traffic that last year Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion.

On Tuesday, January 16, 2007, America Idol started its sixth season. More than 37.3 million watched the season's premier. It was huge. In fact, it was the biggest audience in Fox's history. Nothing came close. However, on that same day, another "show" tripled America's Idol's viewers. To put it into perspective, one out of every 3 Americans watched it. I'm talking about, of course, the website YouTube

YouTube is an entertainment and Internet blockbuster. Every week, 700 million users watch videos on YouTube. Every single week!
YouTube gets so much traffic that last year Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion.
One of the original investors in YouTube is said to be walking away with $460 million... after giving YouTube $11.5 million in capital. This has launched a mega bull market in online video. Let me tell you why online video is the wave of the future for the Internet.

Birth of a New Technology Bull Market
Even before the YouTube buyout this past October, the industry buzz was that online video was about to explode into the stratosphere... and lead technology into a new bull market. I couldn't agree more. Let me explain...

YouTube was founded just 19-months ago by a couple of code writers from Silicon Valley. During that time, the company remained private. So when Google came knocking with $1.65 billion, Wall Street got left out in the cold. There was no way for Wall Street or individual investors like you and me to profit from it. I mean think about that for a second. In just a year-and-a-half, a company went from just an idea with $0 valuation to one of hottest websites worth $1.65 billion. That's a money-making tipping point, my friend. How? Because Wall Street missed the boat on YouTube. But it won't miss it the next time around. As you read this, Wall Street investment bankers are scrambling to find online video providers to invest in and to take public.

Why? Because online video is the Holy Grail of the Internet. In fact, as early as 2000, movie rental giant Blockbuster was talking about providing movies for download off the Internet. But it was way too soon. The technology just wasn't there to allow for a quick download. Downloading Saving Private Ryan would take 7-hours. Who wants to wait for that?!? Today, however, that's all changed. With DSL, cable and high-speed wireless connections, online video is booming. Check this out: 110 million people download 250 million online videos every single day! As a result, online video advertising is expected to skyrocket. Take a look:

• From less than 1 million in 2005 to over 50 million unique viewers per month watching UGV (user-generated video) online today
• Overall video ad spending is estimated to grow from $640 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2009
• Fastest single growing area within advertising sector
• Internet video grew by 50.2% in 2005 to 17.9 billion streams and is forecast to grow by 32% in 2006 to over 23 billion served

This is a revolution. And Wall Street knows it. I believe the next 2 to 3 years are going to be boom times for technology stocks in general, and online video stocks in particular. But here's the problem: can you name me a stock that's a pure play on online video?

You can't, because they didn't exist. Until recently. A few months ago, the very first online video site stock started trading. I immediately recommended it to my readers. We got in around $4 a share. Yesterday it made a record high of $5.25. But I think it's going to $20. This assumes, of course, that this $5 online video stock isn't acquired first by some big media company. We've already seen this with YouTube, which you know was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion.
But did you know that other online video and "social networking" sites are being snapped up at huge premiums? These sites are hotter than Super Bowl tickets. Take a look:

• News Corp. buys MySpace for $580 million in 2005
• AtomFilms acquired for $200 million by MTV/Viacom on August 10, 2006
• Grouper.com bought out by Sony Pictures for $65 million on August 22, 2006
• YouTube acquired by Google for $1.65 billion

It's easy to see why Wall Street is salivating to get a piece of the action. With traffic to these websites growing every week, advertisement dollars going into online video are expected to grow dramatically.
This stock is going to run... and run hard.

Communities Dominate?

Recently I had the privelege of receiving a signed copy of a book called Communities Dominate Brands by Alan Moore. Its a fantastic book. I'm about three quarters of the way through and has certainly been revelationary in parts for me. Its opened my eyes to the power of communities online, and the effect our connectedness is having on businesses, brands and society in general.

I'm struggling to remember all the great facts i've read and i really should have got the highlighter out (do ppl highlight things anymore these days?), but some great observations and statistics you'll find in the book:

• Today's consumer is informed and empowered. Just 4% will remain loyal to a brand if they find a better offer
• 600 million mobile phones will be sold this year
• Only 1% of movies made each year are shown in the USA
• Blogs are an incredibly efficient form of word of mouth marketing
• Mobiles are the 7th mass media (see Nokia's announcement just yesterday around their new advertising service here)
• People embrace what they create

There's plenty more in there so i would recommend getting yourself a copy. You'll also find some good reading at Alans blog, Communities Dominate Blogs

The Not So Inevitable Second Blog

So I've managed to get past 1st base, but I'm not on a date and nor am i playing baseball.

I've managed to post a second blog, which is a quite an achievement really, as the number of inactive blogs are reportedly outnumbering active blogs these days. I suspect this must include spam blogs on the inactive side, otherwise there really are an enormous amount of quitters out there. Send them all to rehab I say.

So for this blog entry its back to its pre-tangent course and the archetypal first blog entry: what the hell is this blog all about?

This blog is about brands and media in the age of online video and digital culture. Its about communities and marketing in the connected world. Its about me participating in the new participatory culture.

I will do my upmost to post often and write about interesting things. The waffle will be kept to a minimum. Hmmm ... onto the next post!

The Inevitable First Blog

I believe i had an aborted first attempt at creating a blog about global warming, so that subject heading may not be entirely true. Perhaps then, i should use this blog entry to explore any brands that may benefit or evolve out of the advent of global warming? Here i go, off on a tangent already. But there is an interesting point there. Not a day goes by now that a new report on global warming does not make it into the paper, and surely it doesn't get more topical?

I think current tv is a shining example in the online video space of a new online TV brand benefiting from their founder's (that would be Al Gore incase you didn't know) wonderful foray into political movie making. An inconvenient truth was one of my favourite movies of last year, and not because he takes the title of 'most politically ineffectual documentary maker' from Michael Moore.

Here's a good example of a current.tv vid about global warming. I'm regularly amazed at the quality of production in current TV, in particular because i rarely see advertising or a business model to speak of. But it is there.

Good Ol Al has negotiated a fantastic deal that puts his best user generated content onto network television in the US and UK via its own channel, and exposes his top talent to the warm fuzzy revenues that poor into traditional television. The best voted content from the site get the call up to the small screen and make $1000 too , so its one big happy community. He certainly does have a great community building itself there, and what i think will become a great brand. Its user generated content that puts the backstreet mimes on Youtube to shame. And the user generated ads are a stroke of genius. I'm just wondering what he's going to do when the honey pot falls out of the TV ad market as brands finally get fed up.

Oh don't worry about Al, the bottom will fall into the top of the internet video ad market. Al's laughing his way to the bank ... or is that another run at the presidency ...