Does youtube PHAIL me!?

So we all know its coming now? These "Dreaded" changes for youtube? The Change that will switch the focus from its core existence to be more like a TV portal than a User generated video siteThats a Huge Shift from its grass roots beginnings, and if it scares you, dont worry, it should.


For all intents and purposes, the appeal of Youtube has always been that user generated video that peoplewant to see (pay attention to the fact i did not define what User generated consitutues YET), as some type of voyeristic fullfillment that you, the viewer, would normally be arrested for. (Because basically you would be peering into someones windows to see this type of reality situation?) That is what made the site and no one, not even the creators of the site, can deny that, no matter how much fact is laid out to bare out there claims, that modelworked in the age of reality TV and it worked because it was fresh, new and truthfully "unscripted" unlke its TV counterpart cousins.


Lets all acknowledge some things about youtube. the proliferation of video on the web is successful today because of the emergence ofyoutube and its huge popularity. oh sure there were predecessors that "fiddled" with the concept, maybe a few who could see the 50,000 ft level viewBut for all its existence, youtube did create and carry the banner,rallying the world to video on demand and video on the web. (I am not side stepping the technologies behind it all from the Likes of On2 Technologies FLIX and Macromedia, Now Adobe products Flash Media Server, but the initial NEED drove the creation and the re-creation of the tools necessary to make video on the web a reality.)


Secondly, youtube, being purchased by google, was a significant event. In buying Youtube for, what was then thought to be a ridiculousprice tag, Google gave validity to the prescence of streaming media on the web. Google showed the business world that it believed the futurerevovled loosely around the Youtube Model, and google should know, it is still hailed as the innovator of all things web. But what google purchasedWas not the actual "MODEL", they were more foresighted than that. Google purchased a formula that could be used to spawn more than justuser generated, silly, everyday people entertainment. Some where in Googles infinite knowledge, they saw a shiny, new, porshe shaped vehicle for communication/marketing that was unrestricted by a set loction or governmental entity. (take that in the internet sense of unrestricted)


Now we jump ahead, four years since and Youtube is the Mecca for all things video. some how the model succeeded and a gi-normous subculturesformed beneath this behemouths structure like a migrant tent city on a fertile spot of a manicured landscape. Hold that thoughtof Migrant City for a second, i'll get back to it.


I wanna stop here to briefly look at what i think, IMHO, where Youtube missed an oppurtunity by not thinking out of the box ( a rare lack of foresight on googles part as far as i am concerned and remember, i am biased, i am an inhabitant of the vagrant tent city), where it concerns user generated content. some where along the way, Youtube/Google introduced the partner program and i think we would be niave to think we werent guinea pigs for what was to come, the move towards revenue generated videos by bigger entities other than ourselves. Youtube gave every day users a chance to generate income by placing ads on videos and there by generating money for the parent as well as the children of the partnership program. In its existence, Youtube has never been profitable, and who's to say if google never purchased it, it will still be where it is today?But in establishing the Partner program, (WARNING: this statement caused visceral reactions and opinions last time i uttered it some 13 monthsago.) Youtube, in a partnership with other entities, namely people, DID NOT HELP these significant others by not promoting them across the site. most people still to this day, revile that statement, but let me do what i didnt do the first timei spoke those words, lets have a real world example.

Lets take the example of a lemonade stand, very simple.


I have a lemonade stand, i make the best lemonade in all the world. in factjust after opening my lemonade stand, my lines had grown around the block and it grows longer every day. I need to expand and make more locations to maximize my availabllity and profit. i need a PARTNER. so i sell franchises of my product and in order for those new locations to be fruitful and multiply, i need to let the public know they dont have to stand in line any more, i now have several locations for them to get the worlds best lemonade, i therefore ADVERTISE and tell the general public, if you are looking for the best lemonade in the worldyou can get it here or you can get it from these locations. thus earning money for myself as the parent company and helping my children subsidiairies by advertising their existence in this lemonade world.(its the old, you scratch my back, i scratch yours Theory)


Now replace that lemonade example for a youtube partner making videos for youtube? youtube never truly promoted the partner/guinea pig program. By featuring partners, it would have made more ad revenue by pointing causual users to those video, popping up more impressions/clicks and thus generating revenue that both parent and child could share. that was my point 13 months ago. if you partner with another entityand you want that partership to be successful, you need to help those new hatchlings fly. you need to feed views to them until they can stand on their own and send that profit back to you. in the businiess world this is called an ROI or return on investment.


And here is also where Youtube Lacked the foresight to make the causual user a permanant user in mass amounts that might have turned itprofitable. there is such a wealth of talent on youtube. it has always been my assertion that if youtube fully understood that, they may have developed "shows" around that talent and featured that show much like they did with Youtube Live in November. sorry did i just spin your head?Ma bad!


Lets say it this way, Youtube could have gone LONELYGIRL15 on every one, created a regular saturday Night Live variety show of its ownand promoted that as a weekly event to draw people away from the tv and keep them on the computer. a three hour event each friday where youtube does a skit based or viewer interactive content that engaged its visitors by using the wealth of videos it receives everyday as the content.


The Reason LonelyGirl15 worked is because it captivated its audience by being regular, interactive and emotionally compelling. IMHO, youtube could have easily taken this model and applied it to a "FEATRUE SHOW" every week inwhich they organizesd the best of the best of youtube and showcased it on its own weekly Saturday night live structure. Oh wait, i hear ya, you're saying "THATS what featured videos are for!!". Featured videos look at one entities talent, a saturday night SHOW would feature MANY PEOPLES talentbecause for all that i have been here, i have seen SO MANY talented people that its almost OBVIOUS that a show like an Internet Saturday Night Livecould be produced Easily. Nuff said on that point, lets get back to the Subculture or "Migrant City" as i like to refer to them.


I love how people seem to feel they have a sense of entitlement to things when there is no ownership what so ever. "Well i upload videos to youtube that i create so youtube owes me something"No it doesnt? lets face facts people, Youtube is a Business that allows you, the USER of that business, to post videos for free, that doesnt entitle you to squwat. Youtube tried a business plan of using only User generated content and in many small ways it worked. the onyl area it didnt workis , it didnt return a profit. business is based on profit, like out lemonade stand example. If you arent making money and arent owned by google, your lemonade stand business will become dust on a shelf some where.


This subculture element was not something youtube expected, yet under its Huge growing Structure, a tent city grew along with it and a culture of users formedinto groups of people that supported the site as well as each other. But along the way, this group of people seemed to start assuming ownership of youtubein some sense of the word anyway, and while they did fuly engage the site into their waking days and night, the "possessionism" grew fanaticallyand people almost pretended to have MADE this site becuase they posted videos to it and were apart of a commmunity? well let me jst notify Google of that and we can all share the bills for things like servers and storage and bandwidth and remote locations. getting the picture yet? you dont own youtube, it is owned by google that is a coporation bent on world domination of the internet, a more or less dictatorialy ruler to be?


IMHO, we have all been guinea pigs for an experiment that started out quite innocently. we can pat ourselves on the back and say we did help revealand build a market for streaming media. the experiment has always been, can revenue be generated by online, streaming videoAnd would people come and watch it to produce that revenue stream. In simpler words, would commercials work in onlne video in the samemanner as they do on TV? And are we due anything for that effort? No, be happy you have a spot in the Migrant City under the behemouth structue that is now youtube. be happy you are generating some revenue if you are a partner, how ever great or meeger that maybe.


The Grim reality is, the average Youtube viewer is not some one of the subculture/community, tent city. Rather, the average youtube viewer is causual , only comes to seevideos that were in the news, looking for a clip of a favorite movie or wants to see a music video. We, of the Miniority, go to youtube religiously, but if you ask a group of normal every day teens and or adults, what do you go to see on youtube, 9 times out of 10 the answer will be the same. I wanted to see that guy get kicked in teh Nuts, or i wanted to see miley Cyrus's latest music video. You will not hear any of the names you, as a member of this community, spoken by those of the outside world. I know i conducted that experiment on a few of my many travels to gatherings around the world. Ok with one exception, i did start to hear the nameFred mentioned, but do you really consider him part fo the subculture? Exactly my point, infact to bare this out even more, look at what POPTUB featuresthey arent featuring users of youtube, they seem to be able to find the cute kitties or Kicked in the nuts shots that the REAL AVERAGE USER seeks.


So when the change is made and the Subculture is placed on the back burner for the more profit turning videos from movies, tv and the music industrydont feel too bad, i promise to bring a light bulb to our darkened closet and we can all moan about how youtube has forgotten us together, holding hands and yes you can borrow my hanky. Please be sure to pack extra light bulbs for your self as well. the fact of the mattter remains, this change isnt going to effect you as much as it is being given creedance. if you really look at it, all user videos have been in the closet for some time now.Just because the focus now turns to the most popular music, movie and tv videos doesnt mean this is a change other than to sayYoutube is following its statitics and statiscally, the average youtube viewer looks for these types of video as well as those viralvideos they hear about on the news. oh and throw in a cute kittie or puppy video and you now define the average youtube viewer. we of the subculture account for very little revenue into youtube, and thus the change. Dont believe me? search the most viewed videos . All i know is, I'll still be here
your Honor, i rest my case! this is the Mighty Thor, SEEE YA!