If you're like me, YouTube is thinking about taking out a restraining order on you, or giving you a medal. It's endlessly fascinating. LinuxElectrons outlines In-Stat's Consumer Media and Content Service's projection of growth in the UGC market. (user generated content)
User-Generated Content (UGC), such as that found on YouTube and MySpace, will continue to grow significantly in popularity and generate increasing revenue over the next several years, reports In-Stat. By 2010, the volume of downloads/views on these sites will surpass 65 billion, and revenues tied to UGC video are expected to exceed $850 million by 2010, the high-tech market research firm says. Revenues are those directly linked to videos in the form of banner/skyscrapers, embedded video, Google Adsense, and/or branded pages/channels.
"Democratization of media affords users the opportunity to express their opinions, rate content, and vote for their favorite videos," says Michael Inouye, In-Stat analyst. "In addition, what may currently seem like 'the Wild West' is actually an industry that has started to see idiosyncratic 'judiciary bodies' and 'rules of law' imposed by each player within this market."
Enormous opportunities and challenges are presenting themselves every day for equipment manufacturers and service providers. Advertisers should pay attention too. If you're reading this, you already know that the web is the best place to get your news. By 2010 it might be the best place to get everything.
Read the whole thing here.