Video
sharing websites such as YouTube and Tumblr have become a world wide source of
entertainment and even income for anybody from amateur videographers to
professional corporations and businesses looking to capitalize of the craze
that these Web 2.0 websites have provided.
These video websites are a great example of the connectivity that Web
2.0 websites has provided to our present day world. These websites bring people together in way
that never before has been thought possible. These websites do not have limits
on who can post videos, anybody at any given point of the day can pull out
their camera, make a video, upload it within seconds where it could be viewed
by someone on the opposite side of the globe.
It
is not just amateurs embarking on the path of video-sharing sights either.
Professionals from musicians to fortune 500 companies are making and uploading
videos as a new way to market their products. These platforms have even became
ways for politicians to run their campaigns and reach out to many more people
than they would have been able to at just normal rallies in different cities. “Many artists
and musicians have used viral video to promote and spread their work.
Politicians are extensively using the free mediums to spread their messages and
promote their agendas and platforms. Additionally, viral videos and short films
have become some of the most popular forms of entertainment over the past few
years.”[1]
Business owners are taking the opportunities
that these websites presents as well. These websites have opened up an entirely
different field of advertising and marketing for companies. Unlike at any other
point in history, company’s ideas can be distributed on a entirely global
scale. When before they were limited to local or even national markets,
video-sharing websites allow companies messages to be exponentially more spread
out. For example, an up and coming sports drink company can produce a video,
which can be seen all over the world. This maximizes the potential for the
company to succeed because more people than ever can learn about their
products, and instead of only possibly taking off in local markets, there is a
chance it could explode into a global brand.
With the explosion of more and more of video websites it is not
only large companies that are using them for their benefits. The phenomenon of
the “viral video” and the prospect of making it rich through online videos were
born. New dreams of becoming the next video with a million hits had instantly
become one of the most popular attempts fame and fortune. “But now, viral videos have
become more excessive because we have more sites to host them and more means to
reproduce and share them.”[2]
With so
many videos posted on so many websites chances have become pretty slim of your
video becoming the next “Numa Numa” or “Star Wars Kid”. Television has even
caught the viral video bug. It seems like every time the TV is on there is
another show dedicated to crazy videos pulled off line. Still this has not
slowed to many people down. It has become a common thought that if one posts a
video that gets a million views they will be instantly successful. But with the
explosion of so many videos this is not the case. For example a boy from Washington
state, “whose YouTube video went viral
starting Christmas week, by now viewed more than 1.7 million times”, but “all
those YouTube views have so far netted around $400 for ads that run before the
video begins.”[3] So even with the
million views the money earned is not even from the video itself. Maybe due to
the amount of video-sharing websites the allure of these instant sensations
seems to fizz out much more quickly when the next day there is just another
video who will get just as many views. Its makes sense that something of this
nature were to happen. There is just not enough money to go around when there
are hundreds even thousands of viral videos, when a few years back viral videos
were few and far between and allowed them to stand out in society much more
than in todays world.
To conclude the world of video sharing will only continue to
grow in the coming years. “By providing a way for people to share videos, YouTube has
introduced viral videos and made them a part of our global culture.”[4] The dreams of hitting it
rich off the Internet will always be there for people from all walks of life. It
could be the 12 year old boy next door, or multi-millionaire at the end of the
block, but in any case someone will be trying to capitalize on this new found
form of entertainment, advertising, and marketing. My conclusion is that Web
2.0 websites, specifically in the form of video sharing has left an indefinite
mark on global society that will continue to stick around for years and years
to come.
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