Making a Buck Off Your Pet-Trick Videos

To Win Traffic From YouTube, New Web Sites Pay for Clips

In his spare time, Patrick Sell, a 31-year-old marketing analyst, enjoys shooting short videos of well-dressed women strolling along New York City streets, then posting them on the Web. He used to upload his productions -- about 180 to date -- on the video-sharing phenomenon YouTube, but now prefers a new service called Revver. The reason: Revver pays him.

Revver allows Mr. Sell to pocket a portion of the revenue the site takes in from ads it attaches to his clips -- an amount that now earns him about $15 a day. "My issue with YouTube is that even as the producer of the video, I can't get paid for it," says the self-styled video auteur, who asks the women for permission to film them and also posts his clips on Idonothingallday.com.

The explosive growth of Internet video is allowing people not only to find an audience for their amateur productions. Now they can actually earn money from them. San Diego-based Eefoof Inc., launched just over a week ago, shares 50% of its profits from text ads and banner ads with users who upload their own online video clips. Shares are distributed based on the number of hits a particular video receives. Recently launched Panjea.com, operated by Aware Media Inc., shares 50% of revenue from the ads appearing on profile pages to which users can upload their own video and audio files. Users can also sell their content via download at a price they set, in which case they earn 85% of the sale. In May, Blip Networks Inc.'s Blip.TV began giving members half of the ad revenue it earns from the still-photograph and video ads that users can have placed at the end of their videos. Revver affixes an ad frame to the end of a video clip and gives the users 50% of the revenue generated when the ad is clicked on, whether the video is accessed from a Web site, shared across instant-messaging services or emailed between friends.

Ze Frank has earned more than $5,000 through Revver by posting his stand-up comedy shows featuring rants on pop culture, stunts and dancing.

Clips featured on sites that are helping people earn money run from someone chugging soy sauce on eeFoof.com to a child wading in a paddling pool on Blip.TV. Oddball antics, typically involving pets, are also big moneymakers (relatively speaking) in this arena. Revver, which has 30,000 videos in its system, says some users have earned more than $10,000 through the service and that many have earned more than $1,000. Eefoof.com says that a video that racks up between two and three million hits, a megablockbuster in the online world, would earn several thousand dollars from the site.

Watching online video, from comedy skits to failed cooking experiments, is fast becoming a favorite Internet amusement. Nearly one-quarter of Internet users watch online video at least once a week, according to the Online Publishers Association. To date, video sites have typically relied on members' good will and boredom to stock up on inventory that is funny, fresh and contagious. Now new sites hope that dangling cash perks before video uploaders will help them win traffic from more established players like YouTube and Google Video while helping creators share in the success of these sites. Using an ad-sharing service doesn't prevent filmmakers from also posting their clips on YouTube. YouTube did not answer repeated requests for comment.

Allowing self-styled Internet film makers to eke out some dollars from their creations could help the new sites win traffic. But it is unclear whether aspiring filmmakers of the talent these services aim to attract will set their sites beyond YouTube's massive audience (the site attracted more than 13 million unique monthly visitors in June, according to comScore Networks Inc.) and turn to these new services for a little cash. Michael David Lynch, a 24-year-old independent filmmaker living in Los Angeles, uploaded some music videos and a promotion for his coming short science-fiction film "Burden" to Panjea.com to network with industry players, rather than to make money. "I am just trying to get my films out there," he says.

The new video services come at a time when more Internet companies have begun experimenting with paying consumers for visiting their sites and sharing information. It is a response to growing competition as a flurry of new start-ups chase growing advertising revenues. MyPickList.com, a shopping-related site for user-generated product reviews and recommendations, launched in June giving users a commission of 1% to 10% on purchases made through their lists in part to win viewers from existing players like Kaboodle that rely on users to contribute information without getting paid.

While sites like Revver have managed to attract the attention and dollars of big brands like DreamWorks and American Apparel, the market for online video advertising is undeveloped. Online video watching isn't yet entrenched enough to attract mass advertiser attention, says Todd Chanko, an analyst at market researcher Jupiter Research. That means that these sites may continue to tweak their models as they see how the market shapes up.

Posting to an online video site can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the service. Users upload their file through a field on the site or separate software they download to their computers. From there, the clip enters a queue where it is typically reviewed for objectionable content and copyrighted material.

Popular webtoon 'Dinosaurchestra' by animator Shawn Vulliez (known online as 'ALTF4') with music by Lemon Demon.

Users who want to earn money for their work may have to register for revenue-sharing programs separately. To take part in Panjea's ad-share program or store, users must register with their Social Security number. Eefoof.com signs people who select a field indicating that they are the original author of the video up for ad-sharing automatically. (The site also offers ad-sharing for posting photos and audio.) Most of the sites pay users through PayPal, the online payment service owned by eBay Inc., to reduce credit-card fees.

The services typically don't give the viewer much discretion in the types of advertisements -- whether text ads on the page or video ads that appear at the end of their film -- that will be associated with their work. In some cases, visitors must click on the online ad in order for the creator to get paid. Revver lets users indicate whether there are any types of ads they don't want associated with their clips in a comment field.

By helping independent media makers earn a buck, the new services argue that they can increase the quality of online video content. The prospect of being compensated for their efforts is already causing some amateur filmmakers to invest a little more in their movies. Steve Heffron, 45, a Webmaster in Sacramento, Calif., has posted some 20 clips to YouTube, mostly Japanese-style, anime-inspired video clips. But after discovering Eefoof.com last week, he and his friends have something bigger planned -- an anime-inspired feature with some live-action shots. "We are not just playing around anymore," he says. "With the possibility of being rich, we want everything to be perfect."

Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com

(c) Wall Street Journal

Особенности текущей стадии развития рынка премиум контент в Азии

Выдержка из статьи на ZDNet Asia:

In fact, revenues garnered from premium content across the Asia-Pacific totaled US$9.5 billion in 2005, compared to slightly over US$5 billion in 2004, according to figures from Frost & Sullivan.

"Ringback tones are finding [user] appeal in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, [where] China has the largest ringback tone market in the region," Chong said. Ringback tone services contributed RMB4.2 billion (US$525 million) to China's total mobile revenues in 2005, a four-fold increase in market size within a year, she noted.

"The popularity of these applications stem from their personalization features, renewing consumer interest in ringtones which have been increasingly commoditized," she added.

Music and video applications in the region have also grown into a market worth US$1.2 billion in 2005, largely driven by the popularity of music portals in Japan and South Korea, Chong said. "This market is expected to be the fastest growing, with a CAGR of 76.1 percent from 2005 to 2010," she said.

Chong pointed that in South Korea, for example, SK Telecom's Melon music portal has already attracted 600,000 subscribers at the end of June 2006. The portal offers users a selection of 700,000 songs for a flat monthly fee of US$5. Similarly in Japan, the Chaku-Uta Full music download service currently records some 3.3 million downloads per month.

Frost & Sullivan expects music and video applications to surpass ringtones, wallpaper and icon downloads as the biggest revenue contributor of data revenues in Japan and South Korea, Chong noted. Although the mobile video and music download markets in other Asian countries are comparatively smaller, a strong preference for local content in those markets is expected to bolster demand for mobile content, she added.

When crafting a strategy to provide music and video download services, Chong advised operators to take a leaf from the success of Apple's iPod digital music player and its iTunes music download service.

She explained that although Singapore's Creative Technology had an 18-month headstart in the MP3 player market, it was the power of Apple's marketing and branding strategy that gave the iPod its iconic status. In addition, Apple provided record companies with an opportunity to combat piracy and benefit from sales of their intellectual property, she added.

"Increasingly, we are seeing more mobile operators moving in a similar direction, by developing an ecosystem through partnerships that reduce time-to-market and help operators establish instant branding for their content," she said.

For instance, U.K.-based Hutchison 3 has partnered with Sony BMG and EMI Music to supply full-length audio track downloads to users, while Japan's KDDI has established an alliance with Qualcomm to provide mobile TV services.

Apart from partnerships, the availability of flat-rate price plans is also crucial if operators want their mobile content offerings to prosper, Chong said. Given the huge data traffic generated by users in South Korea and Japan, operators in those countries have begun offering unlimited data access for a monthly fee, she noted.

"This can encourage greater network browsing and content purchase, particularly the downloading of bandwidth-heavy applications," she said.

In April this year, Singapore-based operator MobileOne slashed the price of its unlimited 3G data plan by 65 percent to S$68 (US$42) a month, in a bid to spur mobile broadband adoption in the island-state. Company CEO Neil Montefiore hopes this will drive data usage and increase 3G adoption among cellphone users.

Vodafone denies 3G snub

Following reports that it has given up on recouping its 3G investment, Vodafone says customers are still keen on services like mobile TV, but admits video-calling is a flop

Vodafone has denied it is giving 3G the cold shoulder, after weekend reports claimed that the operator was slashing handset subsidies and abandoning its hopes of making the technology a commercial success.

The reports followed a suggestion by Enders Analysis that sales of 3G phones had plummeted from 20 percent of all handsets bought to 12 percent in just one quarter.

"That is definitely an overestimate," a spokesperson for Vodafone told ZDNet UK.

"The share has dipped as we've rebalanced investment across our customer base. We're now perhaps seeing lower ARPU [average revenue per user] from lower ARPU customers, so the kind of commercial investment we were making into customers is no longer justified," the spokesperson said on Monday.

In practice, this means that Vodafone is no longer willing to put as much of its own cash into offsetting the price of each 3G handset it sells. Heavy subsidies don't make financial sense if people are simply not paying for enough extra services to justify it.

These services include downloading music, surfing the Internet and the original application that was supposed to drive 3G uptake — video calling.

"Video calling is not a service that is used by a lot of people," Vodafone's spokesperson admitted, "But more than 50 percent of people who buy a 3G phone in our UK stores are taking a mobile TV package, and most are adopting the [premium] £10 package."

This conflicts with findings in the Enders report, which found that 76 percent of all phone users surveyed said they were not at all interested in mobile TV.

"It may be true that in the very small number that [use 3G services], those people will be very interested in mobile TV," Alice Enders, head of the analyst firm, told ZDNet UK.

But, Enders suggested, Vodafone had suffered financially from its "obsessive over-engagement in 3G" — which saw 3G handsets given equal store-space to non-3G devices — and insisted there was still no evidence that people were primarily interested in anything other than voice and text services.

But 3, the only major player in the UK mobile market to focus entirely on 3G phones and services, disputes this claim. A spokesperson for the network told ZDNet UK that the popularity of its downloadable music and mobile TV services proves the demand is there.

"Uptake is phenomenal and growing day by day," the spokesperson told ZDNet UK. "We're even rivalling traditional music suppliers. We're second only to iTunes in terms of downloads... and the World Cup really put mobile TV on the map."

"What [the Enders] report reflects is a lack of maturity in the other operators in terms of their progress with 3G," said 3's spokesperson, who also claimed that "some incumbent operators" had found it could "suit their commercial model to keep some of their users on old technology" — a possible reference to the high data costs associated with GPRS.

Whatever Vodafone's 3G strategy, it remains to be seen whether its decision to stop pushing the technology so hard will be welcomed by investors who, only last week, nearly claimed the scalp of Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin.

It's also unclear whether any of the operators who invested vast amounts of money on 3G licences and infrastructure will make their money back.

(C) ZDNet UK

Verizon May Replace Sprint As NHL Wireless Sponsor

(c) MocoNews reports

Verizon is on the verge of a three-year deal with the NHL for around $12 million, according to the Sports Business Journal's Terry Lefton. The deal also would include a "low seven-figure media commitment" on OLN and NBC and would cover NHLPA ( National Hockey League Players' Association) rights and non-exclusive content. Verizon would get some exclusive. Sprint Nextel has been the official sponsor and is the officer wireless sponsor of the NFL; Verizon has not been as active on the national sports sponsorship front. -- "Other than acquiring video content, sources said that Verizon Wireless' strength in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast markets, where hockey is strong, along with the tech-savvy, early-adopter nature of the NHL fan base were both factors accounting for the carrier's interest in league rights."
Maybe sales material for cellphones should come with expiration dates for exclusives and sponsorships. Pretty sure following your favorite sport to another carrier qualifies for an early out.

Current TV проводит конкурс с главным призом в $100K

Current TV, кабельный телеканал, в делах которого принимает самое активное участие бывший вице-президент США и "почти президент" Альберт Гор, ставит своей целью развитие народных СМИ и кладет в основу своих трансляций VC2 (Viewer Content Creation - контент, создаваемый самим зрителями).

В настоящее время канал имеет около 28 млн. подписчиков и доступен также в виде подкастов.

Телеканал объявил конкурс среди своих зрителей под названием Seeds of Tolerance (Зерна толерантности) с главным призом в размере $100 тыс.

На конкурс принимаются работы любого желающего, отвечающие теме и описывающие случае проявления терпимости и нетерпимости в любых видах и в разных формах общения людей друг с другом.

Победителя определят голоса зрителей.

Рекламный ролик конкурса

Twofour and Player One Sports launch "The Ashes"

Twofour has joined forces with Player One Sports, the new division of mobile content provider and games publisher Player One to co-produce the world's first Cricket Mobishow. The show, which will start with a focus on The Ashes, will be available initially on mobile phone networks and later for download to video iPod and Play Station Portable.

The weekly six minute show will be presented by celebrity sports presenter, Mark Durden-Smith, and cover The Ashes' battle this winter, incorporating appearances from a wealth of sports celebrities, offering a weekly insight to the action and life on tour in Australia. Furthermore, subscribers will be able to send questions via mobile video which in turn will be answered by the sports celebrities as part of the Mobishow.

In describing the show, Pete Russell, Managing Director at Player One comments, "It will be a fast moving interactive show offering subscribers an entertaining but informative view of the series in Australia. We wanted to make it as interactive a programme as possible, giving mobile viewers the chance to feel part of what will be a massive sporting event. This strategy provides us with a true channel of content for our partners around a key sporting event that is sure to generate a strong following."

As well as the Mobishows, there will be a range of associated content including Freddie Flintoff's Allround Cricket, a web and mobile fantasy cricket game and a range of other downloadable content such as wallpapers, ring tones and video blog.

"We are in the midst of a media revolution and I'm excited that Twofour is leading the way," says Philip Bourchier O'Ferrall, Director of Twofour Mobile. "The show will be created using traditional TV production values, but it will be made specifically for the smaller screen of mobile devices; I am excited we will also be offering consumers the ability to send in their own mobile video content".

Philip continues; "Watch this space, this is the first of many convergence television announcements we will be making in the coming months offering not just video but a number of value added downloads and interactivity."

The Mobishow will be produced in one to two minute sections for ease of use on different delivery mediums. For example, subscribers who do not have 3G phones will still be able to access the content of each show via individual links, whilst 3G subscribers will be able to access the whole show.

Consumer interest in mobile content is steadily growing and 2006 has been predicted to be the year where the technology finally takes off with major sporting events, such as The Ashes, being the key drivers behind its pick-up. In Western Europe, it is estimated that by 2012, mobile content and entertainment revenues will reach €32 billion, with 50 per cent of mobile subscribers accessing these services on a regular basis*.

*Berg Insight: Mobile Content and Entertainment in Western Europe 2005 - 2012

Operators in Asia learn from mistakes

By Wayne Arnold
(c) International Herald Tribune
Published: July 30, 2006

SINGAPORE Despite the fact that Asia's cellular operators did not have to pay billions of dollars for their own third-generation mobile phone network licenses, they have been no more successful than their European counterparts at luring customers.

If anything, some analysts say, the tepid response in Asia proves that 3G's disappointing debut worldwide had less to do with sky-high auction bids than with the industry's failure to find applications that would bring customers running.

"The expectations for 3G were very high," said Eleana Liew, a Singapore analyst for the consulting firm Gartner. "But there isn't anything drawing them into the new service."

The industry is learning. While operators say that itty-bitty TV shows are a nonstarter and video calls have fallen flat, localized information is showing promise. The phones, once clunky and short on battery life, are finally gaining mass-market appeal - customers in Indonesia are buying the new models even though there aren't any 3G networks there yet.

Better still, improvements in data speeds are enabling 3G downloads to work almost as quickly as users' home and wireless broadband connections.

The problem is, analysts say, that many operators in Asia marketed 3G as little more than a slightly improved cellular network, subsidizing phones and air time so that 3G would be no more expensive than existing services. The average cellphone user, however, had just two requirements - sexy phones and ubiquitous coverage - and 3G had neither. In addition to bulkier phones, many operators rolled out their networks only gradually to keep their costs in line with market growth.

The Singapore operator MobileOne was easily able to offer 100 percent nationwide coverage over the tiny island-state when it started 3G early last year and has managed to lure roughly 16 percent of its subscribers to the service by offering price incentives and more attractive phones. But it still finds that disappointingly few of these customers use their 3G phones to download data or make video calls.

"There's a human aversion to video calling," said Neil Montefiore, chief executive of MobileOne, which is now offering customers free video calls between Singapore and Malaysia to spur the market.

Analysts point to the experience of Japan for a glimpse of 3G's future. In late 2001, NTT DoCoMo introduced the world's first commercial 3G network. Rather than wait for 3G to stimulate data demand, DoCoMo introduced a service on its old second-generation network called i-mode that was open to developers, who could experiment with different types of content and then see what would catch on.

Five years later, though, DoCoMo has been able to shift fewer than half of its customers to 3G. Why? Older technologies caught up, analysts say: i- mode works on both 2G and 3G networks, as does DoCoMo's latest innovation - FeliCa - which enables cellphones to pay for items from vending machines. Moreover, while 3G-enabled cellphones download faster, by the time the service was introduced, consumers were not impressed. Fiber-optic lines enable Japanese to download data at home at up to 100 megabits per second, making 3G seem poky by comparison.

In South Korea and Australia, many industry executives and analysts are betting that WiMax and other forms of wireless broadband may make 3G obsolete.

DoCoMo and other 3G operators around Asia are now rushing to join European operators in implementing a software upgrade called HSDPA that will increase download speeds almost tenfold. Surprisingly, the leader in rolling out this souped-up version of 3G is not in Japan or even South Korea, but rather the Philippines. Globe Telecom introduced its 3G network in April on a trial basis and was immediately able to shift to the upgraded version, making it the first in Asia to offer it.

Indeed, analysts say that latecomers to 3G - like operators in China, India and Indonesia - may actually have an advantage. Not only will they be able to avoid 3G's teething pains, but they also will be able to imitate the companies that have been relatively successful with 3G.


SINGAPORE Despite the fact that Asia's cellular operators did not have to pay billions of dollars for their own third-generation mobile phone network licenses, they have been no more successful than their European counterparts at luring customers.

If anything, some analysts say, the tepid response in Asia proves that 3G's disappointing debut worldwide had less to do with sky-high auction bids than with the industry's failure to find applications that would bring customers running.

"The expectations for 3G were very high," said Eleana Liew, a Singapore analyst for the consulting firm Gartner. "But there isn't anything drawing them into the new service."

The industry is learning. While operators say that itty-bitty TV shows are a nonstarter and video calls have fallen flat, localized information is showing promise. The phones, once clunky and short on battery life, are finally gaining mass-market appeal - customers in Indonesia are buying the new models even though there aren't any 3G networks there yet.

Better still, improvements in data speeds are enabling 3G downloads to work almost as quickly as users' home and wireless broadband connections.

The problem is, analysts say, that many operators in Asia marketed 3G as little more than a slightly improved cellular network, subsidizing phones and air time so that 3G would be no more expensive than existing services. The average cellphone user, however, had just two requirements - sexy phones and ubiquitous coverage - and 3G had neither. In addition to bulkier phones, many operators rolled out their networks only gradually to keep their costs in line with market growth.

The Singapore operator MobileOne was easily able to offer 100 percent nationwide coverage over the tiny island-state when it started 3G early last year and has managed to lure roughly 16 percent of its subscribers to the service by offering price incentives and more attractive phones. But it still finds that disappointingly few of these customers use their 3G phones to download data or make video calls.

"There's a human aversion to video calling," said Neil Montefiore, chief executive of MobileOne, which is now offering customers free video calls between Singapore and Malaysia to spur the market.

Analysts point to the experience of Japan for a glimpse of 3G's future. In late 2001, NTT DoCoMo introduced the world's first commercial 3G network. Rather than wait for 3G to stimulate data demand, DoCoMo introduced a service on its old second-generation network called i-mode that was open to developers, who could experiment with different types of content and then see what would catch on.

Five years later, though, DoCoMo has been able to shift fewer than half of its customers to 3G. Why? Older technologies caught up, analysts say: i- mode works on both 2G and 3G networks, as does DoCoMo's latest innovation - FeliCa - which enables cellphones to pay for items from vending machines. Moreover, while 3G-enabled cellphones download faster, by the time the service was introduced, consumers were not impressed. Fiber-optic lines enable Japanese to download data at home at up to 100 megabits per second, making 3G seem poky by comparison.

In South Korea and Australia, many industry executives and analysts are betting that WiMax and other forms of wireless broadband may make 3G obsolete.

DoCoMo and other 3G operators around Asia are now rushing to join European operators in implementing a software upgrade called HSDPA that will increase download speeds almost tenfold. Surprisingly, the leader in rolling out this souped-up version of 3G is not in Japan or even South Korea, but rather the Philippines. Globe Telecom introduced its 3G network in April on a trial basis and was immediately able to shift to the upgraded version, making it the first in Asia to offer it.

Indeed, analysts say that latecomers to 3G - like operators in China, India and Indonesia - may actually have an advantage. Not only will they be able to avoid 3G's teething pains, but they also will be able to imitate the companies that have been relatively successful with 3G.