You have a video that you want to post on the Web. It may be just
for you. It could be for friends. It could be for family. It could be
for a company or a political campaign. It could a video that you want
seen by as many people as possible. Regardless of your audience
expectations, do you have any expectation of paying for that video to
be hosted? Of course you don’t. Neither does anyone else.
The reality is that all of us have the expectation of being able to
post any and every video on sites like YouTube for free, with no
limitation on audience size or location.
We have reached the point
where YouTube, in particular Google specifically, is subsidizing the
majority of user-generated content on the web. 20gbs PER MINUTE upload and who knows how much for viewing
Which leads to the question, what happens if they stopped subsidizing the cost of bandwidth for user uploaded video ?
What would happen to Internet video ? What would happen to social
media ? What would happen to the future of entertainment ? What would
happen to the future of politics ? How would it change how we use the
internet ? The list of questions is a mile long. Would it be the best
thing to ever happen to traditional media ? Hence the conundrum.
The next question of course is “why would Google stop subsidizing
the uploading, hosting and presentation of 80% of the user-generated
online videos (excluding commercial sites) viewed in the US?”
The answer of course is : Because they had to.
There are two certainties for the technology business in the US.
The first is that every leader falls out of the lead at some point.
The second is that every leader falling out of the lead gets torched by
Wall Street and places a premium on stock price over free services and
their users.
Google has already established itself as a hall of famer. But
nothing lasts forever in techland. Particularly subsidies. What
happens to the Internet and how we use it when those subsidies end is
a country song that will eventually be written.
(Image source: ccasado.com)
