Where Content Is Headed

A while back you could safely say that the content industries were television, newspapers, radio and magazines. Of course there were books but that was the long finger of content, stuff that took time. Music was something else, a bit like books but an industry that got more breaks on the TV.

The dynamic end of the business where people struggled daily to fill their content vats were confined to those four: TV, radio, magazines and newspapers.

Now the types of content have proliferated and in trying to understand where the web is headed we need to get a handle on the content. Why?

Because the technology is ten-a-penny stuff. YouTube is like a billboard. Microsoft is about to build out a "YouTube" but already there are 250 varieties of it. This is not the stuff of sustainable market advantage, though each can find a geographical or subject niche, which is what we expect to see happen across all content forms.

Content builds audiences and keeps them interested. We've allowed ourselves to think that the critical, all important distinction is between user-generated content and professional content, when in fact in the future content world there is no such distinction. A professional content producer is just a guy who does it well enough to connect with an audience.

So what types of content are out there and what is their significance? I've tried listing before but now I'll have a stab at saying what's important. For that reason this will be a three part post making a start today, hopefully continuing tomorrow and concluding by the end of the week.

I'm going to start with a controversial choice. It's not number one for any aesthetic reason but it does serve to illustrate a point. Content is weird.

1. Domain parking. Earlier this year Richard Rosenblatt, formerly of MySpace, launched Demand Media and raised $120 million to turn the domain parking business into a significant revenue stream. The Wall St Journal quoted one researcher and an analyst, saying Domain Parking takes "about 5% to 10% of search-engine revenue, putting the industry's annual revenue at about $600 million." "The profit margins are extraordinary," says RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan. He predicts industry revenue could double to $1.2 billion within three years." another player, with a lead in the market is Marchex. YesDirect and REIT are also worth keeping an eye on.

Article Author: Haydn Shaughnessy

A journalist and critic, Haydn writes on where the web's going as well as on the impact of the digital on art and culture. He also does a bit of food writing over at TheDietCast.com.

Visit Haydn Shaughnessy's author page — Haydn Shaughnessy's Blog