Loading ...« Marchex Local Content Partnerships | Home | Weekly Wrap Up - 25 April 2008 »
Is Video Going to Break the Internet?
By Teri Foley | April 24, 2008
ZDNet Australia reported Monday that Jim Cicconi, Vice President of Legislative Affairs for AT&T, who was speaking at the Westminster eForum on Web 2.0 in London recently, stated “in three years’ time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today.”
Wow. Really? I have to wonder how that is possible, even if, as Cicconi stated, “video will be 80 percent of all traffic by 2010, up from 30 percent today.”
I still work with folks across the country in various markets who claim that some small business owners they call on still don’t even have email. Now is that “typical”? Of course not, but there are still many late adapters of technology out there. These same individuals often don’t have a Web site promoting their business, nor are they uploading or watching video via the Web.
Video has certainly become popular, no doubt about it. I myself have watched a video or two on YouTube. Am I a “typical household”? Could I be one of the 20 households contributing to the mass generation of traffic on the Internet because I’ve watched a couple videos? What was the basis of this information I wonder. I think the last time I watched a video clip online was a couple of weeks ago; before that, not even sure.
Now I know that video ads are being pushed out to local advertisers as another advertising vehicle offered by yellow page publishers. And the assumption, based on the popularity of sites like YouTube, is that people want to watch more and more video online. And I know there are many stats that will show the rise in video’s popularity. But what is it we want to watch online? From a local perspective, how do we as consumers want to get our information about a plumber we need ASAP to fix the water pipe that just burst? Are there enough of you desiring to use the Internet more like a TV (including the commercials?
Topics: Forecasts |
April 24th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
But local search is so much more than the emergency plumber lookup, isn’t it?
Local search is being in a strange city and wondering if that Italian restaurant across town has the relaxed (not romantic) atmosphere you’re looking for with co-workers.
Local search is people relocating across the country and wanting to learn more about the town they’re moving to, and finding a nice, well-produced video about the community (from a real estate agent, perhaps) would be helpful to that local searcher.
Local search is people wanting to find a guitar instructor in their hometown, and picking up the phone to call the guy who put out a 2-minute video showing off his chops and teaching skills simultaneously.
Local search is all this and so much more. I’m a big believer in video for small biz and local search.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Point taken, Matt. And yes, I see that you are a believer in video for small biz! I don’t disagree with you - video serves a good purpose for the examples you give. But are there enough of us out there who want to watch a video to get our information, local or otherwise, that we’ll essentially cause the Internet to stop working in two or three years? It brings back memories of the Y2K hype. Video is a solid and logical choice for some local advertisers. And there are certainly some customers who will be willing to watch. But there are still those pressed for time, needing info quickly, and a video commercial may not be the choice in many of those cases. Thus, the question of how “20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today” still remains in my mind. I love that new options and technology continue to evolve, but I also think we need to keep in mind that not every advertiser/customer will adapt or utilize these new technologies as quickly as some think they might.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Y2K hype? Go back to radio being put out of business by TV or newspapers by radio. All to familiar prognostications by the very folks that want you to buy into the format. Don’t get me wrong video is great…who doesn’t love moving pictures over static text, but I think what’s being lost is the subtlety of how each advertising vertical targets its customers. Mortgage company ads abound on the radio but are almost absent on TV, products for seniors are nearly invisible online-favoring television, and a vertical like autos should be everywhere.
The key questions as I see it are, where is the audience for the product and what is the story that needs to be told. Are local video ads going to kill the internet? No. The only people that could do that are your local skateboarders or lonelygirl15. Video content will definitely increase but from a local perspective it’s going to be akin to that super liquidations carpet sale that’s going on in your city right now, and no one wants to watch that.