4 ms·

I think the author misses the point. He references TV, Music, eBooks, and Movies. Those are not the only forms of content. What about user generated content

by vxxzy 9y ago

I think the author misses the point. He references TV, Music, eBooks, and Movies. Those are not the only forms of content. What about user generated content (Facebook posts, etc...)? Any _data_ that can be consumed, and of interest to an individual is content. An individual's desire to consume content is the lever used by technology to generate a profit.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
alavelle 9y ago
That depends on what the point is. The question that's being examined is how content fits into the strategic model of Google/Apple/Facebook etc., which broadly speaking is how do you stop users from switching to competing products. An individual's desire to consume content is not a differentiator/strategic advantage for any one company. Why is it really hard to build a successful new social network, search engine or smartphone platform? Because Facebook has the network effect, Google search is a superior product as it's improved each day by its 100 of millions of users and Apple has a vertically integrated ecosystem that locks users into using an iPhone.
- cestith 9y ago
  Due to Facebook's network effect, it's hard to gather as much user-generated content elsewhere. Google's search is barely rivaled by anyone because it returns the best results, which are content. The network effect is important. One of the major reasons it's important is because it can deliver more and better content.
  - alavelle 9y ago
    That's just semantics; of course everything in some way involves content. It just doesn't get you anywhere thinking in such broad terms. You may as well say every tech business is fundamentally about making money, it's true but it doesn't tell you anything interesting. Understanding tech companies different business models and how paid-for content fits into that does.
untog 9y ago
There comes a point, though, that we end up abstracting discussions out so much that they don't really mean anything any more. Facebook posts and TV shows are not really equivalent in any meaningful way except that they both use data to download and take up time to consume.
- mtberatwork 9y ago
  There are plenty of user-generated videos on YouTube that rack up 100K+ to 1M+ views though. Commercially produced TV shows compete for eyeballs (whether they realize it or not) with these YouTubers.
janemanos 9y ago
Yes, and the tech giant are the only ones with enough users to let content producers reach an audience of relevance. Think that was the point the author tried to make, describing the switch from "content" to "audience". Content producers for films, music, and other expensive pieces do not have enough power anymore to reach a large enough audience to make a profit
athenot 9y ago
Came to the comments to say exactly the same thing. "Content is king" really refers to the service becoming invisible enough to let the users get what they want out of it. As product owners/creators, we can easily obsess about our platform and loose sight of the needs of the users we set out to serve, then scratch our heads when users jump ships to a crappier service (in our biased judgement) which happens to have more content.
SCAQTony 9y ago
He also missed that content (per MIT) is the most profitable business model of all. Case in point how much engineering and R&D dollars had to go into the "Harry Potter novels" or creating a Marvel Super Hero? Even content from one's garage that users put up on eBay or the paint splatters up for auction at Sothebys New York?
- wmf 9y ago
  Most profitable by margin or absolute dollars? IIRC the tech industry is far bigger than any one "content" industry and maybe bigger than all of them combined.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    How do you even tease out such a thing when you have companies like Comcast or Netflix which clearly fit in both categories?
    - SCAQTony 9y ago
      A movie is like real estate... You make it and you can keep "renting" or selling it. Movies like 'Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Snow White" are still making studios mad money on different delivery systems from the original theater showing on through to VHS, DVD, Blu Ray, 4000-pixels and streaming.' These movies came out in the 1930s. They are almost 100-years old. NetFlix got that fact pretty quickly when the studios wanted to renegotiate contracts and that is where the bulk of their money is coming from. [They are] the creator and the distributor. edit to fix typo.
  - SCAQTony 9y ago
    The biggest industry in the whole world is food. As an industry it covers agriculture, dairy, fishing etc. The best way to reply is to link to the M.I.T. PDF on most profitable business models - search the word creator: http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/pdf/wp226.pdf http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/pdf/wp226.pdf "...Figure 4 shows the distribution of different business models in our sample of large US firms. By far the most common basic business model in our sample is Creator, with 46% of total revenues of the firms in our sample falling within this category. Landlord type models account for 34% of total revenues, followed by Distributors with 18% of total revenues, and Brokers with 2%. In addition, an overwhelming portion (70%) of the business of large-revenue, publicly traded firms still involves physical assets. Financial and Human assets account for 12% and 13%, respectively, and Intangible assets are only 4% of the revenues of large firms. Figure 4 also shows the numbers of firms generating revenues with each model and asset type. ..." Creating food is content as well.
draw_down 9y ago
"Content is king" was also not meant in that sense of "content", though.

by vxxzy 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

alavelle 9y ago

That depends on what the point is. The question that's being examined is how content fits into the strategic model of Google/Apple/Facebook etc., which broadly speaking is how do you stop users from switching to competing products. An individual's desire to consume content is not a differentiator/strategic advantage for any one company. Why is it really hard to build a successful new social network, search engine or smartphone platform? Because Facebook has the network effect, Google search is a superior product as it's improved each day by its 100 of millions of users and Apple has a vertically integrated ecosystem that locks users into using an iPhone.

cestith 9y ago
Due to Facebook's network effect, it's hard to gather as much user-generated content elsewhere. Google's search is barely rivaled by anyone because it returns the best results, which are content. The network effect is important. One of the major reasons it's important is because it can deliver more and better content.
- alavelle 9y ago
  That's just semantics; of course everything in some way involves content. It just doesn't get you anywhere thinking in such broad terms. You may as well say every tech business is fundamentally about making money, it's true but it doesn't tell you anything interesting. Understanding tech companies different business models and how paid-for content fits into that does.

untog 9y ago

There comes a point, though, that we end up abstracting discussions out so much that they don't really mean anything any more. Facebook posts and TV shows are not really equivalent in any meaningful way except that they both use data to download and take up time to consume.

mtberatwork 9y ago
There are plenty of user-generated videos on YouTube that rack up 100K+ to 1M+ views though. Commercially produced TV shows compete for eyeballs (whether they realize it or not) with these YouTubers.

janemanos 9y ago

Yes, and the tech giant are the only ones with enough users to let content producers reach an audience of relevance. Think that was the point the author tried to make, describing the switch from "content" to "audience". Content producers for films, music, and other expensive pieces do not have enough power anymore to reach a large enough audience to make a profit

athenot 9y ago

Came to the comments to say exactly the same thing. "Content is king" really refers to the service becoming invisible enough to let the users get what they want out of it. As product owners/creators, we can easily obsess about our platform and loose sight of the needs of the users we set out to serve, then scratch our heads when users jump ships to a crappier service (in our biased judgement) which happens to have more content.

SCAQTony 9y ago

He also missed that content (per MIT) is the most profitable business model of all. Case in point how much engineering and R&D dollars had to go into the "Harry Potter novels" or creating a Marvel Super Hero? Even content from one's garage that users put up on eBay or the paint splatters up for auction at Sothebys New York?

wmf 9y ago
Most profitable by margin or absolute dollars? IIRC the tech industry is far bigger than any one "content" industry and maybe bigger than all of them combined.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  How do you even tease out such a thing when you have companies like Comcast or Netflix which clearly fit in both categories?
  - SCAQTony 9y ago
    A movie is like real estate... You make it and you can keep "renting" or selling it. Movies like 'Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Snow White" are still making studios mad money on different delivery systems from the original theater showing on through to VHS, DVD, Blu Ray, 4000-pixels and streaming.' These movies came out in the 1930s. They are almost 100-years old. NetFlix got that fact pretty quickly when the studios wanted to renegotiate contracts and that is where the bulk of their money is coming from. [They are] the creator and the distributor. edit to fix typo.
- SCAQTony 9y ago
  The biggest industry in the whole world is food. As an industry it covers agriculture, dairy, fishing etc. The best way to reply is to link to the M.I.T. PDF on most profitable business models - search the word creator: http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/pdf/wp226.pdf http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/pdf/wp226.pdf "...Figure 4 shows the distribution of different business models in our sample of large US firms. By far the most common basic business model in our sample is Creator, with 46% of total revenues of the firms in our sample falling within this category. Landlord type models account for 34% of total revenues, followed by Distributors with 18% of total revenues, and Brokers with 2%. In addition, an overwhelming portion (70%) of the business of large-revenue, publicly traded firms still involves physical assets. Financial and Human assets account for 12% and 13%, respectively, and Intangible assets are only 4% of the revenues of large firms. Figure 4 also shows the numbers of firms generating revenues with each model and asset type. ..." Creating food is content as well.

draw_down 9y ago

"Content is king" was also not meant in that sense of "content", though.