How YouTube Will Affect the Media Organisation in the Future - Case Study Example

 YouTube YouTube is now the world largest video sharing-site. It has more than 1 billion unique users who visit the site every month. It has changed the world through entertainment, inspiration, education, and informing using videos. Due to the significant number of users who love videos, the site has become a very attractive advertising option to many firms globally that seek to attract customers (Borghol et al. 2012). Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim and Steve Chen created the site in the year 2005. The three co-founders were working with PayPal that was another internet startup by then (Venkatraman, 2013). At first YouTube, got funds through bonuses from eBay buy out of PayPal but currently it has a large financial base. The concept of developing YouTube did not come straight away. YouTube started its life as a video dating site ‘Tune In Hook up’ influenced by HotorNot. The three, however, decided not to with the video dating route. There were to events that influenced the actual YouTube idea. Karim tried to find an online footage of Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction but could not find it. The disappointment inspired Karim. Chen and Hurley, on the other hand, tried to share a video footage of a dinner party, but they were unable to upload due to the limitations of email attachments (Paolillo, 2008). These disappointments stimulated the YouTube idea. Currently, YouTube stands as a unique video site and has greatly influenced the media fraternity through its unique video sharing features. The online site has also been a source of income to many YouTubers. The site has many personnel ranging from software engineers, videographers to financial advisors. It is evident that the site has influenced the world not only in entertainment, but also in creating awareness and educating the world through variety of videos rich in information (Rich, 2013). YouTube has been upfront in technological advancement and currently people can easily access YouTube videos through smartphones and tablets. It has also developed YouTube applications that help ease access and upload of videos into the site. Other advancement in technologies such as the existence of 4k video and screens has improved the qualities of videos posted on the site as they have very high resolution suitable for videos (Cheng et al. 2013). Database forms a crucial aspect in digital media and YouTube mainly relies on its database for video archive. YouTube’s web 2.0 and other database services provide a possibility to add various items to the database and improve the information management system. This is through user-generated meta-information and synchronization using the Application Programming Interface (API). The YouTube embedded links option creates the possibilities of easy video integration into various environments such as personal websites or professional blogs. Technological infrastructure in regards may appear as specific affordance that enables new forms of media practices. Thus, YouTube applies the hybrid interaction strategy on users and information management to link humans and their database systems. The use of APIs creates a possibility for automated search processes thus providing a way to retrieve videos according to specific search string. The use of these information management systems has contributed a lot in the success of YouTube. What it takes to be a YouTube Developer To succeed as a YouTuber, it requires someone to have a specific niche in technology. Many people can develop various videos, but it is the unique features in the videos that make them compete well in the industry (Frischknecht, 2009). Many people can develop videos. Thus, to be successful as a YouTuber it requires a unique selling point in every video developed. Hard work and determination in everything one does creates a chance to outdo others. Also with the ever-changing technologies, developers need a continuous update in technological knowhow. As a YouTube developer, there is a need to portray the sense of inborn efforts of hard work. Developing videos for YouTube is a hard task and requires focus and clear knowledge of what users require. In developing videos, clarity of the pictures is very important. Audience attraction is a key factor. Pictures need to be attractive and eye-catching. Blurred images portray low quality and that would affect negatively the views of a clip. The use of high-resolution cameras helps in recording of quality images thus creating uniqueness (Rich, 2013). To develop a good video, it is also necessary to consider the voice requirements where applicable. The main key factor in video development in YouTube is the quality of images, sounds, and content. After completing my IT course, my major focus was how to get the job. With the competition in the field getting stiffer and stiffer, I decided to do a short course in videography and animations. Through hard work and maximum practice in the fields, I finally earned a place to train in depth in Audience Development Strategy and methods in YouTube training. I received YouTube Certification and I got a job as a support team member in the video development. The main duties include monitoring the videos posted; this is in terms of quality, and checking whether the videos comply with Community Guidelines. The task is demanding and requires a clear understanding of the changing technologies, both in video development and site development. For content to be shareable, it is necessary to note that it must be funny, shocking, and show an excellent talent or even something not available and not covered in mainstream media. It also needs to have high quality and clear features to earn site user’s interest. Before creating any brand, as a video developer there is a need to experiment. Experimentation ensures that one provides the best video for the site users. Thus, having the mentality of what best suits users creates a competitive mind (Gill, 2007). Persistence is very important in video development. There are different challenges and the ability to overcome them keeps someone shining. It is not obvious that the video will receive appreciation by users if that happens there are chances to make a difference in next videos. It is also necessary to concentrate and focus on the audience to target and information that best suit a certain form of people (Venkatraman, 2013). Having a clear understanding of these factors would set a video developer to the top. YouTube on entertainment Industry YouTube forms one of the major entertainment sites in the world. There are varieties of entertaining features in YouTube ranging from music videos, funny clips, and different forms of movies. People can easily search and watch different forms of music from most of their admired musicians, online (Cheng et al. 2013). The experience forms a very crucial form of the entertainment platform for most music lovers in the world. The advancement in information systems and technology in YouTube makes it stand out in the entertainment industry. There are millions of songs currently on YouTube. Music lovers view YouTube as a suitable destination to search for favorite music online. The ability to have many entertainment materials online will finally place YouTube at a frontline in entertainment. The music videos create a strong platform for entertainment in the world (Venkatraman, 2013). They are also mediums for starting conversations that form an entertainment base for human social nature. YouTube provides a cheap form of entertainment online. This gives it a chance to rule the entertainment world perceived as expensive (Cheng et al. 2013). People have free access to what they feel is entertaining online provided internet connections exist. YouTube make entertainment features easily accessible all over the world a feature that is not common in online sites. It is clear that YouTube will finally take over the entertainment industry. People love fun and that is what YouTube provides. Through provision of cheap access to funny clips, various forms of music videos, and all types of movies, YouTube will rule the entertainment world. Technological advancement in YouTube Several technologies have emerged since YouTube came into place. Much advancement has taken place in video technology making the video completely fascinating (Cheng et al. 2008). The playback technology, advancement in uploading technology and recent advancement in quality and codecs has made YouTube outstanding. In order to view YouTube videos on a personal computer, the computer requires Adobe Flash Player Plug-in installation on the browser. The Adobe Flash Player accounts for almost 75% of online video material. There have been several improvements, from the Adobe Flash player with the use of adaptive bit-rate HTTP-streaming solution to the current Adobe Dynamic Streaming for Flash. The advancement makes playbacks extremely easy for the audience. All Youtubers have a chance to upload videos that have a duration of 15minutes each. However, users with a good record of complying with Community Guidelines set by the site can upload videos that are 12hours long. When the site launched in 2005, people would upload long videos, but later a limit of 10 minutes then to15 minutes came into place. With current technological advancement videos, greater than 20GB are easy to upload. People can upload videos in container formats such as AVI, MKV, MP4, FLV, ogg, and ogv. Thus, MPEG-4, VOB, WMV, and 3GP videos are easy to upload. Currently, all the video formats use progressive scanning. Originally, YouTube offered videos at one quality level of 320*240 pixels with Sorenson codec that had mono MP3 audio. Later in 2007, 3GP videos were available on mobile phones to watch. In 2008, there was an addition of high quality mode increasing resolution to 480*360 pixels and emergence of 720p HD support that helped changing of aspect ratios (Cheng et al. 2008). The unique feature helped YouTube switch to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC as the video compression default format. The 4k format advancement in 2009 created a more appealing feature of YouTube as it increased resolution to 4096*3072 pixels. With these changes in technology, YouTube has created a better platform for quality videos to its users. YouTube popularity YouTube forms one of the largest search engines in the world. With approximately 1 billion unique users every month, YouTube is the world’s second most popular site after Facebook. It is also the most popular and largest video site in the world. In 2006, one year after its launching the company had 65,000 new video uploads every day, this made it register 100 million video views a day. Since then company has grown in popularity all over the world. The big numbers of users visit the site for news, advertisements, entertainment, blogging and many more. The viral nature of YouTube has made it achieve its 1 billion monthly user milestone. Most of the YouTube users are average persons; these uses YouTube for only viewing contents posted by others in the site. They form the core pillar for success of the site (Borghol et al. 2012). Competition in YouTube Video Development Success as a YouTuber does not come easily. Knowing what users require, and what makes them happy, creates a base to become successful (Rich, 2013). The field is competitive and the rule for the survival for the fittest applies. The world is full of competitors and, therefore, for one to stand out and become successful, hard work must prevail. There are millions of new videos uploaded daily on YouTube; this makes the field very competitive. Although hard work is key in becoming successful, developing videos that provide what viewers want, keeps one in the frontline. There are important skills that one must possess, to compete favorably. First, it is necessary to know what success means and the aim (Frischknecht, 2009). Thus, in developing a video one need to know whom the target audiences are and make sure the video has the unique features to impress them. Since the videos rate on views, having the best video would also give a competitive advantage. Secondly, it is important to have a popular and unique search title/word, this would also boost the competitiveness of a video. Creation of links in social media would also create a chance to market a video though a strong video would always market itself. Thus, a proper knowledge on information technology systems offers an advantage in video development. Development of YouTube videos provides a suitable avenue to earn, but this depends on the quality of the work uploaded and gauged through the views it receives (Gill, 2007). The average earnings from YouTube videos stand at $6.33 per 1000 views, but this is a drop from the initial rate of $9.35 per 1000 views. Impact of YouTube on television There are possibilities that in the near future YouTube will take over television. For example, YouTube has more people than Sky or even Virgin mobile. Currently, people do not need to go home to watch televisions; they can often look at what they want online. Many television programs are available on YouTube thus people can access them even when they are out. Many advertisers are opting to sites with good traffic for advertisement (Rognerud, 2010). Television advertising may cost a great deal and the advert would not run all time. In YouTube, things are lucrative and advertisement is more effective. Mostly with the television, most people use the time for advertisements to get out of the room to either make phone calls or accomplish certain duties, so mostly these adverts screens on an empty room. In YouTube, there are varieties of contents and people get them whenever they get interest. Television requires taking up time to wait and watch a certain program whereas YouTube provides a fulltime availability of various contents. The fulltime availability of content makes advertisers prefer the site to television. It can be attributed to the ever consumer presence as it is one of the best search engines where many people check for information even before making a purchase. YouTube’s less restrictive nature makes it more preferred than television. Televisions may restrict the broadcast of various things but as far as they are legal, YouTube would not restrict (Collins, 2008). The ability to use and send links also gives YouTube an advantage over televisions. People can only view limited times on television, and referring to others may be difficult but in YouTube, people can view and send links to friends and other people to watch. References Borghol, Y., Ardon, S., Carlsson, N., Eager, D., &Mahanti, A. 2012, The untold story of the clones: Content-agnostic factors that impact YouTube video popularity, accesed from http://wan.poly.edu/KDD2012/docs/p1186.pdf Cheng, X., Liu, J., & Dale, C. 2013”Understanding the characteristics of internet short video sharing: A YouTube-based measurement study”, Multimedia, IEEE Transactions, Vol.15, No.5, pp, 1184-1194. Cheng, X., Dale, C., & Liu, J. 2008, Statistics and social network of youtube videos. Accesed from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.150.7896&rep=rep1&type=pdf Collins, L. 2008 “Youtube generation no match for the man”, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 3, No. 9, pp.40-41 Frischknecht, F 2009 “YouTube: Increasing your bug views”, Biotechnology Journal, Vol.4, No.6, pp.786-789. Gill, P., Arlitt, M., Li, Z., &Mahanti, A. 2007,Youtube traffic characterization: a view from the edge. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM conference on Internet measurement (pp. 15-28). Paolillo, J. C. 2008. Structure and network in the YouTube core.InHawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Proceedings of the 41st Annual (pp. 156-156). Rognerud, J. 2010, Ultimate guide to search engine optimization: Drive traffic, boost conversion rates, and make lots of money, Entrepreneur Press, Irvine, Calif Rich, J. 2013, Ultimate guide to YouTube for business: Produce low-cost, high-impact videos, put your brand product or service in front of millions of viewers, master the secrets of successful YouTubers, Entrepreneur Media, Inc., Irvine, California Venkatraman, V. 2012,YouTube at the Bench, Accessed from http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2012_09_14/caredit.a1200104 Read More