Ads on downloaded video

From http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/03/the_future_of_m.html -

"The survey found that 54% of respondents would be more likely to purchase an iPod if TV programs could be downloaded free of charge in exchange for watching a 30-second advertisement.

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Margins: Google Network v/s Google Sites

As this post by Blodget points out, Google's margins on its sites are way ahead of its network revenues. They need to find ways to increase inventory on Google Sites.

Besides their radio/print experiments, Google's efforts at increasing ad inventory has primarily been on the user content side where again the margins are not high due to the revenue share model, as in Google Video and Blogger (where the share is most likely in the 70-30 range), and more recently Googlepages (no Adsense till now, but when they do introduce it they may have to share). Another way is to create and host their own content pages as in Yahoo!'s media properties which would be a completely new ball game.

Google Hosting

Powered by Google's Big Table/a cheap storage solution (clusters of cheap PCs) Google now has three solutions for placing content on the Web -

1. Base.google.com - for listings on the Web
2. Pages.google.com - for simple publishing of Web pages
3. Blogger - Blogging platform

The most recent Google Pages seems like Geocities with a much better Ajax-ified user interface. They also let you upload files and they may even combine this with Google Desktop (which already has a scratchpad) to easily sync notes/content from the desktop to the Web. They have a 100 MB limit for now - which they will probably raise based on the response, BW utilization and abuse they see.

This will address that user segment that wants a simple publishing solution, doesn't want the chronological order imposed by
Blogs or the expectation of regular updates that a Blog implies. They will probably index these pages faster into their engine providing an incentive for people with commercial content to move to Google. Adsense may be a next step.

Yahoo!'s Media Opportunity

While CNET wonders if Yahoo! can do content at all, the opportunity in online media for a portal is larger , it could - (i) be an aggregator of published content (iTunes, AOL), (ii) be the destination/host of user-generated content (youtube, ourmedia) and/or (iii) provide original content. Yahoo! has clear advantages in all the three areas.

1. Aggregator/Intermediary - Yahoo!'s Search products provide huge traffic and a great platform for finding media from wherever. The one thing missing is a revenue-sharing/payment model which can draw in big media and independent producers. Google and iTunes seem to be ahead in this game for now.

At the same time, CBS is running an experiment to go directly to the consumer by offering downloads of "Survivor" for $1.99 per episode from its Website - and ABC too followed suit. This may fail given the massive traffic Yahoo/Google can send their way (the same way the travel industry has not been able to cut out the Expedias of the world. SouthWest is the only airline not on any of the price comparison sites due to its unique strengths)

2. User-generated Content. Yahoo! has among the largest communities (Yahoo! Groups), communications properties that help people form communities (Messenger, Mail) and one of the most popular photo sharing communities (Flickr). Leveraging these together with aforesaid revenue-sharing model should provide Yahoo! a way to leapfrog ahead of the host of startups in the fray.

3. Original Content. This is an untested model and something Yahoo! is in a unique position, together with maybe AOL (if it can take advantage of Time Warner), to provide given Terry Semel/ Lloyd Braun's contacts and feel for the market (Lloyd after all was behind the most awesome Sopranos). Yahoo! also has a few moderately successful experiments - Apprentice extras, Kevin Sites' News and Richard Bangs' adventure site - to build on in the future.

To generate original content for the Web is a new experiment, who knows what kind of show - extras/standalone shows/reality TV/... - will succeed? How will all this change when Broadband is the primary mode of access and IPTV is more widespread - so we move from the Near Web experience to the Far Web experience? As of now, its probably best to present content tied to a successful TV show like Survivor or 24, so that the portal does not have to bear the humongous production costs and low hit-ratio of network TV.

WSJ.com - Amazon Plans Music Service To Rival iTunes

Amazon will have to partner for the device and the device will have to compare well with the iPod - tough challenge.
Apple themselves haven't had as much success when they partnered for the Rokr.

Also, Apple's margins are primarily on the iPod - Amazon's bottomline will not benefit much purely from music sales. But this move could be to future-proof themselves if and when the world moves primarily to digital downloads and stop buying movies/books from Amazon.

Related -
Amazon Music Strategy a Wrong Turn
A VC: Rooting For Amazon

Amateur Video Sharing Grows Online - Yahoo! News

First it was text blogs, then came users sharing bookmarks, next last year was the year of Flickr - sharing pictures, this year could be about user-generated video.