Online video is something we cant get enough of these days. Go to YouTube and youll find million of videos at the tip of your fingers. Video production is happening everywhere and clips are getting almost as many views nowadays as a TV show does. But wasnt always like this. There was a time when online video didnt even exist! Yes, in 2001 there was no YouTube or Dailymotion or any of that sort.
Back then, information was shared mainly via text form, accompanied with pictures. Jump forward to today, and a lot of news are being streamed online via integrated web players, including Adobe Flash, Vidx and other formats. And we are now slowly moving into HTML5, which will see the demise of heavy web video players and able to integrate video natively.
The 2000s saw the rise of YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo as huge players in online video platforms. Back in 2005, when YouTube first launched, it was a bloggers haven. One could blog without having to type! You could record yourself and get it uploaded and people could watch it. April 23rd was the day the first YouTube video was uploaded.
Back then, people were skeptical about online video, startups were failing, and we just didnt really know if it would work. Slowly but surely video found its way as probably the most used medium on the internet now.
What has changed?
The 2004 elections of President Bush saw campaign ads go online. News were starting to become videofied with CNET taking hints from other companies that things were looking good. Nowadays news channels like CNN post clips of their TV shows on the web. People realized that video is a great medium to get information out there to other people.
But not only information. Entertainment, too. Vimeo, YouTube and Dailymotion are all massive players in the online entertainment industry. Vimeo offers creative an opportunity to showcase their work, YouTube and Dailymotion allow people to make all sorts of videos ranging from funny to disgusting to informative.
Video sharing has also spread over into the professional movie market, with DVD sales and rentals happening over the internet at lower costs than their physical counterparts. Think HULU or Netflix, or even iTunes; they have surely made an imprint in the digital video world.
With these changes also came change in advertising. Back in the dark ages when no one dared to post a video, advertisements were the last thing you would invest in. Nowadays, it is common for big companies to advertise via video sharing sites, providing funny, entertaining, online-specific content.
Is the web the new TV? Many think so. With YouTuber channels get almost as many hits as some TV shows, its not a far fetched idea. I can tell you right now, I get my news online, not from the TV.
But one thing is for sure, if it is the new TV or not, we are never going back video-less. And if youre not involved, be it
video production or consumption, why?
