I found IBM's framework for defining the new business models in the media industry is quite insightful, and reading the complete report made me ponder the changing media stack.
Here's the traditional stack as I've drawn it out. In the traditional world of the lower left quadrant, we've seen that content discovery is a function fulfilled by the content distribution layer. Publishers, movie studios and game developers spend millions to make sure you know about the latest Harry Potter or Grand Theft Auto.
But I'm curious about the content discovery process would work in the other quadrants, and in the "New platform aggregation" section in particular, as we move into the future. My sense is that content discovery will develop into a full-fledged layer of the stack, which will look like this.
And while companies like Google, Facebook and YouTube are already playing a role in content discovery, I think there's still plenty of white space there. Google and YouTube can help me search for content - but I have to be looking for something. Facebook can help me find something even if I'm not looking, but I'm dependent on the tastes of people in my network who post links to content. There's definitely scope for something that will know what I like (or learn, like Pandora does) and trawl the "out there" for user generated content that I will enjoy. Does anybody know of something like this that already exists?
I think social networks will continue to evolve and fill the gap that you mention. As companies like Facebook and Google continue to learn more about our online habits (we'll all have a personal profile which these companies can exploit) more content that matches our profile will be pushed to us.
ReplyDeleteWhat is also interesting is how the big players are trying to own as much of this vertical as they can. Using your revised stack, let's took at Google. Google owns 3 of the 4 layers on the stack (they have a smartphone for consumption, search for discovery, and YouTube and Google TV for Distribution). Can we project then that Google will enter the content creation market? Demand Media, a content-creation company, is afraid they will.
Other examples include Comcast acquiring NBC, Apple (iTunes, Apple TV), and Amazon (Kindle).
It's also interesting how there is so much convergence from other seemingly unrelated markets. Just 10 years ago would we say that Comcast is a competitor of Google? Probably not, and maybe they still aren't, but it sure seems like we're headed to a market where a number of large companies are positioning themselves for direct competition on the media stack.