eMarketer User Generated Content by Type

According to Accustream (link):

Demand for professionally produced and distributed online video continued unabated in 2008, with cumulative volume advancing 24.3% to 41.6 billion views.

According to eMarketer User Generated Content (UGC) is also growing significantly.  eMarketer (link) They are predicting that there will be over 27MM amateur creators of video content by 2013.

My first Internet Marketing job was with a “dot com” that was a platform for user generated content.  Even back then there was this debate over if one type of content,  professional over amateur, would win out.  The data presented here paints a more realistic picture that both will flourish.

HOWEVER, Pro content will get the ad revenue.  I know, I know — we’ll keep trying to monetize USG.  But it will never happen.  YouTube will only start making money when they get serious about pro content — or lose out to Hulu.  If we never can monetize amateur content than what’s the future of amateur content?  I don’t know.  We’ll always have it — but I’m hard pressed for an answer on how to deliver revenue from it.