David Eun, VP, Content Partnerships, Google
David Eun, VP, Content Partnerships, Google, gave the closing keynote to the SIIA Information Industry Summit.
Eun quote from Patrick Spain: value now comes from ubiquity, not scarcity.
Patrick: David, show us the love
Eun: Incredibly busy year at Google, share the landscape from our perspective, explain what we do with regard to content and how we partner with content companies.
1.2 billion people online, every subject available to create communities. Rural schoolhouse, have access to very fast Ethernet router, top researchers have same access to same information. Market is now worldwide. Internet has grown faster than any previous medium, TV took 45 years to reach a billion in revenue, Internet 3 years. An exabyte of new content every year. Would fill 150,000 Library of Congresses. Kids are consuming, trading, it’s the way that people now look at the world.
Model was false scarcity, distribution windows thought out carefully, still compelling businesses, was delivering content to where they were. Today it’s really about ubiquity, companies succeeding embrace ubiquity. Kid in hotel room wanted to watch a TV show an hour from when he wanted it, not used to not having home DVR. Instead of bringing eyeballs to content, bring content to eyeballs. No secret sauce or magic formula, we’re not quite sure.
First thing is to focus on user, doesn’t start on technology, back into whatever applications are interesting. The practice of this is remarkable. Bottom-up innovation, not one product comes from a senior executive, always a small group of people. We always say don’t present me with a problem, present me with a problem with a possible answer. Googlers thought “wouldn’t this be great”
Perfection is the tyranny of good enough, last 10 percent requires 90 percent of the time. Expectation is that it won’t blow things away immediately. YouTube is new every six weeks. Media is used to making perfect products, now it’s about keeping a good product fresh.
Mission is well known and used on a daily basis. Make information accessible and useful. Less than 15 percent of world’s information is digitized. Content partnerships works with media companies, work with Web companies making sure that they get indexed. A few years ago if I had questions on Martin Luther King, Jr., I would find fantastic Web pages. Now I can also find news sites, books, buildings and sites in Google Earth, videos. Future - not quite sure, but a long list. We think broadly, this is all opportunity.
Long tail - media focuses on the head, the hits. See long tail in all products. 65 percent of all YouTube videos were visited at least once by someone in the world. Can now potentially monetize library content, other forms that would not normally get “hit” packaging. Also the “torso,” the “sweet spot” where there are niche companies, professional companies with specific commercial objectives. Professional Bullrider’s Association will not get a cable channel but in torso they will get a slot.
Traditional is large advertisers attaching to highly popular content. But smaller advertisers, local pizzerias, etc., who don’t have access to content owners. Now match users to both content and advertisers. Today it’s AdWords, more relevant ads may not have bid as much but they may get better placement. People pay thousands sometimes to get the right click. Apply same technology to partner sites via AdSense.
YouTube - contineus to grow, hundreds of millions of videos watched daily, hundreds of thousands of videos watched daily. Ten hours of video uploaded every minute on YouTube, 19 local versions launched worldwide. Isn’t just YouTube cut the power of video. Get video, sports, news, howto. Google is the platform, buys tools and services to help peple capture and upload content. Casio has YouTube branded portal for uploading videos. Can zoom in on Eiffel Tower in Google Earth, can click on it to receive video from YouTube relating to it. Panasonic TVs now have feature to watch YouTube through TV. iPhone has huge YouTube video audience.
In-video ads monetization - money very small compared to businesses built up over decades. Users around the world will sample via online video. 300×250 ads on side, translucent bar embedded in video, can close it and video resumes. Easy money in pre-rolls, don’t know how much money you’re losing to irritated users=. In-video makes it easy to help users onpass ads virally, many see them as part of the content.
For print, video is a whole new frontier. Consumers can get what they want, NYT is YouTube branded channel, people can sign up, a town hall, pages are controlled by partners. Forbes - different types of videos, shot differently, have a different response.
We are a technology platform, don’t own content or produce it, want to work with people who do produce content. At steady state in AdSense, a billion dollars go to partners.
Consumers pay with time, I invest in putting in new video responses, attention is what advertisers want. Don’t have to be smarter, just execute faster. Need to set expectations such that when we say it’s in beta that we mean it, but it also means that you’ll get an realy lead on data and have had tremendous benefit from exposure. Risks but also rewards.
Question: How does someone with a traditional background work in an engineering oriented company?
Eun: Is an engineering company run by engineers, shocking experience, people put a premium on efficiency, taking care of action items, who is going to do what by when, the antibodies may reject the virus, might be a few tidbits from outside that will help but it’s radically different. Also a very young culture, lots of enthusiasm, not jaded, not cynical, cross between Red Cross and investment banking. On the other hand, you’re working with a lot of young people, haven’t seen a lot of ups and downs. Remind people that it’s really not about them and their inabilities, you’re privileged to work at Google. Very mission centered, don’t talk about stock work. Money ideas have to pass through the filter of how this helps the user.
Contexutal model is promotional, stimulates interest. Draws people closer to the front door, in constant dialog with content owners, partners have paid models, happy to take content that will stimulate interest. NYT went from paid to free model, amount of traffic from Google increased large, not exact numbers but ten or twenty times maybe. Not always the case, not right for everyone, but on balance the way the web works seems to suggest that you focus on stimulating interest, use different interests.
QUICK TAKE: Interesting to listen to David, it’s kind of the accepted Revised Standard Version of the world from my perspecive, central but no longer radical. It’s also interesting that it’s still early days for making money off of contextualized content. When I asked about helping people used to having people pay for access, the short version of the answer is that they’re mostly doing not much beyond text ads. The key opportunity that will draw this all together for greater value if a broader approach. Instead of the software saying “Now that we’re here, this is the right ad for you” the software should be able to say, “Now that I am here, what is the most valuable thing for me to do next that is acceptable to me, the content producer and the person renting space or action priority?” A simple algorithm with complex implications, implications that tools such as Attributor only hint at.
John Blossom, Shore Communications
The Information Industry Summit is the digital information industry’s flagship conference. It provides strategic guidance to senior business leaders representing publishers, content technology companies, bankers, analysts and press.
Jason Kichline is ScribeMedia's project manager and producer of ScribeMedia's Emmy Award winning series Reporting AIDS. He likes typos, fast food and MacGyver like solutions to life's nagging problems.
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