The age of content
Distraction, danger and dividend
Me:
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Name: Bruno Jakić
MSc A.I.
(Online+Gaming) Entrepreneur
Founder of Ai Applied: automatic text analysis
and understanding
• Author: history of technology lovers, check
out the book “Hacking Europe”
• If someone from the 1950s suddenly
appeared today, what would be the most
difficult thing to explain to them about life
today?
• I possess a device, in my pocket, that is
capable of accessing the entirety of
information known to man.
• I use it to look at pictures of cats and
get in arguments with strangers.
A brief history of “content”
• 1950’s: Newspapers, LP’s, 3 TV
channels…
– Not called “content”, instead “news”,
or “music”…
– Produced by rare, skilled professionals
after years of training (limited access)
– Produced using analog tools
– Disseminated through tightly
controlled channels
– Generally local audiences, consuming
at leasure
– Paid for by the audiences
– Genuinely limited supply: scarcity
A brief history of “content”
• 1950’s:
– Music studio cost: ~ US$ 500.000,- (in current money) [1]
– 1 minute of real-time international communication (telephone
equipment could only be LEASED): ~ US$ 50,- per minute ( in
current money) [2]
– Sending delayed information to another continent (mailing a
letter): ~ US$ 1,- [2]
(1)
(2)
The audio recording handbook, By Alan P. Kefauver, A-R Editions (April 2001)
Trends in Globalization, by World Trade Organization (2013)
A brief history of “content”
• 1959: Jack Kilby invents the Integrated Circuit
A brief history of “content”
• 1964 onwards: Mass production of IC
• Moore’s Law
(3) Wgsimon, Wikipedia:
A brief history of “content”
• 1990’s: digital production, 10s-100s
of TV channels, early Internet
– Produced by (abundant) professionals
– Produced using digital tools (by
professionals, wide access)
– Mostly disseminated through
controlled channels
– (Sometimes artificially) limited supply
– Increasingly globalized audiences,
consuming at leasure
– Paid for, or “pirated” by the audiences,
or through large-scale advertising
A brief history of “content”
• 1990’s:
– Music studio cost: ~ US$ 50.000,- (in current money) [4]
– 1 minute of real-time international communication
(telephone): ~ US$ 5,- per minute (in current money) [2]
– Sending delayed information to another continent (e-mail):
~ US$ 0,- [2]
(4) 25 Products That Changed Recording, Sound on Sound magazine (November 2010)
A brief history of “content”
• ~ 2004: “Web 2.0”, “Social Media”,
participatory content creation
A brief history of “content”
• 2004-Now: The Internet, digital, personalized TV
– Seen and called “content” by channel owners:
associations with bulk goods
– Produced by (part-timing and abundant)
professionals, mostly by audiences / amateurs
(universal access)
– Mostly disseminated online
– Almost unlimited supply: abundance
– Globalized, massive audience, consuming in real-time
– Paid for by advertising
– Audiences are not the customers
A brief history of “content”
• 2004-Now:
– Music studio cost: ~ US$ 5.000,- [5]
– 1 minute of real-time international communication
(Skype): ~ US$ 0,- per minute [2]
– Sending delayed information to another continent (email): ~ US$ 0,- [2]
– Contributions by the audience: ~US$ 0,- (+ tech costs)
(5) Warbeats.com (November 2013)
The age of content: paradigm shift
• Paradigm-shift in economic value of content
• 90% of the world’s data in 2013 (about 4,5
zetaBytes) – created since early human
civilization - was created in the two years prior [6]
• Significant amount of this data consists of
customer-generated content [6]
• A lot of content, on its own = ~low value
(6) Big Data, for better or worse: 90% of world's data generated over last two years, Science Daily (22nd of May, 2013)
The age of content: paradigm shift
• In case of content supply scarcity, value is in
content: consumer = paying customer
• In case of content supply abundance, content
is a means to an end: consumer ≠ paying
customer
• Paying customers: millions of companies
represented by advertising networks
The age of content: consumer as a
commodity
Consumer is the product!
The age of content: dividend
• Consumer value:
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Facebook: US$ 128,- [7] @ 1230 mil. users
Twitter: US$ 118,- [7] @ 255 mil. users
LinkedIn: US$ 84,- [7] @ 277 mil. users
Angry Birds: US$ 11,51 [8] @ 260 mil. users
Whatsapp: US$ 35,- [9] @ 450 mil. Users
Nu.nl (news): US$ 145,- [10] @ 1 mil. users
(7) You're Worth $128 On Facebook; Sorry About That LinkedIn Drop, Forbes (2014)
(8) ThinkGaming (2014), MerchandiseReport (2014)
(9) Acquisition by Facebook (2014)
(10) Sanoma net sales 2014 (2014)
The age of content: dividend
• Global online advertising yearly revenue
(2013): ~US$ 117.000.000.000,- [11]
The age of content: dividend
• Consumer value:
– Direct spending
– Advertising:
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Specific branding (US$1000+)
eCPM (US$ 0,01 to US$ 30,-)
CPC (US$ 0,01 to US$ 10,-)
Revenue-sharing (up to 30% of the purchase price)
Price based on specific user targeting
• Online advertising value depends on volume,
time
The age of content: dividend
• Increasing consumer value:
– Get more consumers to view your content more
often for more time
• Vested interest of and proactive effort from
content channels to attract and keep
customers
The age of content: distraction
• Behavioral marketing (e.g. @ Stanford Business
School since 2004) studies scientifically:
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Decision making
Attitudes and persuasion
Social influence
Motivation
Cognition
Culture
Nonconscious behavior influences
Consumer neuroscience
Emotions
The age of content: distraction
• Content marketing strategy:
– Goals:
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Boost rankings for search-keywords
Establish domain authority
Establish brand authority on subject
Provide useful content for consumers
– Methods:
• Link/click-baiting
• Optimizing lay-out and colors of presentation
• Adaptive writing style: articles not too long and not too
short
• When people are in, keep them in with “filler” and a few
good articles
The age of content: distraction
• Link baiting:
– Use infographics
– Niche resource guides
– Hyperbole/provocative imagery in titles
– Question-answer statements in titles
– Ego driven content
– Negative content
– Incentives
The age of content: distraction
’I actually got pointed to a video that was on YouTube via
Upworthy, that was originally just called "Zach Wahls Talks
About His Family." Zach Wahls is a bloke from the states raised
by two gay moms. And the video, which was quite a
passionate testimony from him, got a million views. It was
rebranded to be called "Two Lesbians Raised A Baby, And This
Is What They Got." And with that headline, it got 17 million
views.’ – Steve Hind, Link-baiter
The age of content: distraction
The age of content: distraction
The age of content: danger
• Domain authority ≠ domain knowledge
– Consumers might be vastly under informed whilst thinking
they have gained full insights into a domain
• Popularity , agreeability≠ truthfulness or correctness
– Consumers might be vastly misinformed leading to serious
consequences
• Deemed useful by consumers ≠ desired
– Consumers do not a-priori INTEND to engage with the
content out of their own volition
– Consumers might spend inordinate amounts of time
learning about something they deem pleasant or useful,
but which it practically is not
The age of content: danger
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Massive waste of time
Psychological distress and addiction
Catering to the lowest common denominator
Promoting lack of proper education
Knowledge becomes indeterminate,
indeterminable and ultimately, superfluous
• Menace to society
The age of content: danger
• Time spent on content:
The age of content: danger
• Content marketing is also employed by
“reputable” media sources as well, such as
newspaper channels which already have longestablished authority
• Crackpot theories presented as “scientific” are
difficult to recognize.
• Every preconceived notion is supported
somewhere, locking customers into their own
bubble and out of the accepted reality
The age of content: danger
• Viral hypes with severe consequences:
“vaccines cause autism”
• Recent outbreaks of meazles, polio whooping
cough…
The age of content: danger
• Alternative medicine communities provide
anectdotal reciprocal support despite
unproven efficacy (with deadly
consequences).
The age of content: danger
• News outlets: less and less journalism, more
and more articles
• Nu.nl:
1.2
1
0.8
Articles/Journalist (indexed
to 1402)
0.6
Parrot-index
0.4
0.2
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
(12) Ai Applied/ Jelle Boumans Phd dissertation (2014)
The age of content: solutions
• Age of contènt → Age of contént?
The age of content: solutions
• Currently, content channel owners have a
vested interest to PUSH content onto
everyone, all the time, for as long as possible.
Quantities matter.
• Profitable because advertisers can reach a
large ROI; small advertising budgets work
miracles if they reach the RIGHT people.
• Only profitable because of precise targeting of
advertisements.
The age of content: solutions
• The solution: deny advertising networks your
personal information
• Without precise targeting, ROI declines.
Advertising as it is happens is no longer
feasible.
• Content channel owners will have vested
interest in cultivating a community, rather
than wasting your time (as with TV in the 90s).
The age of content: solutions - now
• Think about what you’ve heard today
• Use false data on social networks (for now)
• Browsing privacy protection tools:
– Disconnect
– Privacy Badger
– NoScript
• Private operating systems:
– Tails Linux (formerly Amnesia)
• Anonymous/dark net:
– TOR
– Anomos
The age of content: solutions - future
• “Pay me, Facebook”
• Freedom box
• Networks of trust
• To succeed widely, must have a business
model
• Community-operated ad networks?
A brief future of “content”?
• 2024:
– Music studio cost: ~ US$ -1000,– 1 minute of real-time international communication
(QuantumMessenger): ~ US$ -1,- per minute
– Sending delayed information to another continent
(ContentNet): ~ US$ -1,- [2]
(5) Warbeats.com (November 2013)
The age of content: solutions paramount
EDUCATION