Oh, What Shall We Do With Online Video?
Don’t know how we missed this the first time around, but second time’s the charm. Right? It’s an interview with YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen by Wired Editor Chris Anderson, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
It’s mildly interesting to hear issues like scalability & advertising models discussed now, in the wake of recent reports on the future of online video. And it’s more-than-mildly interesting to hear them field questions on copyright wars and how Google changed everything, in the wake of all this social media madness. And what about competition? Sure, we’ve now got a crop of Others (like MetaCafe and Joost) out there now, all trying to be the next YouTube? Maybe, but preferably without all the lawsuits.
Take Hulu, for example. Hyped up? Perhaps. But what a, what a, NAME!
From the Hulu Blog:
Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and
rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun
name, one that captures the spirit of the service we’re building. Our
hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending
mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premier
content when, where and how you want it.
Sounds scary. But YouTube’s not going to roll over and die. After all, they’ve just signed Oprah. And we’re forgetting that TV and video are, in fact, two different things. YouTube is, and always will be, video. Leave the challenge of putting television online to everyone else; Chad and Steve can then retire in peace.
