I never really got into the spending-your-evening-in-front-of-the-pc thing, possibly because I don’t like watching the same screen I’ve been watching all day.. Maybe because I’m quite happy to be surprised by what TV has to offer. It doesn’t really matter either way. What I did want to share is a little observation, which makes perfect sense, come to think about it.. Or does it..

I’m just reading The Long Tail and it’s quite good. Good source for good insight into the change of the market of tomorrow, nowadays (and yesterday even). It tells you the impact of having either very low or no cost for storage, distribution or shelf space as products are being sold over the air or cable, hance no need for high-street expenses to bring products to the customer. It has allowed a change.. Oh well, you get the gist, go have a read yourself. Point I’m trying to make is that the market niche, as such, is no more. The ‘hit’ of yesterday is a niche tomorrow, but still a hit being part of the massive niche that is the long tail.

The reason I’ve come up with this long tail tale is that I’m surprised by the YouTube phenomena. Brands branding, people exhibitioning, artists and bands promoting themselves. With eroticism banned from YouTube, its’ top movies are mainly dominated by people, regular people. You might even say Big Brother has gone internet with the introduction of YouTube (and left Big Brother itself behind). People obviously like to share, and even more people like to watch quirky videos of those people.

Strangest thing I “discovered”, as the news of Paris getting YouTubed was published today. That is the biggest competitor for Paris is not the many teenage dawson-creek-like problem stories, it’s not the slightly pronographic videos being uploaded each day, it’s not even the slapstick comedy stuff or independent movie shorts out there…. So what or who is it?

It’s a 79 year-old man, born 1927, very charismatic, telling stories of when he was younger. having thousands more subscribers to his channel (this means dedicated listeners) than the runner up. and not just now, this is an all time stat too! People apparently love hearing someone else’s grandparent
talk. Makes you wonder..

Doesn’t it?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 15:16 and is filed under Social, Internet, Opinion, Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.