Even though we are suing you …
we still like what you are doing.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Sumner Redstone is today's case in point. He is the majority owner of Viacom, the largest critic of YouTube and suing them for one billion dollars for copyright infringement.
Never-the-less, last week another company overseen by Mr. Redstone, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster, said they plan to develop a new video channel on YouTube. This channel will be called Bookvideos.tv which will promote authors. The book publisher will create about 40 clips that will offer glimpses into the lives of writers like Mary Higgins Clark and Sandra Brown, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This story helps demonstrate the Paradox that is YouTube. On one hand, its popularity arose from the use of pirated video clips that others uploaded. This is bad for Viacom. On the other hand, all those people are a marketing bonanza because they allow companies to promote themselves free of charge. This is good for Simon and Schuster.
You got to hand it to Sumner, though. He is definitely allowing each of his corporate entities to pursue whatever course they feel is in their own best interest.
History has already proven that YouTube correctly tapped into a powerful desire by people to share video easily and control content (even if they did not own it in all cases). The result was that they built a huge audience in the blink of an eye. I often wonder how much of a powerhouse they might have become if energy had actually been put in to build a real business model — one that would have worked for both Viacom and Simon and Schuster.
It's probably not too late for them to do so and retain their audience's loyalty but I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by admin on May 16th, 2007 :: Filed under Business Trends
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