Internet Titans Take Different Approaches to Content Generation

I dislike the often repeated phrase "Content is king" when referring to the internet. It's a tautology that conveys no real meaning, kind of like saying oxygen is important for life. What is interesting is how the major internet companies approach content. The Internet titans are each taking a different approach to content generation, with Google stating last week that it is sticking to its mission statement to "organize" and "make accessible" information, not to create it.

"We don't really have a ton of serious conversations about creating content," said Tim Armstrong, vice president of advertising sales, said during a panel discussion at an Interactive Advertising Bureau event in New York. Instead, he said, Google would prefer to stick with "getting users where they want to go."

Yahoo! has a much bigger stake in content generation, and went through some internal in-fighting this year in regards to the best approach to take. Lloyd Braun, former chairman of ABC Entertainment Television Group whom Yahoo hired in November 2004 to head their Media and Entertainment division, wanted to take a traditional television model to the Internet: create a series of one-off hits to attract and sustain large audiences supported by advertisting. His original strategy was to create sit-coms, talk-shows and similar television-like content for the Internet. Other Yahoo! executives, in particular CEO Terry Semel, disagreed with this approach, and instead favored acquiring content through partnerships and licensing deal as well as through user-generated content. Mr. Braun lost the battle in typical corporate fashion: his budget was seriously cut. Rumors circulated that Mr. Braun was going to leave Yahoo! over the dispute, but he stated back in March that he had has seen the error of his ways:

"I didn't fully appreciate what success in this medium is really going to look like," he said. "This is not about creating one-off hits like in my old business. That is not going to create a sustainable competitive advantage over the long term."

However, another Internet titan is taking the opposite approach, and the one originally championed by Mr. Braun. Ironically, it is from a company that was one of the first to bring user-generated content to the internet in a large scale through customer written book reviews: Amazon.com. Amazon now seems intent in creating highly produced original content on a grand scale: Amazon has hosted a series of short films, video streamed its 10th anniversary concert featuring live performances by Nora Jones and Bob Dylan, and most recently, Fishbowl, the 12 episode talk-show hosted by Bill Maher. Amazon has publicly stated that Fishbowl is just the first of many 12-episode programs that it plans to air. Amazon has also purchased the rights to turn the best-selling novel "The Stolen Child" into a feature-length film.

I won't speculate as to which approach will be most effective, although Google is probably in the most enviable position by simply side-stepping the need to create original content and still make money in volumes that Yahoo! and Amazon can only hope to do so. I guess it really is good to be the king.

technorati tags: google, amazon, yahoo