- Is Microsoft preparing us to move beyond Vista?
- Why Google wanted to lose wireless spectrum auction
- iPhone shortage fuels rumors of imminent 3G phone
- XP for cheap PCs: a second crack in the wall
- Darts into data: Leveraging random action to competitive advantage
- Most iPhone buyers are existing Apple customers
- AT&T's so-called open network principles
- Mono dev tool offered
- ActiveState upgrades IDE
- Serena plans SaaS products
April 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Web 2.0 surprise: Let's hear it for old folks
Bill Tancer, GM at Web research firm Hitwise, shook up the crowd yesterday at the Web 2.0 conference by revealing that the emperor --while possibly not stark naked -- is severely underdressed. According to Hitwise research, only a minute fraction of users are generating and uploading content to all those Web 2.0 sites built around "user-generated content." Just .16% of users are adding their own content to Web 2.0 poster child Youtube, and photo site Flickr does only a little better, with .2 %. The winner here is Wikipedia, with 4.5% participation. The rest of the crowd is just voyeuristic Then again, I've never noticed Youtube suffering from a lack of content, so maybe a fraction of a percent is a completely sustainable model.
But the real story, to me, is the surprising age distribution of Web 2.0 content generators. Pundits always hold up Gen X and Y -- born to the Web -- as the participatory generation. But -- surprise -- it turns out that Wikipedia is built on the backs of participating 35-55 year olds. Even YouTube skews older than you'd think, with most active uploaders weighing in north of 35. In other words, old farts rule. As a card-carrying oldish guy myself, I say bravo. Now it's time for my nap.
Posted by Steve Fox on April 18, 2007 02:07 PM
RATE THIS ARTICLE:
-
- COMMENTS
TOP STORIES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Remote Access: Maintain Security and Decrease the Burden on IT
- Beyond AntiVirus: Symantec Endpoint Protection
- What Every Enterprise Needs to Know About VDI
- Disaster Recovery in Minutes
- Protecting Microsoft(R) Applications
- Reduce Recovery Times and Tape Costs
