BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
17 Dec 2008

Before all of the social media gurus send me death threats, please note the question mark in the title.

In mid-November 2008, we learned that AOL was canning Uncut, today we hear rumors that Yahoo! is killing Jumpcut. This begs the question: is Microsoft’s Soapbox next?  All of these sites were either launched (Soapbox) or acquired (Jumpcut and Uncut) during the heyday of User Generated Content-mania, circa 2006.  You know, a time not long ago when Time chose YOU as the Person of the Year.

A mere two years later, with marketers firmly rejecting UGC as a viable environment to advertise alongside to, you have to wonder how many other UGC-oriented video platforms will get killed.

After all, Uncut, Soapbox and Jumpcut are units of major media companies and they’re either dead of risk getting killed off.

How soon before VC-backed video file sharing social networks are killed, as well? After all, when it comes to UG-videos, YouTube has that market cornered, and it’s trying to carve out the ad-friendly programming away from the UGCrap to generate meaningful ad revenues… so how long before me-too video sites realize UGC is for losers and their VCs pull the chord?

Hint: not long.