WebProNews

Tag: Paid Content

  • Google Search May Pull Out Of Australia Over News Content

    Google Search May Pull Out Of Australia Over News Content

    Google has taken the extraordinary step of threatening to pull its search engine out of Australia if it’s forced to pay for news content.

    Google has long been at odds with news publishers. Many have tried to get the company to pay for news, but the company has made it a practice to link to and use news content without paying. Google has always claimed that news publishers benefit far more than it does from the arrangement.

    In spite of that, the company has begun caving to pressure. France has ordered Google to pay for news and the company recently set aside $1 billion to help fund partnerships with publishers.

    Google seems unwilling to give into Australia’s demands, however, according to ABC News. According to the report, Google has said it will pull its search engine if Australia moves ahead with its plans to force the company to pay.

    “If this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google search available in Australia,” Mel Silva, the managing director of Google Australia and New Zealand, told a Senate inquiry. “And that would be a bad outcome not only for us, but also for the Australian people, media diversity, and the small businesses who use our products every day.”

    That stance did not go over well with the government, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying “we don’t respond to threats.”

    It remains to be seen how things will eventually shake out, but it’s not looking good for Google Australia either way.

  • Demand Media: Etsy And Pinterest Will Feed Interest In Creativebug

    Demand Media: Etsy And Pinterest Will Feed Interest In Creativebug

    As previously reported, Demand Media announced today that it has acquired arts and crafts e-learning site Creativebug as part of its push to expand into paid content offerings.

    During a recent earnings call, the company expressed such an initiative, leading us to believe that we’ll be seeing more of these kinds of acquisitions in the near future.

    “We plan to leverage our premium video expertise to launch Subscription and On-Demand e-learning content by mid-year,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews. “We’ve already begun beta testing eHow Now, a product that offers real-time expert advice, where we leverage our studio’s expert talent to provide real-time answers. In our beta, we have experienced strong conversion rates and a 90% customer approval rating. We’re also developing a LIVESTRONG subscription service. We’ve hired senior executives from the makers of P90X to help develop this product offering, which we plan to launch in Q2.”

    With an increased interest in sites like Etsy and Pinterest, one can only imagine that consumers are hungry for the kinds of content Creativebug has to offer.

    “We believe there is a disruption and reinvention going on, as people become more interested in the craft movement,” the spokesperson says. “People will continue to turn to the visual inspiration provided by Etsy and Pinterest, which will feed their interest in expressing themselves and learning to create things.”

    Of course, as far as Creativebug is concerned, they have to care enough to pay to learn.

    Creativebug already has hundreds of videos. The top three categories, according to Demand Media, are sewing ,yarn and jewelry. The average video length is about 30 minutes.

    But with all the free content already out there, is this stuff really worth paying for? They charge $16.99 a month for access to unlimited workshops, and $9.99 and up to buy single workshops. When asked what users can get for their money that they can’t get from other sites, the company says, “They get to learn from world class experts in the craft field, which is not available on any other site.”

    Demand Media is not disclosing the details of the acquisition. They’re also not disclosing how many paying members Creativebug already has.

  • Demand Media Expands Into Paid Content With Creativebug

    Demand Media just announced that it has acquired CreativeBug, a provider of online video workshops for arts and crafts. The property should fit right into the company’s content network, which it plans to split away from its domain registrar business.

    “They are on the leading edge of two big growth opportunities: e-learning and crafts,” a spokesperson for Demand Media tells WebProNews. “The overall market opportunity is huge – the crafts industry has grown into a $30 billion dollar industry and the worldwide e-learning market is around $90+ billion.”

    “The Creativebug acquisition accelerates our expansion into e-learing, one of the paid content models that we plan to aggressively invest in during 2013,” she adds.

    During a recent earnings call, Demand Media said it intends to increase its investment in content production, and evolve its content production arm (Demand Studios). CEO Richard Rosenblatt indicated the company will double its investment in content this year. He said they would diversify into new content models, and expand the core ad-driven model with new paid opportunities, including subscription video and e-learning content. We can probably expect to see similar announcements in the near future.

    “We’re seeing a ‘disruption and reinvention’ in the way that people are learning new skills. They are increasingly going online to learn both practical and creative skills, and we believe this convergence has huge potential,” said Joanne Bradford, Demand Media’s Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer. “Instead of browsing at a bookstore or attending a class at the local community college, people are going online to learn from a world-renowned expert at a time that fits their schedule, accessing online videos from their smartphone, tablet or desktop.”

    “Creativebug represents a community of true believers. From our employees to our customers and instructors, everyone at Creativebug has experienced firsthand the obsession and addiction of being an artist/designer/crafter,” said Creativebug Founder and CEO Jeanne Lewis. “We take pride in doing everything thoughtfully, from filming high quality videos that illustrate the exquisite detail of hand-stitching to hand-delivering donations to our favorite local causes. We decided to join Demand Media because they care deeply about content and communities, and we are glad that we can offer our instructors a broader platform to reach more people.”

    Creativebug should appeal to the Etsy crowd (which has grown substantially over the past year).

    “Creativebug masterfully leveraged the e-learning and craft trend in the emerging ‘Create it Yourself’ movement to become a leader in this market,” said Dan Brian, Demand Media’s Executive Vice President of Media. “We’ve seen interest in craft-related content on eHow grow more than 20% on average every year over the last three years. We’re sprinting to keep up with demand, adding 29% more video content over the same period. Millions of people who visit eHow every month will be able to access Creativebug’s video workshops led by the top artists and designers in the world. We’re thrilled to add the passionate Creativebug team to the Demand Media family.”

    eHow itself continues to expand internationally as well, while Demand Media appears to be leaving the famous Google Panda update, which significantly impacted its business not so long ago, in the rear view mirror for good. That’s definitely a good thing for the company, considering that Panda is evolving into a rolling update.

    A major part of Demand Media’s strategy has been taking advantage of social media channels, and skills learned from a site like Creativebug would no doubt flourish on a channel like Pinterest.

    As far as e-learning, IBIS Capital estimates the market to be about $91 billion.

    Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

  • Pew Finds 65% Of Net Users Have Paid For Online Content

    When it comes to paying for online content, there are lots of outlooks.  Some people subscribe to multiple news sites and spend hours on iTunes every week.  Others set the Pirate Bay as their homepage.  Now, following a study, Pew’s claimed that 65 percent of Internet users have paid for digital content at some point.

    Note that the past tense definitely applies here; Pew’s question included the phrase "if you have ever paid," so it’s hard to draw conclusions about future or even current spending patterns.

    One other major point: Pew made clear in its report, "Of those internet users who have purchased online content, nearly half (46%) have purchased only one or two of the types of content covered in our survey."

    Still, Pew contacted 755 Internet users in the course of this survey, so the data is hard to ignore.  And you can have a look at Pew’s findings for yourself below.

    -33% of internet users have paid for digital music online
    -33% have paid for software
    -21% have paid for apps for their cell phones or tablet computers
    -19% have paid for digital games
    -18% have paid for digital newspaper, magazine, or journal articles or reports
    -16% have paid for videos, movies, or TV shows
    -15% have paid for ringtones
    -12% have paid for digital photos
    -11% have paid for members-only premium content from a website that has other free material on it
    -10% have paid for e-books
    -7% have paid for podcasts
    -5% have paid for tools or materials to use in video or computer games
    -5% have paid for "cheats or codes" to help them in video games
    -5% have paid to access particular websites such as online dating sites or services
    -2% have paid for adult content

    Pew also reported, "The average expense for those who have paid for content was approximately $47 per month for material they have downloaded or accessed, including both subscription (an average of $12 per month) and individual file access (an average of $22 per month).  However, some extremely high-end users pull the average higher, with most purchasers spending about $10 per month."

  • Would You Pay for Twitter if You Had to?

    Update: It appears there are some people out there that would pay to use Twitter if they had to. MG Siegler points to a survey from film critic Roger Ebert who would pay for Twitter, along with about 20% of his followers. Make of that what you will.

    Original Article: The USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism has released a study (pdf) this week looking at the impact the web has on Americans, and among the nearly 200 issues explored is that of paying for online services and content.

    Believe it or not, most don’t want to pay. For example, the study found that 49% of respondents have used free micro-blogs like Twitter, but "zero percent" said they would be willing to pay to use them.

    Would you pay to use Twitter if it charged a fee? Let us know.

    Jeff Cole on paid content"Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free," said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the school.

    "Twitter has no plans to charge its users, but this result illustrates, beyond any doubt, the tremendous problem of transforming free users into paying users," added Cole. "Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive for free."

    Obviously this is an obstacle some newspaper publishers are hoping to overcome. Last week, reports surfaced that News Corp’s The Times’ site visits fell to a third of what they were when it began requiring users to pay.

    "Internet users can obtain content in three ways: they can steal it, or pay for it, or accept advertising on the Web pages they view," said Cole. "Users express strong negative views about online advertising, but they still prefer seeing ads as an alternative to paying for content. Consumers really want free content without advertising, but ultimately they understand that content has to be paid for — one way or another."

    WikiLeaks has also shown how far the web can go when it comes to free, important content. By making over 90,000 Afghanistan war-related documents available to the public, readers are treated to an escalating plethora of free analysis to choose from (not to mention the raw source material).

    What content is worth paying for? Tell us what you think.

  • Is the New York Times Jumping the Gun on Paid Content?

    There has been a lot of talk of late about how the New York Times would probably be moving towards a paid model for its online content. The newspaper has now come right out and said that starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get "a certain number of articles" for free every month, before asking to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print edition would receive full access to the site for no additional charge.

    There are still a lot of details to be worked out from the sound of it, and since the change won’t go into effect for a year, maybe they will have enough time to get it right. However, publishers have been trying to get this right for years already, and are still struggling to find that true answer. You have to wonder, what makes them think they can get the details ironed out by then?

    It would be one thing to announce it and start doing it. Other publications do this, but a year is an incredibly long time in the online world. There are so many things that could happen and questions that may still remain unanswered in the online news industry. News Corp. for example, has set off a firestorm over whether or not people should be able to freely link to free content on the web. There are just so many things that come into play that it seems rather strange to assume everything will fall into place a year from now. Who knows what condition the industry will be in by then? Publications that are using paid models right now may decide it’s not working and switch to a different plan. To reiterate, a year is a long time, particularly in an industry with so many question marks.

    NYTimes.com

    "This announcement allows us to begin the thought process that’s going to answer so many of the questions that we all care about," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the company chairman and publisher of the newspaper is quoted as saying. "We can’t get this halfway right or three-quarters of the way right. We have to get this really, really right."

    I would say the thought process has been in motion for some time, and it’s hard to imagine setting a deadline for the discussion to wrap up in such a timeframe. Does setting such a deadline suggest a hint of desperation? The Times says that any changes will be closely watched by other publishers of online content, and there is no doubt that this will indeed be the case.

    The publication refers to Nielsen Online and analysts’ data indicating that NYTimes.com is "by far" the most popular newspaper site in the country with over 17 million readers a month in the U.S. alone.

    Do you read the New York Times? Would you pay for frequent access or get your news from other sources? Share your thoughts.

    Related Articles:

    > New York Time’s Could Announce Paid Model This Week

    > Do You Have the "Right" to Link?

    > Is This the Answer for Online News Revenue?