Content is King - Make That Queen, Jack. Content is Unimportant
Posted on January 11, 2007
Filed Under Commercial Trends |
Regular readers will understand that controversy is at least half the fun when it comes to picking out the right answers. Ajit Jaokar and Tony Fish, in their book Mobile Web 2.0, say “Content is King” is nonsense. A few years back, before the dotcom boom, financiers used to say Cash is King, and then they backed companies which made none, or very little, so we take industry dictums seriously at our peril. Joakar and Fish though have an important point.
We’re currently obsessed with content and its manipulation whether that content comes from professional creators or users. The Jaokar-Fish argument is connectivity is where the money is being spent and where it will continue to be spent. The drift away from content towards connectivity can be seen across a range of media sectors. What is IPTV other than the drift from content to connections? What is MySpace other than content as the wrapper to facilitate connections? In the world of connectivity content needs have no integral value. Its purpose is to connect people. Now I’ve gone beyond what these two authors were saying, I think, but I was jolted into realizing that I’d been thinking wrongly about content, almost as soon as I opened their book.
We tend to divide content between pro and user, journalist and blogger. These are irrelevant polarities. Content is being subsumed by connectivity and it’s being forced to different jobs. Who produces it is irrelevant. What we are seeing is a move away from content that speaks to some abstract value - as we might interpret or understand while watching a piece of drama - towards content as a bit part in relationships.
When it comes to mobile content Operators still derive 99% of their revenues from their core voice services. The content industry is intent on trying to push its product into the mobile space blissfully unaware of how unimportant any long tail content is to a mobile operator, a possible explanation for all the friction between suppliers and network operators right now. The significance of the change though is not confined to Operators. While mobile operators seek applications that will add up to a significant percentage of revenues, TV companies and web sites are demonstrating the willingness of the creative industries to convert their own content legacy to the cause of connectivity. Content as we used to know it is not King but it’s also losing its original sense of purpose.
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5 Responses to “Content is King - Make That Queen, Jack. Content is Unimportant”
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You raise some interesting points, Haydn. If your assertion is correct that modern day content is there to create connections, then newspaper institutions of old have a lot of paradigm shifting to do. They generally treat readers as anonymous subscribers rather than engaged community members. Very thought provoking.
Hello Vern. I think you’re write about newspapers. I think also we’re generally not analysing enough the significance of change so that’s been my blog mantra for a few days. Still can;’t get those damn numbers up though.
[…] Haydn Shaughnessy thinks the “content is king” idea is wrong. He points the Mobile Web 2.0 book by Ajit Jaokar and Tony Fish. […]
guys, i think u are misunderstanding the word content here. The voice would also reduced to be a part of content. Thins like Skype will be used to push voice and hence be a part of content.
Whatever it is the future will be Converged services rather than content or voice independently.
Hey Shaughnessy,
You got some interesting perspectives there- and I like the way you put words accross- straight and direct.
Just posted my own 2 cents abt ur perspectives on my own blog… drop by an post me a comment if u feel like…
-GB