Can there be such thing as "globally popular local content"?
Web 2.0 | 2007/11/26 22:25 | Web 2.0 Asia
A few days ago, a famous Korean entertainment blog called 3M Heungup (where the word "3M" represents for music, movie, and - ahem - masturbation) wrote a piece (note: in Korean) about the declining proportion of Korean web traffic out of the worldwide internet traffic.
According to the article, there were 133 Korean web sites that ranked among the top 500 most trafficked sites in the world in 2003, but now there are only 5 such Korean sites.
Pretty sharp drop, isn't it? But take these figures with a grain of salt - the figures are from Alexa, whose credibility is being seriously questioned these days.
The article then goes on to assert that the decline of Korean web traffic's portion out of the worldwide figures is due to the decline of Korean "web content power". (I sense a bit of false analogy here, but let's just move on). And the article gives the following as the reasons for the "decline of Korean web content power".
First, there is only little amount of original content, mostly because the original content generators ("CPs" or "content providers") don't get much economic benefits in return. Portals amass huge amount of content by providing free tools and collecting the user created content ("UCC"), but they don't distribute revenues generated off of those content (mostly through ads) back to the contributors. Meanwhile, there is rampant use of content copying on the web.
I agree with this first piont - but on the following second point, I'm not quite sure if I agree.
The article says that the second reason for the Korean web content's decline is the lack of Korea-produced, globally appealing content. The article says "Nobody outside of Korea would be interested in a Korean entertainer's recent divorce or a Korean comedian doing an impression of the other Korean comedian, which would be funny only to the Koreans". But there can be globally popular Korean content, such as this Korean guy's unbelievable guitar playing video that is ranked at .
Or, if I may add, this video of Korean B-boy dancing team who recently won the world championship might also carry some global appeal as well:
Yes, these might be appreciated by non-Koreans, but it's because these are non-verbal performances. But what about other genres of Korean web content, can it also be popular in other regions?
Perhaps a more fundamental question - Isn't content actually meant to be local, to begin with? If that is indeed the case, then what would it mean to export Korean content, espeically on the net? Does it mean producing more guitar-playing or break-dancing videos, or the K-pop music videos with subtitles?
Many Korean content providers are looking for ways to export their content. The challenge would be to figure out how, or if, the local content can draw interest from abroad.
According to the article, there were 133 Korean web sites that ranked among the top 500 most trafficked sites in the world in 2003, but now there are only 5 such Korean sites.
Pretty sharp drop, isn't it? But take these figures with a grain of salt - the figures are from Alexa, whose credibility is being seriously questioned these days.
The article then goes on to assert that the decline of Korean web traffic's portion out of the worldwide figures is due to the decline of Korean "web content power". (I sense a bit of false analogy here, but let's just move on). And the article gives the following as the reasons for the "decline of Korean web content power".
First, there is only little amount of original content, mostly because the original content generators ("CPs" or "content providers") don't get much economic benefits in return. Portals amass huge amount of content by providing free tools and collecting the user created content ("UCC"), but they don't distribute revenues generated off of those content (mostly through ads) back to the contributors. Meanwhile, there is rampant use of content copying on the web.
I agree with this first piont - but on the following second point, I'm not quite sure if I agree.
The article says that the second reason for the Korean web content's decline is the lack of Korea-produced, globally appealing content. The article says "Nobody outside of Korea would be interested in a Korean entertainer's recent divorce or a Korean comedian doing an impression of the other Korean comedian, which would be funny only to the Koreans". But there can be globally popular Korean content, such as this Korean guy's unbelievable guitar playing video that is ranked at .
Or, if I may add, this video of Korean B-boy dancing team who recently won the world championship might also carry some global appeal as well:
Yes, these might be appreciated by non-Koreans, but it's because these are non-verbal performances. But what about other genres of Korean web content, can it also be popular in other regions?
Perhaps a more fundamental question - Isn't content actually meant to be local, to begin with? If that is indeed the case, then what would it mean to export Korean content, espeically on the net? Does it mean producing more guitar-playing or break-dancing videos, or the K-pop music videos with subtitles?
Many Korean content providers are looking for ways to export their content. The challenge would be to figure out how, or if, the local content can draw interest from abroad.
