Content Providers Are the Internet Sweatshop Workers
A sweatshop is basically an organization where employees work for long hours at low wages under poor conditions. They exist in an atmosphere of exploitation. Sweatshops are normally associated with developing nations like India but they exist in developed nations like the United States as well. We also think of physical entities when we think of sweatshops. But is it possible that sweatshops can also exist online?
The internet as we know today is about content. The internet would not be nowhere near as exiting if all we can do is to send and receive emails or visit sites owned by large corporations or government agencies. What makes the internet what it is are the millions and millions of articles, photographs, video and all other types of content that individual human beings or small groups of people submit day in and day out.
The internet like any other industry is increasingly falling under the grip of large corporations. The fun and the excitement that the internet produced in its early days are long gone. The financial opportunities that the internet can provide are also almost over. I am obviously writing from a Western world standpoint. Only about 52 million Indians browsed the internet last year so the internet revolution is yet to hit about 1 billion Indians. But I have a feeling that all the good seats are taken!!
Any regular internet user knows that all we have to do is to visit one news website a day to get all the “news” of the day. Almost all the major news websites these days publish news generated by a few news agencies like Reuters. But if you do a search for that news on a search engine like Google, MSN or Yahoo you will see pages and pages of the exact same “news”. Does this add value to anybody?
Bloggers (I use the word very broadly) add unique content. They provide very good analysis which most news organizations do not do anymore. In many cases they are much closer to the action than most “news” reporters. But what is the probability of an article written by an individual about a particular event getting a higher position on a search query than an article on the same subject by a major newspaper? The newspaper article might be only two lines long but it still will get a better visibility than a well written article by an expert on the subject in his/her blog.
On the internet the only key group that is not making any money at all is the individuals who are providing the vast portion of the content that makes the internet interesting and valuable. The internet service provider, the companies that own the network and the search engines all make enormous amount of money. In a world where content is king the internet is one of the few places where content is very cheap or free.
Some of the articles that I have written needed enormous amount of research and some were based on my work and educational experience. So there is a monetary value the articles that I write (this true for most content providers). So how come I am not rewarded when my article is viewed by individuals from all over the world? The search engines that are taking my content and showing it to the viewer is making money. The internet service provider whose income depends on their customers browsing for content make money!!
Another big myth is that we can somehow monetize our website. The reality is that only a fraction of the websites in the world make any real money. Even a smaller number make money that is proportionate to the effort. But this reality does not stop us from incorporating pay per click, pay per impression and all other types of online advertisements in our website.
Unknowingly we have walked right into another trap. Online advertising is a great way for organizations to reach large number of targeted audience very quickly and also very cost effectively. Website these days are full of advertisements. But these websites make very little money because users have become smart and do not click on these advertisements any more. But the fact that the user has seen the advertisement has to a great extent served its purpose whether user has clicked on it or not. So the advertisers benefit but not the publisher (content provider).
It is imperative that the industry comes up some creative method for sharing some of the wealth they generate to the content providers as well. Otherwise the internet will become another boring place like the newspaper, radio and the television.
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Category: News & Government