There is a major misconception about User Generated Content which I see again and again among those involved in this space. The issue as summed up most recently by Mark Suster, a partner at VC firm GRP Partners is that “most UGC is crap and that’s the biggest problem with it”. This simply is not true, you can sell ads on crap. The biggest problem with it is that we don’t know what it is.
Suster was speaking on a panel at UCLA on the future of online and mobile video and the writeup over on the mobilizedtv blog is a worthwhile read. But back to that oft-mentioned myth about the problem with UGC.
The dilemma is that the universe of user generated content is expanding so quickly (YouTube processes more than 24 hours of uploaded video per minute) that it can’t be accurately cataloged, and that scares advertisers to death. Crap is in the eye of the beholder, and you may not make TV CPMs, but you can sell ads on crappy content if you know what it is and who is interested in it.