User Generated Content Has Not (Yet) Disrupted the Video Business

This looks like a disruption. to be sure. But what kind of disruption? Ten years ago, some would have argued that user-generated video would disrupt a substantial part of the "professional media" market.

One doesn't hear that argument so much anymore.

On the other hand, one might argue that user-generated text and image content has disrupted the business of "publishing" in rather direct fashion. One might argue that it is a lot harder to create rival video entertainment than it is to create useful "text" content.

The business dynamics of entertainment video and publishing also have been on different trajectories for decades. Video has continued to add revenue almost without exception, year in and year out. Newspapers and magazines have not been that successful, and arguably have been shrinking. "Online" and user-generated substitutes seem to have accelerated the print decline, but so far have largely been incrementally a factor in online video.