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CNN and AOL flatter YouTube with imitation

Not content with ripping off the Digg model to try and "save" its Netscape brand, AOL has been busily designing its own take on the YouTube approach to video content.

The new site will combine home-made videos with AOL paid for and professional content including Spongebob and Squarepants (let there be a peer production alternative before my son gets to the age where he watches that, pleeeaaase).

: : Hang on – now CNN wants some of that YouTube MoJo – well, why not – like I said, there’s nothing about the YouTube platform that can’t be copied elsewhere    …

Via Micropersuasion

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Antony Mayfield

3 responses to “CNN and AOL flatter YouTube with imitation”

  1. Sally Avatar
    Sally

    I think you’ll find it’s Spongebob Squarepants, actually. He’s a sponge, and he’s got square pants.

    (Just realised how tragic it is I know this when my own child is only just eating solid food and certainly not watching TV)

  2. Ian Avatar
    Ian

    While I don’t doubt that mainstream media companies can quickly generate a lot of eyeballs with their Web 2.0 ripoffs, the tide is already turning against free content submission.

    Who wins in the ensuing bloodbath will be enthralling. Call me a silly old fool, but my money is still on the young contenders. After all, it is the communities that have created these sites. And they won’t be fucked with.

    At the same time, and maybe this is a contradiction, I really think that the paid-for content models like Revver will soon become the norm. Youtube and digg and flickr and MySpace and del.icio.us have had it easy. And now they have the social capital, Jason Calacanis is right, only cash will prise them away.

  3. Antony Mayfield Avatar
    Antony Mayfield

    Enthralling is bloody right!

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