Demand Media, Inc. (LFGR)

[ICEQUITY]

Demand Media inc. - "Contenu Auto-Cree" (UCC) USER CREATED CONTENT DD $$ - UNCLASSIFIED DOCUMENT- (Nielsen/NetRatings) DIRECTORATE FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY COMMITTEE FOR INFORMATION, COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATIONS POLICY.

table 1: Fastest Growing Web Brands*, July 2006 (U.S., Home and Work)
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2006
* Fastest growing Web brands among those with a minimum unique audience of 750,000 in July 2005 Among the top 10 Web brands overall, MySpace was the No. 1 fastest growing, increasing 183 percent, from 16.2 million unique visitors in July 2005 to 46.0 million in July 2006 (see Table 2). Google ranked No. 2, growing 23 percent, from a unique audience of 76.2 million to 94.0 million. eBay rounded out the top three, increasing 13 percent, from 51.1 million to 57.8 million unique visitors. “MySpace is in a nearly unique position, because of its large audience base and its continued triple-digit growth,” said Gibs. “Only other popular user-generated content sites, such as YouTube, can rival it.”

DSTI/ICCP/IE(2006)7/FINAL

SUMMARY

The concept of the ìparticipative webî is based on an Internet increasingly influenced by intelligent web services that empower the user to contribute to developing, rating, collaborating on and distributing Internet content and customising Internet applications. As the Internet is more embedded in peopleís lives ìusersî draw on new Internet applications to express themselves through ìuser-created contentî (UCC). This study describes the rapid growth of UCC, its increasing role in worldwide communication and draws out implications for policy. Questions addressed include: What is user-created content What are its key drivers, its scope and different forms? What are new value chains and business models? What are the extent and form of social, cultural and economic opportunities and impacts What are associated challenges? Is there a government role and what form could it take?

DEFINING AND MEASURING THE PARTICIPATIVE WEB AND USER-CREATED CONTENT
Definition
The use of the Internet is characterised by increased participation and interaction of Internet users who use it to communicate and express themselves. The most prominent concept to describe this evolution which uses the Internetís inherent capabilities more extensively is called ìparticipative webî. It represents an Internet increasingly influenced by intelligent web services based on new technologies empowering the user to be an increasing contributor to developing, rating, collaborating and distributing Internet content Three central characteristics are proposed. UCC, however, is hard to define and based on criteria which are likely to evolve in time. As such these

characteristics lay the ground only for identifying a possible spectrum of UCC.

• Publication requirement: While theoretically UCC could be made by a user and never actually be published online or elsewhere, we focus here on the work that is published in some context, be it on a publicly accessible website or on a page on a social networking site only accessible to a select group of people (i.e. fellow university students). This is a useful way to exclude email, bilateral instant messages and the like.

• Creative effort: This implies that a certain amount of creative effort was put into creating the work or adapting existing works to construct a new one; i.e. users must add their own value to the work. The creative effort behind UCC often also has a collaborative element to it, as is the case
with websites which users can edit collaboratively. For example, merely copying a portion of a
television show and posting it to an online video website (an activity frequently seen on the UCC
sites) would not be considered UCC. If a user uploads his/her photographs, however, expresses
his/her thoughts in a blog, or creates a new music video this could be considered UCC. Yet the
minimum amount of creative effort is hard to define and depends on the context.

• Creation outside of professional routines and practises: User-created content is generally
created outside of professional routines and practices. It often does not have an institutional or a
commercial market context. In the extreme, UCC may be produced by non-professionals without
the expectation of profit or remuneration. Motivating factors include: connecting with peers,
achieving a certain level of fame, notoriety, or prestige, and the desire to express oneself.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/14/38393115.pdf