Utilizing user-created content is likely to be a vital marketing tool in the future.
At a recent conference on incorporating user-created content and the Internet environments that use such content in marketing strategies, Choi Hyung-woo, head of Daum Communications e-marketing division, said that changing technology and the new Web 2.0 makes room for more user-made content.
Choi pointed out that in the early stages of the Internet, up to the year 2000, text-based information was the main content, but it evolved to blogs and personal web sites between 2000 and 2005. Since then, however, more user-created content is being posted on the Web, especially in the form of videos.
Choi noted that this trend is not just about Internet content, but about consumer patterns, reflecting the fact that customers are not passive any more, and they like to be creative.
User-created content also makes way for viral marketing through the Web, as can be seen in examples of unknown people who became stars through user-made videos and then became models for real product advertisements. Another example is product advertisement video that is only circulated and made popular online.
In coming years, these user-created videos may generate more advertising revenue than television, Choi predicted. Especially on the Internet, advertisers are moving from Internet banner ads to search-based ads, and now, movie ads.
Unlike other advertisements on the Internet, in a video clip ad, consumers have no choice but to watch the short advertisement clip. Therefore it is easier to focus on a specific target consumer or consumer groups, according to the nature of the video clip.
Major Internet portals are all running video services. Yahoo!, Naver, and Cyworld all have separate video sections and Daum plans to launch a “TV Pod” service that has live channels, video on demand, and other more specialized categories.

By Wohn Dong-hee