"Such is the state of online video," reports Wired, profiling Jukin Media, a 100-employee "viral video" farm.
But as online video has grown up, even viral stuff has been co-opted and turned into a business. …
Finding gold is not easy, though. It requires sifting through a lot of ore. On YouTube alone, people upload 300 hours of videos of cute pets, amazing physical feats, and fantastic wipeouts every minute. Clearly there's no shortage of content. The challenge is getting permission from the people who own it. "You have to have that drive. It's almost like being a stockbroker in a way," says Jukin's director of research, Kyle Peters. "It's really about putting our best foot forward as a company, so they know what we're all about. And once they understand what we're trying to do, and how we're trying to help them, it's easy to sell to them.".
Then they wrap it and resell it to publishers. If you find it unpleasant, don't worry! Facebook has not only surpassed YouTube in video views, but will carefully select which publishers can monetize content and determine its reach. Best of all, 72.5 percent of the top Facebook video content in May was ripped from YouTube players such as Jukin, meaning that Facebook's growth directly and intentionally harms everyone trying to make money from video outside of Facebook.
