Mobile YouTube - Are we There Yet? Jury is Still Out
by Aner Ravon

Ok, so the hot news are cooliing off and we all had a chance to check out Mobile YouTube by now. It’s time to call the Jury back in and get an interim verdict. My first impression of the service was awesome. It looked good, worked well on my 3G Nokia E61. Sure, the content is handpicked and handicapped, but it’s still a good start. The main issue I had with it was with the fact it’s still not working well on too many operators and devices.

Itay Gissin discussed Mobile YouTube in our HooQs blog this morning and tried to understand whether it’s just a mobile version of the “Internet YouTube” or the other way around - a new “YouTube approach” to mobile media.  His conclusion, with which I agree, is that it’s a bit of both.

Starting with the good news. The most refreshing element of the new service is that it is Internet based and operator independent. In other words, it gives on deck portals a well deserved kick in the butt:

“Good news - No client needed, just come and get it with any Internet 3G phone! That’s exactly what this industry needed for a long time - an Internet giant meaning business & leveraging the Web’s open model on the mobile industry. Most other Internet content players view the operators as the “plug number” in their broken revenue model, trying to sell OPC (Other People’s Content) in traditional content models, overlooking the end-consumer reluctance to pay premium for content mobility.“

These are indeed great news and such that will help drive the industry much faster. After all, everyone looks at Google and YouTube when it comes to taking risks these days. Operators have realized by now they need to channel Internet content and not reinvent it, and such a move from such a significant player definetely helps drive the point. There are a couple of hard core issues though.

The first one is availability. Mobile YouTube is streaming based, a decision that can be probably attributed to legal caution. The video files are transcoded to 3GP format which means no iPhone, Windows Mobile or Blackberry. Streaming video is not a trivial end user feature and is still dependent on operator practices, proper device configuration and overall device support. Sticking to streaming video means that roughly 2 out of 3 potential 3G users are out of the game, without them even understanding why. The 3GP format is less of an issue and I expect YouTube to cover those other formats soon enough.

The second issue is the content itself. On the Internet, YouTube is a key media website, fitting well in the rich user environment. On mobile, users need better reasons to enter, not to say stick to a mobile portal. Mobile video is a different experience than Internet video. It involves more difficult navigation and has a price tag associated with it. The secret sauce of a successful mobile portal is made up of easy access and versatile content - variable sources, credible news, mobile use cases and so forth. YouTube is a part of that, but cannot cover the basic need by itself. As Itay summarizes:

“When I am on my mobile, I normally have a minute. Maybe two. The only way I will choose to go on the internet is if I know I am 2-3 clicks away from something that will Hook me up, and will be unique & forward-worthy. For that to happen, content sources will have to be much more varied than a YouTube. A community system will have to be working for me - Scouring the web, fetching content, filtering it for mobile consumption, connecting me with peers’ content, and more.”

Couldn’t agree more.

Aner Ravon
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