15 Minutes of Fame

by Bong S.

 

Charice Pempengco, Arnel Pineda, Moymoy Palaboy & Roadfill, Dancing Cebu  jailbirds, Edu’s Papaya Dance, Cebu hospital “behind” the scenes footage, teleserye episodes, Bitoy’s  “Mamaw”spoofs etc. These are some of the contributions by our “kababayans” in YouTube. In terms of survey results, You Tube has consistently rated as one of the most visited sites in the Web. This is solid proof that You Tube awareness is already widespread among Pinoy Internet users.

In one episode of Jessica Soho’s weekly program, she featured the duo of Moymoy Palaboy and Road Fill. These are the guys who lip synch popular dance tunes featuring their own brand of wacky choreography. During the interview, the two admitted that at first, their primary motivation was just to get kicks out of seeing themselves in You Tube, those wacky moves and lip-synching eventually landed the pair a spot in Bubble Gang.

You Tube has made possible the “discovery” of a different brand of humor from these two budding comedians. Arnel Pineda’s rise to become the front man for Journey was in part due to You Tube. Teen singing sensation Charice Pempengco’s You Tube video uploads definitely gave her career a big boost. She practically became a singing sensation overnight.

 

What does this say about You Tube? Simply put You Tube has enabled ordinary people to be seen and heard by practically everyone in the world. The saying that “the world is your stage” now rings very true. Of course, true talent will always surface amidst the din of new comers. But that’s the hard truth offered by You Tube for artists aspiring to make it to the top, you won’t make it if you can’t cut it.

 

For the aspiring artists, the prospect of being “discovered” courtesy of You Tube leaves them with a wishful sigh. Pinoys are naturally gifted performers. I am very sure that there will be other Pinoys who’ll be the next Charice, Arnel, Moymoy and Roadfill.

Crossing the Chasm – Walking on the Wire

By Dave Madayag

 

Why the title?

It is evident that by looking at the context of the Philippne scenario on YouTube exposure it has  indeed crossed the chasm. However, to state if YouTube has indelibly left a mark to see if it has “obviously” crossed the chasm is a matter of disctinction among the “addicts” or active YouTube users alone to answer.

Why walking on the wire?

The wire itself is the “bridge” of YouTube that has crossed over the chasm. Think about the likes of Arnel Pineda (lead singer of Journey), Charice Pempenco – now a US popstar, and the marching inmates of Cebu, plus the growing worldwide popularity of the bastardized version of the movie 300. These are just plain examples of how YouTube became an effective tool in spreading the likes of the enumerated benifeciaries through the medium. Filipino talents and antics crossed the chasm walking on wire but in a very easy crossback.

We cannot deny the fact as www.Pep.ph said in thier online article about the YouTube phenomenon proving how the Filipino people have made an inscription of our identity worldwide and stated, “Youtube has helped celebrities and celebrity wannabe’s gain popularity and even gain international recognition.”

__________

References:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=arnel+pineda&search_type=&aq=f

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cebu+inmates+thriller&search_type=&aq=1&oq=cebu+inmates

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=charice+pempengco&search_type=&aq=0&oq=charice+pem

http://www.macuha.com/2008/07/video/momoy-palaboy-youtube-videos/

http://www.pep.ph/articles/16152/Filipino-YouTube-Wonders

http://www.pep.ph/articles/16152/Filipino-YouTube-Wonders

YouTube 2010

By Joel Aldor

We’ve just witnessed one of the greatest, unprecedented moments in history of the world: an African-American man thrown to the greatest power by the American people. It certainly has inspired nations that “real change” can happen. But I’m not just talking about change in governance. The change here is that president-elect Barack Obama’s campaign heavily utilized Web 2.0 to create a new wave of political supporters, eventually making every social application available nowadays: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and of course – YouTube, a viable and powerful political tool.

It was at that special time when YouTube was seen as the fundamental technological platform to advertise to voters, and Barack obama surely had exploited it very well. At a time when people are much more informed of their voting decisions thru fact finding: reading blogs and choosing video internet instead of TV, the Internet population was every political candidate’s Holy Grail. Come November 4th, 2008, Obama’s official YouTube campaign videos were watched for 14.5 million hours. To buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV roughly estimates to $47 million. And they never paid a single cent.

YouTube has simply proved to be a very much revered medium because supporters can freely upload their candidate’s video speeches and commercials. It has also enabled a new way to engage in political discourse because it poses greater challenges for the candidates to answer questions that could have otherwise been predictable, as with the past presidential elections. Thru YouTube, voters have been very more vocal on their stand and defiance for a candidate on CNN/YouTube debates by uploading their personal video questions which are then being answered by Obama and McCain during the series of presidential debates, and even participating in video debates by video-responding to voters of the other party. It has proven as well to be a tool that is greatly feared of. Voters can also search videos of past speeches to closely study their agendas, or to prove something wrong. Within hours, videos of fatal bloopers, political blunders or Freudian slips can generate hundreds of thousands of hits among YouTube viewers, instantly marking some influence on their voting decisions.

Ok, you may now be asking…why the heck I called this post YouTube 2010?

Well, turns out that next year will be a big year for us as we take our turn to vote for the next ruler of our country. I’m pretty sure our own presidentiables have witnessed this whole Internet frenzy that turned the cyberspace into a virtual meeting-de-avance. At the moment I’m typing this, I was looking which among the presidentiables have started campaigning on YouTube, and lo and behold I saw Mar Roxas having his own YouTube video stream. I believe though he’s only the first presidentiable yet to start his campaign on YouTube, others will eventually follow suit. Politicians are very much aware of the power of social media that creates stirs and uproars on an information-conscious Filipino society nowadays, so it won’t be a surprise if they will heavily invest more on YouTube campaigning rather than TV airtime. And it won’t be a surprise as well if the money saved from their campaign budget (read: pork barrel) will go down straight to their own pockets. Yeah, call me a pessimist but reality bites.

So, has it crossed the chasm? If it’s in the political arena, definitely – at least in the Western scene. We still have to see it here though. It could be already crossing at this point.

So much for Youtube and politics.

 

References:

How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics
Claire Cain Miller, November 7, 2008. The New York Times.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics/

YouTube role grows as U.S. election nears
ZDNet News, July 20, 2007. Reuters Ltd.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-152602.html

Mar Roxas for President in 2010 Youtube Stream
http://marroxas2010.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/mar-roxas-for-president-in-2010-youtube-stream/

Discussion Podcast

Part 1:

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Part 4:

YouTube in Ilonggo Perspective

Benjo Kag Ang Batalyon Pitbull (helmet mo, tay)

World Domination

by Jon Danao

Most companies’ dream is to capture the mainstream audience. It is particularly difficult to introduce new high tech product to the market without a hefty marketing budget or irresistable business model. But YouTube does not have a business model. They focused more on the social model of their service – making YOU, the end user, the center of their strategy.

Simplicity brought YouTube to every computer. No need to install a program. It can run inside the browser. When sharing, there is no need to attach the file, just give the link. To upload, no need to pre-convert videos. The uploader has a facility to convert (on the fly) most video formats to playable FLV file, ready for streaming. The user can even participate by adding comments or post a reply video.

Hitwise reports YouTube acquiring 75% of US market share in May 2008 – more than four times the combined share of MySpaceTV, Google Video, Yahoo Video and Veoh. It became a household name. Online video or entertainment became synonymous with YouTube. It is safe to say YouTube is still inside the tornado. Even CNN used YouTube during the US Presidential Debates. It opened the doors for ordinary people to ask the presidentiables about their concerns. This recognition of such reputable news company using YouTube as a main avenue for communication potentially generates more hits and increase its user-base.

Let’s see some numbers. The total number of internet users in North America is about 248 million according to Internet World Stats. That is almost half of its population of 530 million as of mid-2008.

comScore, a leading measurement company in digital world released a report last October 2008 stating there are more than 147 million internet users in the US watching an average of 92 videos per viewer on the said month. 100 million is YouTube’s share, that is about two-thirds of the total internet users who watch videos online, and 40% of the total internet users in North America. That is a huge market share. Do you stil doubt YouTube hasn’t crossed the chasm?

YouTube became a phenomenon when Google bought them for $1.6 billion in stocks. With such a huge company backing them up, they can continue to offer their services for free. This is one of the top reasons why YouTube is very attractive to most users – free registration, free uploading, free viewing.

Interesting Facts from Digital Ethnography:

Popular Tags

Average Video Length:

2 minutes 46.17 seconds. Time it would take to view all of the material on YouTube (as of March 17th 2008): 412.3 years.

Let’s here it from one of the World Dominator himself: From Concept to Hyper-Growth

References:

• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570721-1,00.html
• http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/youtube_continues_to_destroy_all.php
• http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/youtube-popular-right.html
• http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208801200
• http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/03/is_social_media.html
• http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/12/08/daily37.html?ana=from_rss
• http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm