The market for User-Generated Content

Participants in online social networking subscribe to a web site in order to connect with friends, old and new, to express themselves and interact with others by sharing personal information, views and content through blogs, imagery, video and audio - collectively, UGC. In its short history, online social networking has captured the imagination of participants, particularly the young, resulting in exponential growth in its adoption.

UGC came into the mainstream in web-publishing circles during 2005. It describes the creation and publishing of content by users of a web site as opposed to its production by traditional web producers or journalists. It characterizes the democratization of publishing facilitated by the wide-spread availability of affordable new technologies such as broadband Internet access, digital imaging using mobile phones and multimedia blogging, resulting from the convergence of the fixed and mobile Internets.

The advent of UGC and the phenomenal appeal of online social networking create an unparalleled opportunity for digital media companies to enhance the appeal of their web assets in order to increase traffic, loyalty and stickiness and create incremental revenues.