1. Startups

Two News From Two Big Players

Earlier this week there were 2 news from internet giants. One of the New York Times plans to implement paid content is just a matter of time and another is Aol, the US giant who launched a new Wikipedia-like application called Owl.

These two news may not have a direct impact on Indonesian internet users, but these two sites are two of the big players in the global Internet world, and I'm sure their impact will also reach the local Internet indirectly. Because everything is interrelated.

Like the first news about paid news content that will be implemented by the Times, for me it will affect the global internet arena which will later affect the internet on the ground. local. The process of paid content continues to be a polemic, not only for users, but it turns out that the change in concept from free to paid has created debate on the internal side. Likewise in the Times, as written by New York Magazine, the debate over whether the Times would launch a paid version was met with internal contention, although in the end the decision to monetize the content was inevitable.

As we know, the online media industry in the US is still in a state of confusion, dilemma and requires fast action. Will this development affect Google search results? It will certainly have an effect, but how and to what extent it will, we'll probably have to see in the next few weeks until the Times-style paid system rolls out to the public.

The battle between Google and the media tycoons is inevitable, Google itself is having trouble serious with unresolved China, not to mention the comments from Google rival Steve Ballmer who commented on Google's attitude to China. Maybe, later after the business with China is over, Google will be faced with the problem of paid content, although as before, Google may not bother with paid content, just remove this content from search results, but it might be a bit problematic for users.

Although the issue of paid content is still ongoing and will not always be different for each site, but there are at least 3 systems developed by the Times that we can look at, maybe giving a little idea or idea for your startup or site, those systems include pay wall which is a classic paid system, which divides site content into two, which is free and subscription-only, then the second is NPR-style membership, and the last is a metered system that provides facilities for users to read free content before charging for further content. Still as New York Magazine wrote, the Times will likely choose the third system.

The metered system allows Times to take advantage of two types of users, high-volume readers and casual browsers. This is also useful for maintaining traffic, so income can be obtained from two systems, advertising which refers to traffic and subscribers which refers to content.

We'll see in the next few weeks, what will happen with the launch of this paid content and response from Google. And like my writing In the past, I will certainly continue to hope, this paid content system does not come to Indonesia, I still choose advertisements, even though sometimes they are annoying. :)

Okay, one more news from Aol launching the site as written TechCrunch almost like Wikipedia. Owl itself for me may be the answer to the changes that are being intensively carried out by Aol. With a new CEO and face to face with competitors who continue to move forward such as Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Aol indeed must continue to rejuvenate itself.

With the presence of Owl, it seems that Aol wants to get into what is a trend in today's internet world. Owl itself is defined, as I quote from the blog as a breathing library filled with experts from all over the world, on various things ranging from useful knowledge, opinions to images.

The similarity with Wikipedia is in the contributor system that can send their thoughts, knowledge and various content that will later be disseminated to general users, from very useful content, suggestions, comments, to everything you want to know and things you don't know. but you should know.

These contributors can submit content and it is also possible for these experts to get paid. These experts are gathered through SEED. If you stop by the Owl site, some articles are still filled by the team from Owl, but later on, it is hoped that the articles will come from experts.

The main problem for the giants is, the big body makes it difficult to move, the old Aol also seems to be in the giant's 'trap', the internet which requires agility to move, it always requires application makers to keep going and advancing. And, with the launch of Owl, Aol seems to really want to start being seen again, not as a gutless internet veteran but as an athlete who is ready to compete with a very competitive aura.

Sumber: New York Magazine, Telegraph, TechCrunch

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