Week 1 - Response to Article

How this concept of Social Media could impact storytelling on the web
Article: Microsoft gives up YouTube chase

What can be taken from this decision by Microsoft to drop Soapbox, is that any attempts to copycat YouTube are a poor decision for any business. YouTube has yet to show a profit for its parent company Google. In fact, the property is a costly money-sucker for the company.
The biggest thing that YouTube has going for it, is its early arrival in the video sharing space. Because of this, it has had the necessary time to refine the user experience and overall functionally of the service. On top of this, the brand recognition and user loyalty makes it difficult competition to go up against. As Rafe Needleman responded in the attached video, Microsoft's service was buggy, and totally lacked any "Community" integration, which created "not enough difference to warrant change from YouTube or other video sharing sites".

If it weren't for the fact that Google has such an enormous amount of money in reserves, there would be no reason for it to continue the service. One of the only other companies (in the technology field) that could match these economic capabilities would actually be Microsoft.
What this says is that the YouTube model is not a feasible business model, and we are unlikely see many new similar ventures enter the space in the near future.

The good news is that both Google and Microsoft recognize that being the video space is a necessity. If this were untrue, Google would drop YouTube, and Microsoft wouldn't take the time to revamp the Soapbox service (they would simply remove it). It's likely that one of two things will happen in the future regarding video sharing services. The first likelihood would be the cost of delivering video will continue to decline, so much so that it would make these businesses worthwhile. This would be a catalyst that would cause a resurgence of new ventures to re-enter the space. The second outcome could be a complete revamping the services, in attempts to constrain costs. The cost containing actions could include a limiting of what types of videos could be uploaded, and/or limiting a user from "freely" viewing videos (especially in an unlimited quantity).

The outcomes of the "video sharing" space will have a significant impact on storytelling on the web (and especially the producers of these videos), as these outlets are the distributors of our stories. We will have to work within the confines of their tools, and capitalize on the freedoms that they do present to us.