(Almost) 40 Years of Video
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(Almost) 40 Years of Video 4 decades of video disruptors and how they changed user-experience 00:0 and our everyday lives 1 Teaser Video is infused in our day-to-day lives. From the moment we wake up to the time we go to sleep, we laugh with videos, learn from them, and use them to communicate with others. We take it as given, but this reality didn't just shape overnight. To tell the whole story of video, we'll probably have to start with the invention of film in the 19th century, possibly even sooner than that. We're not. Instead, spanning four decades, this paper takes a close look at six brands that reimagined video technology, delivery, and consumption: MTV, Netflix, YouTube, Zoom, Twitch, and TikTok. Unsurprisingly, their advent and growth directly correlate with the overall increase in media consumption1. Still, we'll only focus on two innovative features, characteristics, or tactics that each one brought in. By doing that, we aim to celebrate video but also inspire. 2020 marks a critical stage in humankind's dependency on video — a new normal built around remote and virtual experiences. What better time to delve into the most ground-breaking video-based user experiences, discuss how they came to be, and think about what they can teach us going forward? Global Media Consumption / Week Average hours per week Average 1960 1980 2000 2020 00:0 2 1981 Killer Videos Aug 1, 1981, about 40,000 years after man first made music, we think, signifies another important benchmark in music history. On that day, around noon, MTV ran its first broadcast. And while music videos weren't new, nor was it the first attempt to deliver music video programming, it was the first to get off the ground and stick. MTV's success was immediate. Just a couple of months following the 24 hours music channel launch, the crowds were already tuning in around the clock. It turned out that people didn't only enjoy listening to music; they loved watching it too. Interestingly, the first video to play on MTV was the Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. Videos There's a reason why our brains are wired to digest videos faster and remember them longer. Videos roll together image, sound, and text while still relaying non-verbal Get People communication far more effectively than any of these. Plus, they somehow turn Going lengthy and dull descriptions into succinct narratives and vibrant scenes, making them instantly engaging. When you think about it, the idea of pairing short films with songs is anything but obvious. From a musician's standpoint, there's no reason to steal the attention from the main show – the beats and melodies. But because video packs in other media types and content forms, it blends in naturally. And it blends into almost any other setup, product, or service just as neatly. In MTV's case, it was music. & People “Video developed into an avenue that expanded creative boundaries2”, Get Videos far beyond that of music alone. The camera gave artists new ways to express themselves in how they moved, danced, and dressed. In turn, showmanship and Going performance skills became increasingly important if you wanted to win over listeners’ – or should we say, viewers’ – hearts. Directors, photographers, editors, and all sorts of artists all got into the mix, helping musicians tell their stories with stunning visuals and state-of-the-art effects. The fans loved it. The (almost) limitless options videos give us make them a powerful marketing tool too. As record companies and artists soon found out, Music videos boosted record sales and unlocked new opportunities for lesser-known musicians and groups. And it doesn’t just stop at music or even marketing. Videos vamp up anything they touch – whether it’s learning, working, or entertaining. 00:0 3 Takeaways Videos showed music enthusiasts a new way to interact with their favorite artists and redefined ‘listening to music.’ For musicians, it was a new way to complement and augment their work. To this day, MTV is a great example of video’s superpower to shake entire industries, revolutionize products, reimagine services, and move the wheels of history (and economy). But it’s not the only one. Take education, for example. Video allows both synchronous (live) and asynchronous learning situations and environments. What’s more, with bite-sized chunks of nothing but essential information, and by giving people an easy way to share their knowledge and expertise, it’s reconstructing how we educate. And online conferencing isn’t the only way video changes how we work. The fact that HR staff can now create structured onboarding experiences ready to be used time and time again is but one example. As video functionalities become more ubiquitous to digital workplace tools, we’re bound to see more instances like that and remote team collaboration reach new heights. 00:0 4 1997 Videos in the Stream Netflix has been delivering media entertainment straight to people’s homes, in one way or another, since 1997. In the first few years, Netflix was an internet movie rental service. While the company did many things right, mailing DVDs to people was probably its primary selling point and the one that eventually crushed their brick-and- mortar competitors (Blockbuster being the biggest and most renowned one). In 2007, following the slow demise of physical data storage (i.e., DVDs), the company shifted its focus to subscription-based online streaming. Jump forward 13 years later, Netflix has around $200 Million users in 190 countries. It’s hard to say when exactly binge-watching became people’s default way to consume content. What we do know is that Netflix played a crucial part in it. Undoubtedly, much of it has to do with their media catalog overflowing with viewers’ delight. In 2012, the company even started producing its own content, rocking the entertainment boat a little more. Still, it was Netflix’s delivery prowess, not production powers, that turned it into the streaming superpower that it is today. Videos, Netflix subscribers in the US have nearly 6000 different titles to choose from, or over Sorted 50,000 episodes, depending on how you choose to look at it. Either way, that’s quite an extensive library to flip through. It’s one thing to make it available, but an entirely different challenge to make it approachable. And one that Netflix’s engineers and designers passed with flying colors. Classifying content into genres and categories is pretty standard and commonplace, but it certainly makes navigating the viewing experience more manageable. Netflix took it one step further, possibly a bit more, thanks to rich and detailed metadata, used to label titles together under such themes as “Comedies Starring Women” and “Emotional European Dramedies.” So, unless they’re in the mood for flicking, chances are users will find something to watch. Today, video data can span what happens throughout the video, by the way. That’s the data type that lets us run advanced search capabilities and makes any content truly findable. & Where Netflix quickly realized it had another important job-to-be-done: delivering content You Need whenever and wherever people wanted it. People were looking for a hassle-free Them service that was always at hand, and Netflix answered that need with DVD’s magically appearing in their mailboxes. Today, it's by letting users stream content from whatever platform they were using. In exchange, users gladly ditched old pricing models in favor of an all-inclusive recurring subscription. And there’s a lesson here for all other video 00:0 services, no matter what type of content they manage. Viewers expect it to be readily 5 available for them to watch the instant they click play. Interoperability is the name of the game, and in this game, there’s no place for a service that isn’t compatible with different devices and formats. Asking users to complete a grueling series of actions, and that includes installation, is just as unacceptable. It has to be embedded where life, work, or fun happens. Takeaways The kind of rich data that comes built-in with video can take the idea of personal recommendations and findability to a whole new level. But that’s only part of the Netflix story. For a video service to be successful, it has to be available when and where people watch, meaning anywhere and at all times of the day. Netflix didn’t become one of the leading streaming services globally because it offered content people loved to watch. It did so because it understood how people wished that content to be delivered and how they wanted to watch it. Netflix’s video savviness is just as relevant for any other solution or service, even one seemingly contrary to entertainment, like health. Further bumped by COVID-19, Healthcare has been changing and digitizing for quite some time now. For example, the doctor-patient relationship is reshaping to focus more on engaging patients and not treatment solely. Condition-specific videos (i.e., sorted) designed to educate and inform patients on the medications they’re receiving or upcoming procedures are becoming more commonplace. And where do patients watch these videos? That’s right, in the app or website where they manage all their health proceedings (i.e., where life happens anyway). 00:0 6 2005 Video 2.0 In 2005, less than 15 years after the World Wide Web came to be, three ex-PayPal (early) employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, activated Youtube.