David Eun, VP, Content Partnerships, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), closed out the SIIA Information Industry Summit by offering a summary of Google’s principles (“Perfection is the tyranny of good enough,” i.e., launch quickly, get user feedback and improve over time) and that it’s possible to be bullish with regard to old media companies like the NYT and Forbes – thanks, in part to Google’s help.
— Engineers with heart: During the Q&A portion of Eun’s presentation, former WSJ publisher Gordon Crovitz asked about the Google culture, which he noted has been described as “a very engineering culture.” Eun agreed: “It’s natural that it’s an engineering culture; It’s run by three computer scientists. When I joined two years ago, it was a shocking experience. Being an engineering culture means putting a premium on efficiency; it’s all about getting things done; it’s about ‘action items’ – quickly determining who is supposed to have something done and when.” Eun added that Google also has a “young culture.” People aren’t jaded. Summing up: Google is “a mix between the heart of the Red Cross and the work ethic of an investment bank.”
— False scarcity is no longer true: Eun: Making the content available to consumers in a planned way. Delivering content to bookstores, movie theaters. These days, media is all about ubiquity. The companies who succeed are the ones who embrace ubiquity and ask, what are we going to do about it?
— How Google makes money: The answer is Google AdWords. “The end goal for us is for the ads to be as compelling as the search results. The same ethos is applied to Google’s partner websites. “For a golf site, you won’t see ads for diapers alongside the content.” AdWords is now 35 percent of our total business.
— It’s a YouTube world: Most of the traffic is now from outside the U.S. South Korea was just added as YouTube’s 19th “locality.” And with 10 hours of video uploaded every minute, being available on different devices is just as important as being available in different countries. Google has a recent deal with Casio digital cameras, which will allow users to directly upload their videos through the camera. At CES, Panasonic introduced a TV that lets viewers watch YouTube videos directly; the sets will begin shipping this spring. Lastly, without mentioning specifics, Eun gave a nod to Apple’s (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone, which “is a huge source of YouTube traffic.”
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