Workshop
on Online Social Networks
Participation by
invitation only
Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK.
December 7, 2007.
I Tube, You Tube, Everybody Tubes: Analyzing the World's Largest User
Generated Content Video System
Pablo Rodriguez (Telefonica)
Abstract:
User Generated Content (UGC) is
re-shaping the way people watch video and TV, with millions of video
producers and consumers. In particular, UGC sites are creating new viewing
patterns and social interactions, empowering users to be more creative, and
developing new business opportunities. To better understand the impact of UGC
systems, we have analyzed YouTube, the world’s largest UGC VoD system. Based on a large amount of data collected, we
provide an in-depth study of YouTube and other similar UGC systems. In
particular, we study the popularity life-cycle of videos, the intrinsic
statistical properties of requests and their relationship with video age, and
the level of content aliasing or of illegal content in the system. We also
provide insights on the potential for more efficient UGC VoD
systems (e.g. utilizing P2P techniques or making better use of caching).
Finally, we discuss the opportunities to leverage the latent demand for niche
videos that are not reached today due to information filtering effects or
other system scarcity distortions. Overall, we believe that the results
presented in this paper are crucial in understanding UGC systems and can
provide valuable information to ISPs, site administrators, and content owners
with major commercial and technical implications.
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