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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