If you don’t think people would be interested in watching someone streaming video of their personal life, you have forgotten our innate nosey nature. We love to know other people’s business, and even share a bit of our own. Facebook’s staggering popularity is the proof that we like to share, and know, personal details.
Enter vlogging. Vlogging is the modern-day, true-to-life situation comedy, a kind of reality show on steroids. Vloggers record a video log (v-log=vlog) of practically anything and share it online. And if you think they want for viewers, you’d better revise your opinion with the facts. Mohamed Beiraghdary is one of the most popular daily YouTube personalities streaming a vlog, with over 5.3 million subscribers. He uploads videos that offer a glimpse into his daily life on his channel Mo Vlogs.
And he is only one. Here are more examples:
Casey Neistat vlogs his latest project and business venture, known as 368,to 10.3 million subscribers.
Tanner Fox started uploading videos when he was just 12 years old. As one of the top daily YouTube vloggers, 7.3 million subscribers have watched him grow up right on screen.
Tanner Braungardt started uploading trampoline tricks on YouTube before transforming himself and his channel into a brand boasting four million subscribers. He’s amassed nearly a billion views, too.
Roman Atwood has been vlogging since 2013, with a following of more than 14 million subscribers. Viewers have seen the ins and outs of this daily YouTube vlogger’s daily life with his girlfriend and three children.
Ellie and Jared Mecham are top daily YouTube vloggers who share their journey as parents who struggled to conceive. They now have two “miracle” babies, and share their family adventures with over 1.5 million viewers each day.
The Growth of Vlogging
Vlogging is a modern new media sensation and everyone from gamers to housewives are hopping on board. Our fascination with the “inside look” combined with the steady stream of daily content has driven vlogging to dizzying heights. We already know that 69 percent of audiences would rather watch video when its available on a web page. Couple that with the fresh, “live” appeal of vlogging, and you have a potent prescription for continued growth.
Along with the popularity you gain from streaming a vlog comes networking, advertising, and sponsorship opportunities that make vlogging very attractive, indeed. One program, Daily Bumps, features a family of four and their daily activities. Their estimated worth is $3.6 million. Now boasting over 3.9 million subscribers, the vlog rakes in about $4,500 per day in advertising revenue.
There has been such growth that business and marketing centers are sitting up and taking notice. With increasing demand for video content, and 61 percent of companies already using it as a marketing tool, vlogging is a natural next step. Recorded or streaming Q&As, client testimonials, how-to sessions, and more are the next big thing businesses will use to promote their brand.
Vlogging Requirements
The simplicity behind vlogging certainly contributes to its popularity. A good video camera, some editing software, a high-speed internet connection, and a host is basically all you need to begin vlogging. It is a simple concept; it is not a simple process.
Vloggers can choose between recording all day, editing, and then posting a vlog for viewing, or simply grabbing the camera and live streaming. Both are popular ways vloggers connect with audiences. Many post daily on hosts such as YouTube while saving the occasional live stream for their Facebook page. Many vloggers see this as a wise method of attracting different audiences through multiple platforms, but with basically the same content.
However, as you can imagine, the amount of storage and computing power necessary for 2.5 million viewers (Daily Bump) to enjoy the video content is beyond huge. Multiply their viewership by several magnitudes and you see the growing need. Currently, top YouTube vloggers pay a sizeable cut of advertising revenue for the platform to worry about storage and bandwidth issues. The money involved is such that the vlogger still earns a comfortable amount even after YouTube takes its cut.
With businesses utilizing vlogging as a marketing tool, the landscape changes. Unless, of course, they want to subsidize the YouTube empire by paying a premium for hosting and other needs. If a brand wishes to host its own vlog on the company website, then the company will be faced with the costs of cloud storage, streaming bandwidth, and all that goes with providing huge amounts of data on demand to an internet audience.
How will VideoCoin help Vlogging?
Over 80 percent of all internet traffic is video. Yet, the current internet video infrastructure is crippled by excessive regulation, restrictive centralization in only a few companies, and rising costs. Innovation for vlogging and other video technology is stifled; so, therefore, is investment. Moreover, the existing pool of storage and computing power is vastly underutilized.
The VideoCoin Network is a decentralized video encoding, storage, and content distribution system that turns all cloud-based video services into an efficient algorithmic market running on a new blockchain with a native protocol token, the VideoCoin (VID). Encoding, storage, retrieval, and distribution of video is handled through the VideoCoin network, which utilizes the unused data storage and computing power of the cloud for must less cost, and with greater security.
Instead of vloggers depending on oligarchs for storage and streaming services, the control is put back into the vlogger’s hands. Technical vlogging requirements cost less, are more secure, and the field is wide open for open-source development and innovation that can benefit vlogging and other video technologies. More storage, more control, less waste.