The new online medium of Video is presenting some fundamental problems with users. Despite it obvious advantages and ease of absorbing information with little to no effort required people still seem to have video fatigue.
But why?
Well, for a start a little browse through some of this week’s tweets on Twitter points to a startling result that video is really taking off.
AirPlus RT @PhoCusWright: Online video is fastest growing media in history. If Heinz can sell ketchup by video the travel industry certainly can …
tripology The next idea in travel, by Google’s Torres. 56% of online travelers watching online videos yet industry video adoption slow. #phocuswright
uptake #phocuswright, why is the travel industry slow to adopt video as compared to CPG and auto industry
travelshake RT @Wanderlust13: Before booking, travelers are now visiting over 20 sites. At least one is video site. #phocuswright
Crash905 RT @Virtuoso: Google & YouTube discussing the importance of video in increasing demand, revenue & awareness in travel #phocuswright
The above sample of tweets presents a mixed bag of results, in some cases contradictory. On the one hand it’s clearly demonstrating that video is set for a bright future, increased demand naturally means increased revenue. Right? Or perhaps not. For the simple reason is that if the industry is so slow to adapt to this new medium there must be a really big question mark hanging over this area.
Most people will be familiar with this dilema, such as the high costs to upgrading technology, price of video hosting, user-uploaded content versus professional and so forth. While these are quite relevant in the overall equation there’s perhaps another little as yet unaccounted for factor in why the industry is still slow to react:
Users still don’t trust video content.
From our point of view and having spoken to various sites, the latest one Ireland.com that also hosts video content, users merely use video as some form of light entertainment, probably to kill a few minutes of boredom. Even when presented with relevant knowledge or information on the subject they are searching for many people chose to avoid watching a video. The reasons for this may be:
- not enough time to sit through a few minutes of video
- information is not direct enough on screen
- the traditional form of reading is still preferred
The last one is a particular consequence of old habits and probably more relevant to the older generation. A poll would no doubt clear this one up very quickly.
The fact that YouTube will not be profitable for some time to come does not bode well for everyone and considering they are the biggest players in the field this again points to some other element that underpins a greater, unanticipated consequence of watching video content.
It’s therefore our conclusion that although video may well show huge gains in recent months and even continue to grow the actual industry may suffer in the long term if we cannot understand fully why consumers are not engaging properly with video content. The subsequent step then would be to try and encourage a new direction to combat this negative aspect.