Social, Streaming Don't Compete, They Compliment

Social, Streaming Don't Compete, They Compliment

Andy Marken June 27, 2025

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I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically. - Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Disney, 2003

Why, why is it always us versus them, they're beating us/we're beating them?

We've never understood why for us to win, they've gotta lose.

Take video content.

There are varying flavors of long/long videos (movies, shows).

Then there are long- and short-form projects.

Some are designed to entertain us, explain things to us, educate us, and yes, sell us stuff (ideas, products, services) in a hopefully interesting, attention-grabbing, entertaining fashion.

People - researchers, Wall Streeters - like to categorize them, even though ordinary folks, especially Gen Zs and younger, just see them all as video entertainment.

More importantly, rather than being competitive, we feel they have a symbiotic relationship.

For example, movies, whether they appear in a theater, are streamed or are made for television, find that using long and short videos can get folks into seats at theaters, at home in front of the TV or (gawd forbid) watching it on their iPhone. The stuff works honest.

The same planning, scripting, creation, production, and distribution goes into the content regardless of how long they are or the size of screen they're viewed on.

Global Run - It is almost coming to the point where we can say the world runs on video. Especially when you compare the other content that moves across the internet.

Maybe that's why more than 75 percent of the content that moves across the internet is video - news, ads, social media, video sharing, video streaming - watched on high-resolution large screens and small, anytime/anywhere screens. To ordinary people, it's just content they want/need now.

If you want to thank/blame anyone for your insatiable need for instant video viewing; you can probably blame Susan Wojcicki - who, unfortunately, died of lung cancer in 2024.

She perpetuated the Silicon Valley dream by renting her garage to Google founders, Serge Brin and Larry Page.

She later became Google's third employee and then CEO of fledgling YouTube, the firm that Google acquired in 2006.

She's largely credited for making the video service the powerhouse it is today - the largest video service - entertainment, information, education in the world with about 2.8B monthly users and revenues of more than $36B.

Big Money - While YouTube is the largest online video service, it doesn't actually create content but leverages its services by making content available from a full range of advertisers and creators. Being a big time YouTube or social media celebrity keeps lots of folks dreaming the dream but it isn't easy.

Not bad considering they don't really pay to produce any content and make their money from advertisers and subscriptions.

Of course. they're nice and share some of the ad revenue with creators.

Individuals such as Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast) and Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (PewDiePie) earn $650M plus and $5M plus respectively.Video apps folks and those who are selling training services love to hype these and other big earners as well as the fact that the average YouTube creator makes $68K, they don't tell you that there are 50M creators around the globe.

Yes But - It goes without saying that those making most of the money on YouTube and the other social video services get the most attention. But the vast majority of the casual and full-time creators barely make ends meet if at all.

Some studies say it's closer to 300M - full, parttime, etc. - and experts note that video creators have to constantly develop new/fresh content to keep followers/viewers coming back for more.

In other words, your chance of financial success with YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and other services is about as good as being discovered working at an LA soda fountain.

But YouTube did start the online video phenomenon which shows no sign of slowing down because it seems that everyone suffers from FOMO.

Social Pros - One of the best ways for people in the professional content field to stay visibile (and available) in the marketplace is to highlight their skills and talent on social media video.

In addition, there are other reasons professional video content creators, producers, actors and post people should consider getting involved in long/short video, even on a sporadic basis and even when it doesn't yield the big bucks.

Whether you normally work in front or behind the camera, write or post, direct or do great VFX developing and posting your own long/short videos is a great way to highlight your talents, try new/different things and keep your name/talents in front of people who are hiring for films/shows. And if you make a few bucks along the way, that ain't all bad.

Screened Up - While streaming services create/distribute content for the big home screen, they also know that people have become accustomed to watching content on whatever screen they have close at hand.

However, it was Netflix that professionalized and raised online video from bits/bytes to real entertainment that lets you sit back and enjoy anytime and anyplace, on any screen.

With 300M subscribers in more than 190 countries, revenue of nearly $11B and a market cap of about $434B; researchers/analysts place Netflix at the top of the streaming video service arena.

As arguably the first and certainly the largest streaming video service (sorry, we think of YouTube as an ad service), Netflix has evolved to survive and thrive over time.

That growth is due in no small part to its subscriber/viewing habits information database, some pretty intelligent management moves and selective u

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