The popularity of user-created videos keeps rising following their successful debut last year. Videos created using mobile phones are especially in high demand this year. Mobile phone makers are competing fiercely to launch video portal services, with some having introduced in their mobile phones separate icons exclusively for the mobile multimedia service "Show" and UCC (user-created content).
Real-time video transmission
Special services enabling users to watch and enjoy their own videos as well as produce and upload them themselves have also been introduced in succession. The high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) service, for instance, allows for the creation of videos using the video phone function. That service is also called "video caller ring". It enables users to select photos and videos that they have personally produced with their mobile phones as their caller ring tunes. Users can also create their own videos using "Show Video Live", the HSDPA service of one mobile phone maker which broadcasts real-life episodes via "show phones" in real time. New models of mobile phones featuring sophisticated mobile UCC functions have been introduced to the market recently. One mobile phone company that has been providing the Mobile Cyworld service since 2004 has recently unrolled a new phone model that features an updated UCC function, called Mobile Cyworld. Users of this model can transmit their video clips and photos right after shooting them. Also slated for release late this year are gadgets with video editing functionality that enables users to edit their own video clips on the spot and set them as their caller ring tunes.
Faster data transmission
Interest in mobile UCC will likely surge even further after mobile phone makers launch the high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) service in the first half of next year. The HSUPA service offers a remarkably higher data uploading speed, up to 15 times as high as the current HSDPA service. The UCC fervor will gain even more momentum with the debut of the HSUPA service, as users will be able to produce videos using their mobile phones, which they typically always carry with them, and upload them to any website they want right on the spot. The quality of user-created videos is also set to improve dramatically.
Enjoying UCC to the full
A great number of students, the major UCC users, watch user-submitted content at least once a week, with entertainment videos being in high demand. UCC fans say that user-submitted content will also become an effective corporate marketing strategy in the future. The results of a recent poll show that 43.3 percent of UCC users watch TV dramas, movies and showbiz-related content, while 32.8 percent enjoy games, entertainment and animation. As to the most promising areas of growth regarding user-submitted content, more than 41 percent of the respondents chose corporate marketing, while 29.8 percent chose broadcasting and 26.9 percent education and information sharing.
Star content + UCC
Star community services combining user-submitted content with so-called "star content" will soon make its debut. Entertainment companies also plan on launching so-called "star-created content", or SCC, featuring artists they manage, such as Boa, TVXQ and Super Junior. One website specializing in user-created content has recently launched a large-scale nationwide UCC audition tour. The site received 850 applications and some 1200 pieces of user-created content just two weeks after announcing the audition. Star-related videos are expected to advance to the Asian market later this year, ushering in the era of "Korean Internet Wave" overseas.
Food and beverage firms launch UCC marketing
User-generated content has recently emerged as a marketing tool for many food and beverage makers, who deploy UCC to advertise their products and even offer prizes to consumers. Their rationale is that people who enjoy producing and watching videos also happen to be the main consumers of food and beverage products. Moreover, the effectiveness of UCC marketing has turned out to be flawless so far.
The use of UCC keeps expanding, but the negative effects also continue to arise, such as copyright and privacy infringements and leaks of harmful materials. Many people point out the urgent need for the government to devise countermeasures to uproot those problems and for UCC providers and Internet users to take full responsibility for their actions.
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