SEPT 23 — Make money by producing online videos. Use all the resources available such as YouTube, Vimeo and all the cheap and accessible equipment out there.

That has been my advocacy message all these years since I have been involved in the “industry”.

But I’m so incredibly annoyed by the fact that it’s been so many years (almost a decade) and I’m still trying to push this idea ahead.

I’m also so incredibly annoyed by the fact that even today, there are so many articles and writings propagating this idea.

Now you would ask, if I’m a proponent why should I be annoyed? Well, the answer is simple. Years have gone by and we’re still stuck at this stage of the idea.

The problem with these articles (unfortunately, including mine) is that they’re all still trying to push online videos as something novel and unexplored.

Online videos have been around for many years, even before YouTube. And YouTube alone has been around for almost seven years.

So let’s stop with the crap that online videos are something so new. It should have developed into quite a mature industry by now.

Look at television. Within five years of being introduced commercially, it already became a big industry (of course we’re not counting the stalled years during WW2).

Don’t get me wrong. People are making money from producing online videos, but please allow me to stress that it’s people who make the videos and not platform sites like YouTube.

There are a couple of production companies in America and Europe who focus solely on online videos, and also a few individuals who are making it “big” on YouTube.

The numbers are just too small. Because aside from what I have mentioned, there really is nothing else out there.

In Malaysia, the production companies that are doing online videos are those who have been around doing either television programmes or films and just trying to diversify.

As far as individuals in Malaysia who are making a living doing online videos, aside from me, I don’t seriously know anyone else.

Even then, I still have to be diverse and produce other types of content for the more traditional media like television, newspapers and magazines.

Why is it taking so long for the industry to mature? Is it because people tend to expect online content to be free, hence there is no money in it?

That can’t be true since television and radio has been free ever since it started and their content producers seem to be doing all right relying on the advertising model.

So why not go with the business model that has been so successful for television and radio you say? Well, it has been attempted and still is. But it hasn’t worked.

I guess this is the one time that I do not have the answer to the question that I have raised. Sorry.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.