eMarketer’s front page offers two interesting counterpoints this morning.
In one article, UGC Not Critical for Many Marketers, only 12% of senior marketing staff on the client side said UGC (also known as consumer-generated media, or CGM) was “very important.” In another report, titled User-Generated Content: Will Web 2.0 Pay Its Way?, eMarketer estimates that US user-generated content sites will earn $4.3 billion in ad revenues in 2011, up from $1 billion in 2007.
Adweek paid $695 for the latter report and adds, “users have shown no indication that creating their own Web content for others to consume is a passing fad. By 2011, the research estimates there will be 95 million Web users creating content online, up from 64 million last year.”
In summary, CGM is exploding and there’s money to be made, but only a slim percentage of clients find the development worth acting on. Why am I not surprised?
