September 2012 – Rebecca Quach's Blog

Monetizing Viral Videos

In the article, ‘Vancouver company takes bite out of video piracy’ by Nelson Bennett, Bennett talks about an interesting new way to make money off of viral videos. For example, if you watched a video about a certain charity, you could’ve made a donation without even cracking open your wallet. How? An organization called VISO Give generates revenue for charities by embedding advertising in videos. By simply watching a video made by or for a non-profit organization, a viewer generates revenue, paid by the advertisers.

I think that this is a great idea. For those of the YouTube generation, this was great news. Everyday people who enjoyed making videos could now even make money off of it. By monetizing videos, organizations who had problems with pirating could now take the reins back by producing their own exclusive online videos, and generate revenue from it as well. In a world rapidly becoming dependent on technology, developing businesses like VISO Give is not only a benefit to everyday people, but to the world as well. The opportunities created are endless.

Vancouver company takes bite out of video piracy – Nelson Bennett

Does Google have too much power?

In the article ‘Antitrust Suit Could Bring Down Google’, author Dan Lyons discusses the lawsuit between Google and the Federal Trade Commission over antitrust concerns. To summarize, the FTC is suing the search engine giant because Google owns two-thirds of the US internet searches and that it has “rigged its search results in ways that hurt its competitors”. According to the FTC and the US government, Google is too powerful–its practically a monopoly. However, proving that Google is a monopoly is tricky business given the fast-paced and ever-changing world that we reside in today. As well, it’s not enough to prove that Google is a monopoly, the government must also prove that Google is abusing its alleged monopoly.

There are many ethical issues we can discuss concerning monopolies. For example, real monopolies are considered bad, as the company has complete dominance over a market and can therefore charge anyone any amount and basically get away with it. However, one can argue that in business, the primary goal is to maximize profits, and monopolies are just a step in that direction.

So is it true? We don’t know yet, as the lawsuit is still ongoing. However, if Google is indeed a monopoly, and abusing that monopoly, this becomes an issue of ethics–especially for the company whose unofficial slogan is “Don’t Be Evil”. In the end, however, this lawsuit is ultimately left up to the presiding courts, and the question of ethics left up to the individual.

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” –John Dalberg-Acton

Antitrust Suit Could Bring Down Google – Dan Lyons