Content is king
Internet service giant Yahoo has taken another step in its process of reinvention with the acquisition of Associated Content - a company that aggregates the content of 380,000 independent contributors.
Associated Content treats any individual as a potential freelancer - otherwise known as crowd sourcing - and has created a system whereby it can, not only accept and pay for individual pieces of content, but order and display them in a way that's useful for readers, advertisers and content partners. The acquisition will strengthen Yahoo's content offering at a time when it's increasingly letting Microsoft look after its search business.
"Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content's makes this a game-changer," said Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo. "Together, we'll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network."
"Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo!'s distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth as we continue to leverage our best-of-breed platform to deliver high quality compelling content on more than 60,000 topics." said Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder and president.
This move is reminiscent of AOL's acquisition of Weblogs - owner of 85 blogs, including Engadget - back in 2005. AOL too is a former Internet giant struggling to redefine itself in the era of Google, Facebook, etc. Now online content is valued as much for quantity and speed as much as quality, and the social media model is viewed by many as a way of getting content on the cheap.
Of course Associated Content wouldn't put it that way. "As the web's first people-powered media company, in early 2005 we set out to change the content landscape by building the best technology platform and the most prolific, talented contributor base on the web. We succeeded," said Beatty in a blog post discussing the move.
Here he is chatting to some Yahoo people in the lead-up to the announcement.
