Socialmediaworx

I wrote yesterday on the Viget blog that ultimately, Hulu may struggle because it is too closed – NBC is too focused on Hulu as a destination, rather than maximizing the distribution of it’s content. Today’s announcement by YouTube for an expanded set of APIs takes the opposite approach – doing all that they can to provide more options for interacting with YouTube from anywhere you are.

Fred Wilson writes: “You cannot be a destination exclusively on the Internet anymore.”

Hopefully YouTube will also be able to successfully monetize increased distribution in new ways, and encourage other content owners that focusing on distributed content not only builds brand awareness, but is also profitable.

[UPDATE]

In addition to increasing content’s distribution online, it needs to go hand-in-hand with being available on multiple platforms. Disney president and CEO Bob Iger said just as much at the McGraw Hill Media Summit:

“Brand managers look at technology with a deep-rooted aversion,” he said. “People take a protectionist view of it, but we’re projecting the brand versus protecting the brand.”

The article goes on to say:

Iger stressed how social media was far from a Gen X or Gen Y fad, but in fact a part of everyday life for children. He said the computer will soon supplant the television as children’s screen of choice. “In the years ahead, broadband on the computer will be the primary source of entertainment for kids,” he said. “It’s just as important to them as the TV set now.”

It bears repeating: from this point on, content needs to be distributed far and wide, and we need to develop the new models for metrics and monetization. The old ones just won’t work anymore.