by Loretta Chao and Sue Feng, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center has released the latest list of “vulgar content” offenders (in Chinese). This time, Google escaped mention–but Yahoo China and a popular real-estate portal, Soufun, did not.
A provocative story from Reuters Monday ruminated on which companies are likely to replace Citigroup and General Motors in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its conclusion: Google and Cisco are the most likely contenders, with Apple and Visa having a less likely chance.
Watch out, distributors of premium content online, a 900-pound gorilla named YouTube just crept into the room. For the past few years, the service has become far and away the world’s most popular online video platform on the backs of its user-generated content and often legally questionable copyrighted material.
The problem with running a site that relies heavily on users to generate content is that it puts a disproportionate amount of power in the hands of those users (in relation to the site owners). If users are unhappy with something about the way a site that relies on user-generated content is run, they can theoretically hold the site hostage until they get what they want. This week, eBay sellers unhappy with the auction giant’s recent change in listing prices and policy launched a week-long boycott of the site. So far, the impact appears negligible, but the action highlights a risk that any business that relies on a UGC-centric model takes.
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