Future of Video

Video will dominate internet usage in the years to come – as it is increasingly adopted by individuals and businesses, according to new Cass Business School research.

But despite being seen as the most engaging communication tool of the future, the research also found that many businesses lack the expertise and systems to cope with increased demand.  In fact,  significant investment will be required over the next year to meet it.

The study is the first of its kind to focus on video usage in business. The Future of Video, produced in association with video management company Imagen Ltd, shows that a range of technological innovations such as smart phones, advances in internet infrastructure, social media and shopping platform developments are collectively transforming the way video is produced, distributed, consumed, archived and, importantly, monetised. 

Some of the major findings include:

• Video usage is set to explode in the coming years - forecast to become 80-90% of all global internet traffic by 2019 – a staggering one million minutes of video a second.
• Businesses are not ready or able to cope with a boom in video usage due to its data intensive nature and the problems that arise from managing digital assets.
• Businesses that don’t invest in order to manage the transition to video effectively risk being left behind - 80% of businesses believe video content provides a competitive edge over competition.

Report author Professor Feng Li, Cass Chair of Information Management, said: “Much of the recent attention on video is about user generated content and how to monetise such content primarily through advertising. However, what have not been examined in detail are the opportunities and challenges for business use of video beyond advertising, such as the growing use of video in everyday communications within and between organisations, and the rapid development of video based operations and new business processes in different industries. How to use and manage video effectively has become a strategic issue for a growing number of organisations.”

Tom Blake, CEO of Imagen said: “The democratisation of video production will continue to have profound consequences for business communication and operations.  In the right hands, video is the most engaging and powerful medium for process management, marketing and knowledge transfer. However, it needs careful management and security controls, with an IT infrastructure fit for purpose.  YouTube, Vimeo and others set a high bar for the user experience of online video.  Businesses need to meet these established expectations, with controlled access and intelligence about the user engagement, in an environment which can cope with massive volumes of data.”