Cuban Is Wrong About BitTorrent

Mark Cuban, a fascinating guy, posted a week or so ago his thoughts on BitTorrent. In summary he says, “it has a ton of challenges.”

In the last day a rebuttal from TorrentFreak has garnered a bit of attention, and in many respects I agree with them.

Here are Mark’s points, and where I disagree.

1. Conflicting Clients.

Mark suggests that there are too many bittorrent clients, that all conflict in some way. However, there are conflicting browsers, conflicting music programs, conflicting word processors, but it’s never stopped them from getting a foothold. It’s a very common problem on computers, they we’ve learned to work around.

However, I think out of all Cuban’s points he is close but for the wrong reason. It’s not conflicting clients that makes it difficult, but there is a need for yet another client to download the files, and then watch them. Why not just use a web browser for the download, and you current video player.

The greatest step forward I believe for bittorrent, is Opera’s integration into the browser. Once IE and Firefox take the same step, it’ll be easy to download with bittorrent.

2. End Users dont understand how P2P works, and once they do, they get concerned about giving up bandwidth.

Most people don’t know how the Internet works, never mind P2P. But that hasn’t stopped the Internet taking off. I also don’t know many Internet users that care to find out how it works. They just want what they want.

Anyway, this is largely irrelevant. Any online video will consume bandwidth, but it hasn’t stopped services like YouTube.

3. The P2P model of seeding is a HUGE problem for those using wireless broadband with bandwidth constraints or per bit or per minute costs.

Again, this issue exists for all online video.

4. There is a misconception that there is bandwidth savings for the end user.

This contradicts his statement in point two, where he says people don’t understand it and when they do they think they need to give up bandwidth. If people don’t understand bittorrent, how will they think it saves bandwidth.

In all my chats about bittorrent to people, including many laymen, this has never been raised. I doubt this issue even enters their mind, they just want to download that movie, or television show.

So, I think Cuban has a different reason for his “question.” I propose that what Cuban is actually saying is that the Internet is no good for distributing video, because the same argument applies regardless of the way the video is downloaded. Which, when you understand Mark’s current business focus, make sense. He’d rather have you tune in to HDNet, than watch low quality, but good enough, online video.

Blogging About Scouta

One thing I want to get right with this blog is to make it useful to people who have an interest not only in Scouta, but also online audio and video. What I’m aware of is that in many instances we’re going to relate news or commentary to Scouta and what it does. However, I don’t want the blog to become a giant sales pitch, that even annoys me.

So, let me know what you think is reasonable on the weblog. I’ve posted a few stories over the last few days. Have they sounded too much like a pitch? Would you like to see something else?

Perhaps over time I’ll pitch less as Scouta becomes public. Right now I’ve got a years worth of opinion bottled up waiting to be expressed :).

Enhanced Word of Mouth

I just a read an article over at Search Insider (one of the few email newsletters I subscribe to). It has an interesting article on convergence, a topic that has been near and dear to my heart for many years–being a movie/tv buff and an avid Internet junkie, I want it all in one.

In the article Berkowitz says that there’s “now too much content on TV to navigate by browsing.” He also adds that as “content from the Web (such as YouTube videos) becomes available on TV, the content will multiply exponentially, as will the need to efficiently search it.”

He is right. Browsing, although it can sometimes be fun and worth doing in many instances, isn’t as easy when the volume of content available grows. However, search isn’t the whole answer. Don’t get me wrong, search is insanely valuable, and it’ll be with us for a long time to come, possibly forever, but recommendations are probably even more important.

Even today we rely heavily on recommendations. Not particularly ones from automated systems, like one of Scouta’s features, but from friends, family and experts. In fact, we bias what we do based on these recommendations. If you hear from a friend about a great movie or television show, you’re more likely to give it a go. If someone emails you a YouTube video, it’s more likely to be worth a watch than one you find by browsing.

We’re aiming to make recommendations simple. Not only from friends and family, but we aim to create enhanced word of mouth. So not only can members share recommendations, we also personalize automatic recommendations based on your tastes or interests.

We think that these features will soon be baked into devices like televisions, so that when you turn it on, you have your own personalized channel.

Bubbles and Addiction

Larry MacDonald at SeekingAlpha posted yesterday about Online Video Fueling Second Internet/Tech Bubble?.

Will online video fuel a second Internet boom and possibly a replay of the stock-market mania of the late 1990s? Several recent articles and blog posts are suggestive.

When we started Scouta over a year ago, we weren’t thinking bubble. In all honesty, Graeme and I love online audio and video content, and wanted to make a difference, for ourselves and others, online. We didn’t want to sit on the side-line anymore–I wanted to be in the thick of it.

MacDonald also mentions the addictive quality of online video. Anyone who has used YouTube knows what he means: you can get lost there for hours.

I’ve even noticed a shift in my habits. I know I’m a founder, so I’m bound to be biased, but Scouta has almost become my de-facto entertainment channel. I can build a collection of personalized audio and video that I can run in the background while I work through the day.

This is all about to shift to the lounge room. CES had a great range of products that allowed anybody to stream Internet audio and video to the television. So, my habits will start changing there as well.