Video monetization is a big business today. The ads around video hosting, sharing, viewing all add to the monetization possibilities. However a lot here has to do with targeting the right video and the right ads with the correct target audience. For this to be effective, a lot of user, viewer data needs to be collated. This is what in simple terms is geo-spatial data – data that the user may or may not have given explicitly, but which gets consumed by service providers of various categories to further enhance their services and experience to end customers.
All of this data cannot however be free bee everywhere in the long run. Data management, associated security, who does what with data will all need to be managed to ensure digital safety. This is exactly where we have been seeing governmental bodies slowly beginning to exercise control. In India, for example, a lot of dispute has been going on in recent times with the geo spatial regulatory bill that the government has initiated which will allow stringent reviews by regularly agencies in use of data. A number of small players have been protesting against such a move as it may not impact the likes of Google, Facebook, Microsoft as much as it does smaller video monetization players or for that matter anyone who uses geospatial data – even be it e-commerce service providers.
Undoubtedly, some kind of a regulation will become important as the industry around this space grows in scale and further evolves. As to what balance is struck such that it is a WIN:WIN for both regulators and the industry, safely eliminating any miscreants who might jeopardize cyber security as well as the players themselves who may be invading into user privacy beyond acceptable limits, are all what need to be figured in the days to come. To that extent, geospatial regulatory bill will impact video monetization, but it will certainly not threaten the industry.