User-generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is content derived and produced by the mobile phone subscriber, rather than any company with a commercial focus.
Such content could be in media formats such as music, data or video; the emergence of high-speed mobile networks such as 3GSM is enabling the delivery of user-generated multimedia content.
Content
UGC can include content such as jokes, submitted by mobile phone users and then made available for download for other users.
Mobile chat is also popular, where users exchange views, gossip or information within certain guidelines, and usually with a moderator monitoring activity. This type of content is essentially about two-way interactivity within a 'community.'
Consumers can also create their own music that other mobile phone subscribers can then download for their own use – for example, U.S. operator Cingular has launched a 'Mobile Music Studio', offering unsigned artists and bands on MySpace the tools needed to turn their self-produced music into ringtones.
User-generated content is also expanding beyond music. One example of a successful multimedia user-generated content service is 3UK's SeeMeTV. Launched in October 2005, the channel features mini-movies recorded by 3 customers via their mobile handsets, which are then uploaded to the SeeMeTV channel, earning budding contributors £0.01 for every clip watched. (Within a year, top earners were making £2,500 per month).
Citizen Journalism
Increasing use of mobile phones to share photos and videos has led to the emergence of 'citizen journalism' – the collecting, reporting and distributing news and information.
In many cases, citizen journalists are just accidental bystanders who have a camera/video phone and witness news events. The user is able to record the event and send it as a MMS direct to a news organisation.
Traditional news corporations such as the BBC and CNN welcome the receipt of such content, which is often of sufficient quality for television broadcast. Photo agencies such as Scoopt also enable users to sell photos and video to the media, and receive payment for all content sold.
