Our global population is approaching 7 billion. Subtract a conservative 20% each for those below 10 & above over 60, & you will arrive at a figure of little over 4 billion possible active Internet & cellphone users. Of these, one out of 4 is an Internet user. (The number of Internet users are a little over 1 billion while that of cellphone users exceeds 2 billion.)

With more than 100 million (unique) AOL users, almost 400 million Yahoo! users and like numbers of MSN & Google users, there must be over 800 million unique users across all the major portals. In other words, almost every Internet user is a regular of either Yahoo!, Google, MSN or AOL!

Full Circle
The Internet started off as a communication network. Then a lot of dotcoms tried to make a medium (& more) out of it - during the 1st dotcom wave. But most met with dismal failure because of several reasons. But all that's changing today. As predicted by the pundits, bandwidth availability has increased by leaps & bounds over the past few years, making it feasible to use the Internet to actually play audio & video content.

Today, the Web is increasingly used by the masses to access content for entertainment & news. We have all witnessed AOL converting itself into a video streaming site - with a lot of content from parent Time Warner (giants in the entertainment & news business). We have also seen Google TV announcing its grand plans. And the ever-increasing podcasts from iTunes & others. Not to mention Apple's recent video playing iPod which has already tied up exclusively for premium programming content. And Yahoo! building its own news reporting team.

In the words of Rosensweig (COO, Yahoo!), "the fastest-growing segment of time spent on the Web is in entertainment & media content. This is despite the fact that 45 % of all current activity on the Internet is still related to communications like e-mail, instant messaging, blogs & of course VoIP."

So we are seeing the Internet in the throes of the next technology wave - in which it is used in a major way to distribute & access mass content like audio & video. Delivering mainline media news with citizen reporting & blogs. High-end programming with amateur content. Along with voice & messaging. A sort of combined information + media highway which rides on the omnipresent Internet.

Content is King
The resurgence of the (till-recently) "also-ran" portal AOL, is a reminder of the old adage : content is king. With over 110 million unique visitors every month, AOL has the world's largest instant-messaging community. And although this exceeded Yahoo!'s 100 million, it was not enough to keep AOL in the race.

The picture has changed since the re-launch of AOL in June 2005 as a video-portal. Helped with a steady supply of video programming from its powerful parent Time Warner, AOL has re-invented itself as a mass medium entertainment site.

Coming to Apple Computer's recently released Video iPod's : its claim to fame is not because it's a handheld device that can play video. The Video iPod is the cynosure of all device manufacturers because it is the first to sell downloadable versions of premium TV programming from Disney. (Perhaps Apple's iTunes experience with downloadable songs gave them the edge over other handheld video device manufacturers like Nokia & Sony.)

Yahoo, Google, Microsoft do not own the kind of content that is owned by mainstream media companies like Time Warner, Disney, Fox, Star. Nor are they going to produce such content. So it should not surprise us when Apple's Video iPod offers a download service for prime TV content from Disney. And that Yahoo!, Google & Microsoft are rumored to be bidding seriously for a majority stake in AOL. And that Star, Fox are on a portal acquiring spree. After all, shouldn't all portals be busy tying up with the best content ?

The Long Tail
The universe of content is said to comprise of 1 part "hits" and 2 parts "non-hits". This last 2/3 of content is known as the long tail, comprising of content which are niche specific & saleable in modest unit volumes. (By volume, the tail is considered to be bigger than the hits - hence the 1/3 : 2/3 ratio.)

Because of today's Internet reach & bandwidth, that such "tail-ender" content can be made available to niche audiences in remote corners of the world. So we have thousands of TV programs, short films, full-length movies, videos, books, songs & blogs that appeal to ever-smaller niche markets.

The long tail is a recent phenomenon - connected to the widespread use of the Internet & increasing bandwidth - which opens up new revenue models, unimagined heretofore.

However, the masses always want the hits, which are created, commissioned and acquired by mainstream media cos. Therefore, the mad rush for collaboration / cross acquisitions between Internet portals & mainstream media cos.

The New Role of Portals
As more & more viewers control what they want to view, the role of media companies is being transformed to creators & publishers of on-demand content. In this scenario, portals will play a role as intermediaries by providing tools for finding, sorting, displaying, buying & sharing content which is published by media companies. And the web portal's original community features which connect people digitally with one another (via web groups, instant messaging & VoIP) will become compasses for navigating through constantly changing preferences.

No discussion on content in the 21st century can be complete with a reference to consumer generated media. With the increasing incidences of blogs, podcasts, citizen reporting et al, everyone realizes that consumer generated media like blogs present a threat to mainstream media.

But this will not be a major factor in the entertainment sector as blogs cannot be expected to match the quality of content of mainstream media as far as mass entertainment is concerned.

The Internet redefines the Internet. Such is the Internet.