As more users worldwide gain access to the internet and existing users engage more, the rate of content creation by users has increased exponentially. It?s not like data and information saturation is new; we?ve been dealing with it for years. The solution most companies seem to be driving toward is recommendations, curated feeds and algorithmic content surfacing.
Peter Asbill, head of streaming for Google Play Music, told Wired:
Having all of this amazing curated content doesn?t really matter at all unless it?s delivered accurately to the right person at the right moment … f you?re a country fan and I?m delivering you a metal experience, then who cares" It doesn?t matter how good a metal playlist it is, it?s the wrong thing. A shortage of content can certainly hinder a burgeoning startup, but a ubiquity of content can present its own problems. How are users supposed to find the content they want and, more important, how are they supposed to discover content that they may not know they want" Without a steady stream of content, users could easily become bored of a site or service and simply engage less.
The problem faced by many sites, especially the larger social sites, is the overwhelming mass of uploads. According to Wired, YouTube users upload 400 hours of video content every minute, and on Instagram, there are 80 million uploads per day. While it?s safe to assume no one user is going to wade through that content, the companies have to if they wish to surf...