AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Video’s New Friends - The Wall Street Journal

Social-Networking Sites Ramp Up Original Online Series To Lure Users, Advertisers and Compete With YouTube

College student Zoey Colson joined social-networking Web site Bebo.com last summer for one reason — to watch Bebo’s hit video series “KateModern,” a mystery show about an art student.

To promote the show, whose first season drew an average of 1.5 million video views per week, Bebo relies on the interaction among the Web site’s users. It sends alerts to members to tell them when new episodes are posted. And it allows members to send messages to characters, like the one the 20-year-old Ms. Colson wrote telling Kate’s roommate to cheer up when a plot twist didn’t go her way.

“You feel like you are part of their world,” says Ms. Colson.

Bebo and other social-networking sites like News Corp.’s MySpace are taking the plunge into original Web series at a time when the popularity of online video is surging. The social sites hope to use the shows to attract advertising revenue. More importantly, they are banking on the original content to keep users from fleeing to popular Web sites such as Google Inc.’s YouTube that focus almost exclusively on video.

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