User-gen Video's Long Tail Beginning to Look Fat?

A few observers, myself included, have begun musing about the nature of user-generated video's long tail. Will it prove fat (and thus more lucrative, per the thesis of author Chris Anderson's seminal book), or peter out disappointingly?

The difficulty in assessing online video's tail derives, of course, from the fact that it hasn't been around long enough to grow much of one. Time will remedy this, but what are we to think in the meantime?

Initial evidence is beginning to filter in. A recent report from AccuStream, "User Generated Video 2005-2008: Mania Meets Mainstream" (other findings from which were cited in my previous post), suggests that user-generated video's tail may prove surprisingly fat. "Almost 20% of total views generated in 2007 were delivered by videos published in 2006 or before," a summary of the report states.

Hmm. Something for marketers and advertisers to chew on as they try to figure out where user-generated video will fit in.