Danny Zhen
Professor Seth Graves
ENG 2150
21 April 2019
Fun and Games: How the Internet Has Affected Entertainment
Television, once the go to form of entertainment, is now facing declines in revenue while newer forms of entertainment, like video games, are seeing huge revenue numbers with its growth expected to continue (“Investing in the Soaring Popularity of Gaming”). This trend of newer forms of entertainment gaining popularity, while traditional forms of entertainment continue to fall has become quite common with the introduction of the internet. Many traditional forms of entertainment have struggled to maintain their popularity with the rise of faster and cheaper internet. The internet has enabled many forms of entertainment to be instantly accessible whenever and wherever you want. With that, new industries in entertainment have emerged, such as video games and social media fueled by the internet. On the other hand, entertainment such as books or newspapers have struggled, with digital versions becoming the preferred way of consumption. But not all older forms of entertainment struggled. Netflix, once a DVD mail rental service, has become one of the largest streaming services with almost 150 million subscribers by the 4th quarter of 2018 (Netflix). Netflix’s success story also comes with effects, such as binge-watching, associated with the streaming giant. The extent of the internet isn’t limited to the current successes from the internet. The future of entertainment is seen in immersive reality and is something many are looking forward to. With emergence new forms of entertainment like social media and online gaming prospering while traditional forms of entertainment like television and print media declining, the internet can be looked to as the primary catalyst for this disruption in entertainment.
The rise of internet also gave rise to massive industry of social media. In 2018, there were about 3.2 billion social media users worldwide, which equates to about 42% of the population (Chaffey). Of the existing social medias, Facebook and YouTube rank in the top most used sites, with 68% of Americans who use Facebook and 73% using YouTube in 2018 (Anderson & Smith). The social media landscape is saturated with many different types of platforms each with a unique aspect to them. And because of that, social media users tend to have and use more than one social media platform. In a survey done by Anderson and Smith of Pew Research Center, it was found that the median American uses three of eight social platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, WhatsApp, Pinterest, LinkedIn) provided in the survey. In the same survey, daily usage of social media, where a user visits the platform at least once, was above 50% of users for platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram (Anderson & Smith). What these two points of data tell us is the influence of social media in our lives. Our tendency to go back to the different numbers of social media we use, shows how important social media has become. The internet has enabled quick access to sharing and consuming content through social media. Being on the internet becomes even easier when you can carry the internet with you, through your phone. Worldwide, 5.1 billion people own phones, with 3 billion considered as active mobile social users. With that, mobile phones are the responsible for 52% of web traffic, increasing by 4% from the previous year (Chaffey). This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given the fact that users can access their social media from anywhere and anytime, if they have a connection.
Diving deeper into social media, we’ll find the world of social media influencers. About 10 years ago, the thought of being a social media influencer as a job prospect probably never crossed the mind of anyone. But in recent times, social media influencers have become relevant in marketing because of the internet (Vasarmis). Advertisers now look to social media influencers to advertise their products by paying influencers to makes posts with or about their products. In general, social media influencers have a large following, which is an important aspect to their success. It is this aspect that businesses look for to expose their product to the followers of the influencers. With the popularity of social media, there is no lack of audience an advertiser can get to through social media influencers. In an example given by Evan Varsamis, CEO of Gadget Flow and investor and marketing advisor at Qrator Ltd, “When they post about your product, they will be seen by an audience who is already interested in pet products. Overall, your chances of penetrating the right audience base become higher and less vague”. Social media is set up in a way that allows the user to pick and choose what they want to see. This in general results in fanbases consisting of users with similar mindsets and is the core demographic of social media influencers (York). This aspect is what makes advertisers look for when advertising. In a survey done, it was found that only 33% of consumers trust advertisements, but when given a peer recommendation, trust goes up to 90% (York). This translates into trust and relationship with social media influencers, where the viewer is essentially getting a “peer recommendation” from the influencers. Because of this influencer-viewer trust, each party in the social media interaction can benefit. The influencer gets paid to advertise the product or service of the business. The business knows who their advertising to, making their advertising more effective. The internet has created a medium where the advertisements see may be seen as entertainment for many.
Online video games have also found its way to becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Without the internet, the popularity of online video games may not have been able to grow as large as it has. As referenced by Ruohonen and Hyrnsalmi, “the video game industry is particularly relevant due to the active and predominantly Internet-based gaming community (Jockel et al. 2008)” (353). The internet has made communicating experiences and opinions much easier, which in turn make that information more available to people, ultimately enticing people to buy the game or veer people away. This interaction is called electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM), which has been enabled by the fact that search engines make looking for information much easier. EWOM is the idea of passing information electronically, which resulted because of the internet. According to Ruohonen and Hyrnsalmi, “Internet search volumes are usually higher for the release weeks” (365). This suggests that when people anticipate a game release, they tend to do research before deciding. EWOM plays a role during this time given the large amount of available information one can find through the internet. The easy access to information because of the internet has made discovering information about games much easier.
The popularity of video games has found itself battling with traditional entertainment. Within the video game industry is an aspect called esports, which are competitions where professional gamers compete to be the best. This structure is like that of traditional sports, having its own leagues for a particular game, just like how each sport has its own league. Interestingly, esports is projected to surpass every sports league, except the NFL, in views by 2021 (Syracuse Staff). This speaks to the popularity video games have compared to traditional sports. Despite being a relatively new form of entertainment, it is rivaling the popularity of sports that have lasted decades. The global esports revenue in 2018 was expected to have a growth of 38.2%, with markets from North America and China contributing (“2018 Global Esports Market Report”). This rapid growth has grabbed the attention of investors. Reuters, a business and financial news organization company, reported a growth increase of 10.7% annually, which is relatively high for new markets. Video game viewership is generally found on Twitch, a video game live streaming site. Twitch is usually the site where esports is watched live, similar to a television channel broadcasting a live sports match. In 2017, 959.3 million hours of the top 25 esports were watched on Twitch and 4 billion hours watched by the top 50 games by non-esports streams (“2018 Global Esports Market Report”). These numbers are impressive, and it shows, especially when Amazon purchased Twitch for $1 billion in 2014. During that time, average concurrent viewer was just under 600,000. Three years later, viewership grew to almost 1.2 million viewers (Syracuse Staff). Without the internet, it very likely would be difficult for video games to have grown this fast. The internet allowed for sites like Twitch to host burgeoning growth of video games.
In contrast, television has been on the downward trend. The number of cord-nevers, people who never got cable, and cord-cutters, people who are canceling their cable, have both been on the rise since 2014, with total numbers of the group rising to 48 million households by 2020 (Maheshwari & Koblin). With the majority of the younger generation already not watching television, its viewership numbers will likely remain low as time goes on. Since the younger generation is less likely to watch television, it’s rather unlikely for them to convert over to television in the future. Television’s downward trend has brought advertisers to begin pulling out and advertising on Google and Facebook. Ad expenditure in the U.S. on digital ads have been on the rise, with about $90 billion spent in 2017. Of the amount spent on digital advertising, Google and Facebook made up about $53 billion of the amount spent. On the other hand, expenditure on TV ads have stagnated around $70 billion since 2014 (Maheshwari & Koblin). Coincidently, Google and Facebook are rather popular among the younger generation (Chaffey). Alternative entertainment like YouTube, Facebook, and Netflix all have qualities that, when compared to watching TV, are more desirable. All three forms provide instant access to what the viewer generally wants to see, making those choices appealing. Television, on the other hand, requires a specific time and date to watch a certain show, which has led to some channels adopting a similar service as Netflix. It is possible that some viewers may be complacent with watching whatever is on, but it is also very likely that they would choose a form of entertainment that gives them more control of what they want, like YouTube, Facebook, and Netflix does.
The convenience of the internet has caused many disruptions in certain markets. One example of that hit include newspapers. Business models that revolved around selling physical copies of books, film, and music found themselves struggling. Peter Ollier of Managing Intellectual Property journal puts this event this way based off a keynote address by Andrew Keen, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur: “The internet has triggered a consumer-led rebellion against the ‘essentially dead’ current business models of selling books, films and music” (Ollier). The description of “consumer-led rebellion” accurately describes what is happening. Consumers are turning to digital media for their entertainment, most likely because of the convenience the internet provides. They can find any news article from any new source whenever they want. In 2017, newspaper circulation dropped by 11% for weekday circulation and 10% for Sunday circulation. This downward trend has continued since the early 2000s at its peak around 60 million circulated to now with 30 million circulated (“Newspaper Fact Sheet”). The change in circulation is likely due to less readers looking to physical newspapers for the news and therefore less papers need to be printed and distributed. This decline is news media outlets decline in popularity from their once previously successful business. A large amount of readers is moving to other sources of getting their reading in that isn’t in physical copies, whether it be a book or newspaper.
The decline in newspaper circulation doesn’t mean less people are reading about the news. It’s more that readers are moving to a different medium to get their news, which happens to be digitally. In a research article done by Pew Research Center, newspaper websites have seen a stable increase, with 11.5 million unique users visiting the top 50 U.S. newspaper websites in 2017 (“Newspaper Fact Sheet”). The relationship of digital and print readers is inversely related, with each year that passes the number of readers generally increases for digital news and decreases for print news. This likely has to do with the availability of digital forms becoming more readily available because of the internet. Online newspapers have seen significant usage from many different sources. These sources are mainly accessed through iOS and Android platforms, which make up 57% of digital traffic made (“Digital News Fact Sheet”). Reaching the consumer has become easier through apps, newsletters, podcasts, and aggregation platforms. With phones being a rather common item to have, it is reasonable that consumers find it looking for news easier because of their phone’s internet.
Along similar lines, eBooks can also be looked at as alternatives to the print medium of books. EBooks are essentially the same as physical books, but on a digital screen. In many cases, a single electronic can contain a bookshelves-worth of books. EBooks are also, generally, less expensive than paperback or hardcover books. Amy Collins brings up two examples in her BookWorks article, citing prices from Amazon’s popular new bestseller where the hardcover book was $18 compared to the eBook version at $15. In another example she gave, a paperback version of a book was $12.73, while the eBook version was $11.99. Although the price difference isn’t too drastic, the cheaper version is generally more appealing to the consumer. In 2018, eBook sales for Amazon grew by 4%. Although 4% may not seem like much, Amazon makes up 80% of the eBook market, which translates to a rather large increase (Collins). The internet has made the spread of books become cheaper and more efficient for the reader. Whether the reader wants to read a book the old fashion way or digitally, the accessibility of books through eBooks was enabled by the internet.
Not all pre-internet entertainment has faced declines in its popularity. Sports are still a popular way for many to watch or play and haven’t really declined or grown too much. But one company was able to prosper from the internet boom. Netflix, now known for its massive video streaming service, was able to adapt to the rapid expansion of the internet. Kevin McDonald, author of The Netflix Effect, describes Netflix’s success as: “an outlier within the media and entertainment industry, an intermediary that succeeded precisely because of the major conglomerates’ inability to negotiate the transition from DVD to digital on demand” (McDonald 204). Netflix previously revolved around DVD rental services along with their competitor Blockbuster. Despite both Netflix and Blockbuster having similar products, at the time, Netflix’s willingness to adapt them to prosper through the changes. Video streaming, enabled by the internet, has given the viewer the ability to essentially hand pick what they want. Netflix has, in the words of McDonald, “been adept in navigating these circumstances, evolving its business model and building a brand identity as internet TV” (215). This change in brand identity shows Netflix’s resilience that allowed then to prosper in the new entertainment industry. With the internet changing a lot of the ways the entertainment industry works, the need to adapt has become an important aspect for existing companies.
The massive popularity of Netflix has had many effects on the people who use Netflix. These effects aren’t only exclusive to the entertainment industry, but also to the viewer. Netflix can be seen as a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, which is essential video-on-demand (VOD), with subscription. This growing popularity of VODs has brought up issues of binge-watching, which is defined by analysts as: “watching three or more episodes in a row” (McDonald 101). Although binge-watching shows for entertainment may seem harmless, there are problems that can result from binge-watching. The aspect of VODs gives the viewer the ability to decide when and what to watch. Unfortunately, binge-watching has been becoming rather popular, indicated by Google Trend, since mid-2012, with trends peaking at 90 searches relative to total searches, 100, at a given time (McDonald 103). The problem occurs when the viewer unconsciously transports themselves into the world of the show. They become far too emotionally invested to the point where it can be “detrimental to the psyche, to one’s interpersonal relationships, to the cognitive psychological understanding of one’s reality, and, ultimately, to one’s overall happiness and mental well-being” (McDonald 119). These effects are the result of Escapism, but that’s nothing new. What’s new is the ability to do so for hours or even days. At some point binge-watching will become a habit that will further the negative effects it brings to the point where it becomes a cycle of trying to escape your problems only to run into more problems. Psychologically, binge-watchers may be influenced by the fictional narratives of the shows, learning “false facts” from fiction (McDonald 126). [I no longer have access to the book, but there was a mention of this in one of the chapters.] Fiction becomes reality from our ability to empathize, even with fictional characters and Netflix gives us the tools to choose how we connect with the characters (McDonald 126). The aspect of being readily available has given people the falsehood of control and Netflix is able to thrive off that. It’s this aspect that users are drawn to, ultimately making Netflix as big as it is.
Change is an inevitable occurrence, as seen with the changes in traditional entertainment. Even the prosperous forms of current entertainment won’t be safe from change. Already, entertainment of the future is being looked into. The concepted of being immersed in the entertainment to make the experience seem “real” has been quite the topic for many. A good way to put why immersive reality has become popular is: “In recent years, smartphones became more advanced with the inclusion of a built-in camera, GPS for navigation, and Internet connectivity. This technological evolution facilitated the emergence of augmented reality (AR) technology (Chou & ChanLin, 2012)” (Zsila, et al.). Although this type of technology is relatively new, the desire for it is rather high. This can be seen through the launch of the mobile game Pokémon Go back in 2016. Within a few weeks of launch, there were over 100 million users from 30 countries that downloaded the game with a reported average of 26 minutes a day played (Zsila, et al.). Although the popularity can be attributed to the Pokémon brand, immersive reality’s prospects do have high potential given the fact that the main difference to the Pokémon game was the AR aspect. Virtual reality is also getting a lot of attention from many people. With the likes of Facebook moving into the virtual reality landscape with the purchase of the Oculus Rift for $2 billion. This purchase was essentially the start of the VR craze beginning in 2014(Schnipper et al.). VR, as of now, is something large technology companies are banking on as a way to get a lead in technological growth. Companies like Google’s parent company Alphabet, Facebook, Samsung, and many more have some sort of VR technology. And of all those companies, none of them are purely invested in VR (Rossolillo). Each company wants to be the first to make a breakthrough in VR, but because they are purely focused on VR development, growth may be difficult to come by. Despite that, immersive reality is something that is looked at to have high prospects for the future of entertainment. Unfortunately, as of now, the technology to make it successful has yet to be developed.
The occurrence of social media and video games rising, and television and print media declining is only the beginning outcomes of the internet. As the internet becomes more readily available and more reliable in other countries, the effects may not be so clear cut. It is quite possible that video games and social media may only popular now and fall off later when more people come online. But as of now, video games and social media are one of the defining features of the current internet and time. There are many more aspects to the internet that we have yet to discover, like Netflix. The popularity of Netflix has brought up unforeseen problems like binge watching. Netflix’s success has had influential impacts in current entertainment, despite beginning as second to Blockbuster. Declines because of the internet have shown that even traditional media are not safe from the changes the internet brings. The internet provides access to content a television or newspaper can and even more. With digital versions of print becoming vastly available and rather quickly, the declines are likely to continue. The future of entertainment is still in its early stages. Although immersive reality is seen as the future of entertainment, little developments have been made to make that change happen. As of now, the internet has shown its capability to disrupt traditional media. And with the inevitable developments in the internet, there will definitely be more unseen aspects of the internet to come in the future when more people are given access.
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