Is P2P Dead? Not So Fast [NewTeeVee]
I wrote yesterday about the overall decline of P2P traffic as a percentage of all Internet traffic, according to a Cisco study. While the reasons for the decline in P2P traffic are unclear, there's at least one dissenting voice that believes P2P traffic continues to increase, just not at the same pace as other traffic, like streaming media.
Janko Roettgers blogging at NewTeeVee cites another Internet traffic study by Arbor Networks that found P2P traffic had decreased from 40 percent of all Internet traffic in 2007 to 18 percent of traffic today. But, Roettgers questions - as I did in my post yesterday - whether the Cisco and Arbor Networks studies are showing an actual decrease in P2P traffic or merely that P2P traffic isn't growing as fast as the explosion of streaming media traffic.
Roettgers questioned Arbor Networks Chief Scientist Craig Labovitz about the numbers, with Labovitz confirming the possibility that P2P traffic was still increasing marginally, just not holding its own against the growing popularity of streaming video. With Internet traffic growing 35 to 45 percent each year, and more users gravitating to sites like Hulu, where they can easily stream their favorite TV shows and movies, the laborious process of downloading the same shows and movies on a P2P connection just isn't as appealing. And the millions of Internet users that are voting with their web browser, choosing streaming over P2P, are starting to show up in these traffic studies.
It's too bad that Hulu announced that they are going to be pay site soon. The whole free aspect, even with the ads, was really what made a lot of people use the site. But, as a pay site, it doesn't make sense. They don't have a monopoly on the content, so why pay for something that you can get from OnDemand, DVR, live TV, or dare I say, P2P?
It's not like they weren't making a profit. They just wanted MORE profit, and their greed will be their downfall.
Posted by: sineswiper | Friday, October 23, 2009 at 01:22 PM