Askar Tuganbayev: a TV guy on a tractor

Producer, TV presenter, PR man, journalist, expert in modern technology, entrepreneur - Askar Tuganbaev ( tuganbaev ) has many activities that he manages to combine quite successfully. He recently joined the Rutube video portal team. So there was a good chance to learn more about this project - from the mouth of its new producer.



To be honest, I was a little surprised to learn that you became a producer of Rutube. We have known each other for years, I have talked with you on the air, and just in life - and always perceived you as a “television man.” And suddenly - Rutube. How did this happen, why?



In general, Rutube is a television killer, so everything is logical. :)

')

That is, Youtube will kill Western television, and Rutube - Russian?



In fact, Youtube and Rutube are completely different things. In America, it is much easier to make money on the Internet, and our users are not yet quite ready to spend money online. Making Youtube in that environment easier: you give people the opportunity to share content with each click, with each transaction you get money. In Russia, this situation is still impossible - and it will be another 5-10 years: as long as it’s impossible in our country to do business on sharing information between people.



So the projects are only called similar, but in fact - completely different things. And they will develop in different ways.



The idea of ​​Rutube appeared earlier, oddly enough. The people who are currently doing Rutube first created the l-vision project - to share video online, with a webcam connection, upload videos to the network, etc. That was until 2005. When the well-known western project appeared, which was promoted, including at the expense of selling it for unbelievable money, our developers decided to change the name of their project to Rutube.



Rutube has other goals: this project does not have a goal, first of all, to earn money by selling traffic between users. Our team has to think more strategically, play at longer “distances”, think over global solutions.



Why did the TV man Tuganbaev go to the Rutube? Just because it is the most modern television project. Initially, I worked on ATV in the interactive program “Vremechko”, with phone calls on the air and all that. Then there was O2TV , where I created the news service, worked on the interactive - and in the end we made quite a good youth interactive television. Now I want to go further. Central television is completely out of hand: the 1st, 2nd and 4th channels do not need to earn money, they are working on state support, they perform certain ideological tasks. They don’t need to develop too much: they “drive” Petrosian - that’s enough.



Rutube is doing what I have long wanted to work on: the guys are doing a new media environment, combining the Internet with television. It turns out honest television - with the targeted transfer of information, with the possibility of quick feedback. When you watch traditional TV channels that have spent more than one million dollars on the organization of the broadcast, satellite, other technical means - you do not see the reality: it is “dirty”, averaged, you often cannot understand who made this content, cannot react and just absorb it into yourself.



What is the fundamental difference between Youtube content and Rutube now? I'm not talking about the technical details and business model, but are there any differences in the content?



And in the content there are differences.



When I post on Youtube a video about how a person falls from a chair, his “watchability” will be very high - about 20-30 thousand people. For them, this is a joke, action; they like to watch, for example, boxing, football, some competitions where there is extreme. When I post political programs, discussions, interviews, reports about interesting events, historical plots, Youtube doesn’t have that popularity.



When I posted a video about the art of Russian hand-to-hand combat on the Rutube, for the first day there were about 2000 views - although I didn’t announce it at all: people just saw it was interesting for them. In America, people just “roam” between the rollers in search of a funny video, where people choke on hamburgers, fall from skyscrapers, barely jump with parachutes — they have other interests just. In such an environment it is difficult to move forward, it is difficult to show yourself if everything around is overwhelmed with others.



But on Youtube there are A LOT of videos. When the Rutube will have much more content, will the project have the same problem?



Maybe this happens. But we chose a slightly different way: we use three ways to form the content of the site - in parallel and equivalent. Firstly, uploading custom clips is what all such services have. Secondly, partnerships with television channels: we are going to meet the producers of video content.



The third way is video blogs. There is an interesting solution for “friend tape” on Rutube: it is all displayed on one screen, on which all the videos of friends appear in the chronological order familiar to blogs. The user looks almost like on TV. There may be pieces from the life of friends who recorded using a webcam: in Rutube, you need to press just one button to record a video, publish it - not only on the Rutube, but also in LiveJournal and Liveinternet.



The project is created by a team from the Oryol region?



Yes, the development team ( Usystems ) is in Orel, the leaders travel between Moscow and Orel. It seems to me that now we can safely say that in Russia - in the regional center - you can make a good project - even more competitive than the western one. For me personally, Rutube is now more interesting with Youtube. We have problems - but we solve them promptly. In general, the guys from Orel did something that large corporations often do not master.



In Moscow, formed the staff, office. But here will work primarily people involved in marketing, affiliate programs.



Is it possible to earn money - or is the project still in the “startup stage”, without profit?



Any project has a payback period. The channel has a deadline of at least 3 years. O2TV, for example, is still unprofitable, although it has begun to earn.



In order to dig up the garden, you need to buy a shovel - or a tractor: you need a tool. Rutube is a “tractor” that is created for “hilling the field”. He has not yet been created even by half, he has a much larger swing. We are thinking about making a profit - but right now this is not the first priority. In fact, no one in the world knows exactly how to make money on video hosting - even Youtube: even though they sold it to Google for big money, they don’t know how to “give away” that money now. My weekly communication with partners from Google and Yandex shows that they, too, do not yet know how to sell contextual advertising in video. Everyone is waiting with interest - maybe we will think of it?



Why do you go to Google and Yandex so often?



And there, and there I have close friends with whom we regularly communicate, share experiences, learn about each other's achievements. Still, the experience of working at Computerra as deputy chief editor at the end of the 90s helped to build a relationship with the IT crowd. They would like to work with us, theoretically, we are also ready to work with Google and with Yandex, but there is no such goal yet: if there is a good “protocol” of combining efforts, it will be good.



Relationships with current content creators are built on a financial basis - or is it just a mutually beneficial exchange?



While there is no money go. Now it really is a mutually beneficial exchange, because people walk and look closely. When there will be a “imbalance” - for example, when the Rutube becomes a cooler project and will move partners behind it, you will need to somehow “pay off” for it - not necessarily with money.



Did you manage to attract an audience? Attendance is now about 30.000 unique per day, if not mistaken.



Sly here thing with attendance. First, the counters often lie. And secondly, there is the "invisible part of the iceberg" - videos from Rutube, posted on other sites. We have not yet figured out how to display this part in the statistics. A very large number of impressions is held on third-party sites, partner sites - and in fact we send our content to 100 thousand unique users. And the shows of the commercials are generally up to the devil.



In the case of a video site, it is generally more interesting to count movie shows, rather than unique visitors. So it’s more correct for advertisers: we can show ads in the player’s creeping line, and some video before the main show, and after it. So the counters are good, but they tell us about the number of html pages shown, and not the main content.



Is the main competitor Video@Mail.ru?



This is really the main competitor - and for the quantitative characteristics that they declare, he is still winning.



According to their statements, they generally win a lot.



But they have a resource for this - a large portal: they can catch up with a large amount of traffic from their main pages. But in general it is the same relationship as LiveJournal and Liveinternet, Google Video and Youtube, that is, the more advanced part of the audience and the less advanced part of the audience. Like on television, there are viewers of Petrosyan and trash on NTV, and there is a different audience.



Which generally does not watch TV, for sure.



In general, Video@Mail.ru is a continuation of the portal: developers make certain “ritual movements” without giving users many opportunities. Opportunities at Rutube - much more anyway. For us, video is the main goal, we are tuned to video.



Copyright issues - how do you think, how quickly will they arise? Are you ready to solve them?



They will, yes. But here we cannot be holier than the Pope: the situation on our resource cannot be better than the situation in the country as a whole. As long as we can buy any film on the street, while even the central TV channels come across on the illegal use of certain materials, it does not make sense for Rutube to think so much about it. We are interested in everything to be legal - but no more interested than all the others. We are not ready yet to be the flagship, somehow move the market, etc. - including because immediately there will be less clean competitors.



We are strictly in terms of pornography: we are trying to clean it all - with the help of postmoderation. There are many girls among the moderators who are more scrupulous about these issues - and they sift out all the dirt. To be honest, I very much sympathize with our moderators: they have to see EVERYTHING. So now I also think about it before I publish anything: I understand that girls will look at it and somehow limit myself.



Although in fact moderators are all users, because they can click on a special button and notify the administration about the violation of the rules.



In general, this is not worth much attention: the atmosphere on the site has developed quite friendly. Somehow it is possible to endear users. It’s like that of TV people, for example: when I worked in Vremechka, it was necessary to build stories in a special way. There are notions “first story”, “second story”, “last story”: the first one invigorates you, adjusts to the main theme, the second one can be pitiful or “catastrophic”, and at the end you are reassured and include something good and sweet for the night . This responsibility of the TV people to the “audience” is also on the Rutube: the user must understand that they are not trying to make money on him at the expense of Petrosyan and naked boobs.



And at the expense of what its leaders achieve the first places in the rating of Rutube?



As elsewhere, we have “copy-pasters” who can find videos, rip them out of context and place them with us. There is also the so-called “Russian” content. You can call it “patriotic”, but in general I mean specific things like episodes with the participation of Russian football players in foreign teams, figure skating, etc. Recently there has been a lot of copyright content - and for me it is especially interesting.



There are, for example, interesting guys in Orel, who shoot all sorts of nonsense - without rehearsals: they just turn on the camera and write. This is not so interesting for adults, apparently, but they have a large attendance, a lot of views. I go with this material to the TV channel and say: “Look, what the guys are shooting.” TV people immediately ask how much it costs! They wanted to buy 100 of these clips. The authors of the material were surprised: “What to do now?”. I explained that there was nothing special: “Just keep shooting and sending in good quality.” Television is interested: it lacks the vitality that exists in the author's video.



In conclusion, traditionally - about the plans.



First of all, we will develop video blogs and partner programs with content producers.



Until the end of the year, we will try to implement “live broadcasts” when users can send a video signal from their cameras and broadcast the image in real time. You do not have to think about the hardware capacity: Rutube will do everything. It is available now - and the TV channels use our power to broadcast their own signal, but we will try to make it all automated and so everyone can do it.



In the future, of course, I would like to make a TV channel that broadcasts the best of Rutube, and offer a commercial project to television companies, giving them the opportunity to promote their content using our facilities. But it is in a more distant future. Although we have already agreed with some, we are just looking for “technical ways”.