Content Is King-Who Owns This Phrase?

Content is King! One of those iconic phrases that has become woven into the tapestry of the  zeitgeist to the point that it’s almost impossible to disagree with it.

I used to wonder where it came from until one day I decided to google it. I must say I was surprised where it came from: Bill Gates! My surprise did not come from the thought of doubting his brilliance as an intellectual , but came more from view of him as  a nerd and engineer who I never felt was interested in content.

In 1996 Bill Gates published this on the Microsoft website and below are his exact words:

“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.

The television revolution that began half a century ago spawned a number of industries, including the manufacturing of TV sets, but the long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information and entertainment.

When it comes to an interactive network such as the Internet, the definition of “content” becomes very wide. For example, computer software is a form of content-an extremely important one, and the one that for Microsoft will remain by far the most important.

But the broad opportunities for most companies involve supplying information or entertainment. No company is too small to participate.

One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. In a sense, the Internet is the multimedia equivalent of the photocopier. It allows material to be duplicated at low cost, no matter the size of the audience.

The Internet also allows information to be distributed worldwide at basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are remarkable, and many companies are laying plans to create content for the Internet.”

How accurate his words have turned out to be! Almost prophetic in its accuracy. If you want to take a look at it, the full article is Here.