Big media companies are the ones generally in control of the industry, but every now and then we get a technological revolution that gives users an alternative, and sometimes that alternative ends up being better than what’s offered “officially”. Of course, in many of those cases, the benefits come at the cost of relying on not-so-illegal methods for obtaining the content. But when so many users are willing to go down that road, this might be an indication to media companies that something is wrong with their own methods.
Cartoon HD was one very clear example of that, as the app quickly managed to gain popularity and rose to the top of the various app stores where it was published, before being taken down after multiple complaints from big companies. The app still exists in alternative forms, including a website, but it’s probably not coming back to mobile platforms for a while, due to the nature of its legal status.
Still, so many people were eager to download and use Cartoon HD as their primary source of cartoon entertainment; some of the wiser companies would probably take note of that and realize that they could implement the same model with certain changes that make it completely legal, and profit from that.
In the gaming industry, Valve are a company that realized this concept long ago. Piracy is not so much of a problem in itself, according to Valve’s Gabe Newell, but rather the symptom of an underlying problem with legitimate services. Valve’s solution to the problem was simply to offer a better alternative than piracy, and years later, they’re one of the most successful companies in the industry, and arguably the most beloved one.
And it’s not like we don’t have similar examples in the film industry either – Netflix is currently one of the most popular services, and its popularity has been on the rise in recent months as well. The service is cheap, offers its users access to large volumes of content, and is designed in a very user-friendly way. There are many things that can be said about the success of Netflix, but it’s a wonder that its concept hasn’t been copied by one of the major companies in the industry yet.
We might see that eventually – cartoons will always be popular, and developing an app that offers users quick and legitimate access to a good selection of them could be a winning move. This is definitely a market niche that has to be filled right now, and the sooner it happens, the better it will be for both users and the companies themselves. Hopefully, whenever it happens, it will also have a sensible business model behind it.