Hulu.com
If you Hulu, I need not explain what that is. If you don’t, Hulu.com explains itself this way: ”Watch your favorite videos right from your browser, anytime, for free. With full episodes of TV shows both current and classic, full-length movies, web originals, and clips of just about everything, Hulu is the place to watch and enjoy premium videos from the biggest names in entertainment.” I couldn’t agree more. My only complaint is how easy it is to get caught up in, well, getting caught up on favorite or missed programs!
But being the curious person I am, I wondered whether Hulu was going to stay free forever, who owns them, who is their “target audience.” So I went digging and came up with a few interesting FAQs:
(1) The name hulu doesn’t mean a dern thing. Nope, there is absolutely no hidden meaning to the word hulu at all. According to Hulu it’s a Mandarin word for gourd. Hmmmmmm.
(2) Hulu is no small-time dot-com. NBC Universal, News Corporation, and the Walt Disney Company have ownership positions in the company. The corporation’s board of directors includes execs from NBC Universal, Fox, The Walt Disney Company, Providence Equity Partners, and Hulu.
(3) The corporation is no small potatoes group of folks either. Hulu employs about 160 people in L.A., Newe York, Beijing and Chicago.
(4) So then I wondered, who is clicking on all of those videos at Hulu.com when they should be working? Hulu’s typical user is equally balanced between men and women in the 18 to 49 age range.
(5) When you click on those videos, you first get to see a commercial. Yup, I know. But the site is free, right? It is for now anyway. Word on the street is that plans are in the works for them to begin charging $10 per month for a premium membership that allows access to content that won’t be available to the freebie users.
Will the “premium membership” keep people away? I doubt it. People pay for amazingly ridiculous things on the Internet. If this offers something of value to the consumer, they’ll buy it. If you Hulu, you know where it is. If you don’t, check it out at Hulu.com.