I have been looking at a lot of interesting companies lately, especially those in the user-generated content area. Video is one area that is showing rapid uptake — there are a lot of companies in this space vying to be the home for user-generated video. Some of them, YouTube in particular, appear to be really getting some traction. I still wonder why it is that eBay, the ultimate marketplace for buyers and sellers, has not had a stronger showing in either user-generated video or professionally generated video. They have deep experience in connecting buyers and sellers and the platform to deliver such a service. Was it because so many of these new services are operating with a post-for-free model at the moment? Was it concerns over having to police the site for copyright material? I don’t know, nor do I claim to know. I do think it’s an interesting question, though. The simple answer would be “big companies miss new markets all of the time” but that seems unsatisfying here.