PEER-TO-PEER CONTENT DISTRIBUTION - An Analysis of the Internal and External Potentials and Obstacles

Abstract

The popularity of (illegal) peer-to-peer file sharing has a disruptive impact on the internet traffic and the business models of content providers. In addition, several studies have found an increasing demand for bandwidth consuming content. It is widely recognised that illegal file sharing applications demonstrated the potential of peer-to-peer systems to distribute popular content in a scalable and inexpensive way. However, there has been relatively little economic analysis of the potentials and obstacles of peer-to-peer systems as a legal and commercial content distribution model. Many content providers encounter uncertainties regarding the adoption or rejection of peer-to-peer networks to spread content via the internet. The recent launch of several commercial, legal peer-to-peer content distribution platforms, which are still mainly beta versions, increases the importance of an integrated analysis of the internal strengths / weaknesses and the external opportunities / threats. This paper explores these internal and external aspects by means of an integrated SWOT analysis.