Coming to town. Importance of agglomeration factors for media cluster development in the German online video industry

Abstract

ABSTRACT Online video consumption is growing strongly, opening up opportunities for new players to enter this evolving market. Media clusters can capitalise on this trend by trying to attract some of these new actors. In any case, there is not a lot of insight about location decisions of online video producers as of yet. To identify these factors, all 1,910 professional producers distributing their online video content on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitch in Germany were identified and surveyed. The data from 101 respondents show significant differences between producers located in and outside media clusters for 23 of 26 items operationalising the importance of exogenous and endogenous agglomeration factors. The survey data were then used to develop a model with five principal components (Network Building, Media Ecosystem, Human Resources, Public Funding/Infrastructure and Personal Lifestyle options) and 13 variables, which may be used to elaborate a broader model.