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The Virtual Revolution

Aleks Krotoski

Dan Kendall

Russell Barnes

Dominic Crossley-Holland

The Virtual Revolution: Episode 3: The Cost of Free

Documentaries

Factual: Money

Factual: History

Factual: Politics

The Cost of Free

Episode 3

Episode 3: The Cost of Free

BBC Two - The Virtual Revolution, The Cost of Free

Dr Aleks Krotoski gives the lowdown on how commerce has colonised the web.

Series in which Dr Aleks Krotoski explores how the internet is reshaping our lives. She shows how commerce has colonised the web, and how 'free' sites are paid for.

Twenty years on from its invention, Dr Aleks Krotoski continues her investigation of how the World Wide Web is transforming almost every aspect of our lives. She gives the lowdown on how, for better and for worse, commerce has colonised the web - and reveals how web users are paying for what appear to be 'free' sites and services in hidden ways.

Joined by some of the most influential business leaders of today's web, including Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), Chad Hurley (CEO of YouTube), Bill Gates, Martha Lane Fox and Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix), Aleks traces how business, with varying degrees of success, has attempted to make money on the web.

She tells the inside story of the gold rush years of the dotcom bubble and reveals how retailers such as Amazon learned the lessons. She also charts how, out of the ashes, Google forged the business model that has come to dominate today's web, offering a plethora of highly attractive, overtly free web services, including search, maps and video, that are in fact funded through a sophisticated and highly lucrative advertising system which trades on what we users look for.

Aleks explores how web advertising is evolving further to become more targeted and relevant to individual consumers. Recommendation engines, pioneered by retailers such as Amazon, are also breaking down the barriers between commerce and consumer by marketing future purchases to us based on our previous choices.

On the surface, the web appears to have brought about a revolution in convenience. As companies start to build up databases on our online habits and preferences, Aleks questions what this may mean for our notions of privacy and personal space in the 21st century.

BBC Two

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

Virtual Revolution charts two decades of change since the invention of the World Wide Web

Virtual Revolution charts two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits and the unforeseen downsides

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Episode 3: The Cost of Free

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