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"The revelation of the amount of funding Sequoia poured into Will Ferrell's Funny or Die video-sharing network gives us all an opportunity to reflect on the state of the web's user-generated content, the evolution of modern media, and the financial opportunities that lie within these realms.  In case you're wondering, the additional funding amount from Sequoia and other investors sings nicely to the tune of $15 million, according to a newly published article in Portfolio. \nThat should be highly encouraging of all those writers out there that have tired of the strike and have approached venture capitalists in an effort to follow suite.  With examples like Ferrell leading the way, it's become the happy tale of the Internet's land of milk and honey.  But is everything all that great here in the depths of the web?  \nAs we've seen in the past few months, Ferrell's site has been losing traction, not gaining speed, since its launch with th premiering of \"The Landlord.\"  And a slew of celebrity-endorsed social networks cropped up like SkiSpace and ShredOrDie, along with several other web-focused entrants from the Hollywood sector, from MyDamnChannel to National Banana.  It's another case of the traditional business model moving in on a new media plane.  Things rarely become mainstream any other way.  \nJust as United Artists began as a creative haven for actors decades ago, and superstars like Will Smith and Sarah Jessica Parker eventually stamp their name on their shows as producers, artists have long since been finding ways of acquiring more control over their own product and financial reward.  That's exactly what the writers are looking to do now in the midst of the strike, and if Will Ferrell can manage to launch a social network, get funding and keep more money in his own pocket, then we've got a story of inspiration on our hands.  \nCan the market support a flood of Hollywood rebels moving in on the web, and will it be the corrupting factor that takes away the creative freedom the web has allotted to all?  That debate, in all its glorious forms, is still going on, but that's not stopping the fact that the merging of media and distribution platforms is inevitably still going down.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/12/20/funny-or-die-sequoia-funding-amount-revealed/>