CEO of vimeo will cry themself to sleep after reading this post
They should make the platform quicker and more reliable then
Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
21–30 of 226 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#22It does, but not in the form of video-only platforms.
In terms of medium/long form videos, plenty of time is spent watching those on Instagram and Facebook. For shorter "clip"-style videos, those are watched on TikTok, Twitter, and Snapchat.
Then you have livestreaming, in which Twitch and once again Facebook/Instagram have large viewership.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#23There is a new "free speech" alternative called Rumble emerging. Rumble for now promises Not to become a censorship platform like YouTube is now currently. https://rumble.com/ Even though some high profile civil libertarian and free speech advocates like Glenn Greenwald and Zaid Jilani have chosen Rumble as home, YouTube is still lights years ahead. But if they continue to censor, alternative free speech platform wil…
The problem with media platforms that market themselves as pro-free-speech is that they attract alt-right content - and their hyper-toxic followers - like a warm pile of shit attracts flies, even if that's not the intent of the platform operators.
A lot (but not all) of YouTube's problems would go away if they 1) used the actual DMCA and not their own system that allows for things that would be illegal under the DMCA and 2) stopped being retaliatory (latest example, deleting comments from creators critical of the dislike count removal). But they have a huge hegemony, so there's no incentive whatsoever for those two things to happen.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#24CEO of vimeo will cry themself to sleep after reading this post
Vimeo seems to have found a good niche – professional video hosting.
YouTube is a social network as much as a video hosting service, and for professional applications, embeds in websites, portfolios, etc, it's often a bad idea to include things that will detract from other content or take users away from the site. YouTube embeds are still fairly branded, may show ads, etc.
YouTube has no interest in this market, so I think Vimeo will be fine.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#25It's interesting that TikTok is a formidable competitor that focused on a different experience and a slightly different format (short form). Tiktok seems to work by choosing for you and only showing a single video at a time (esp on mobile, which is where it's really most at home), but allowing you to quickly reject that choice and learning from your rejections.
Is it possible to beat YouTube itself with a different experience but the same, longer-form, format? If so, what would that experience even look like, especially on mobile?
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#26I think the average person generally isn't aware of YouTube alternatives. Alternative video platforms don't seem to be a thing people seek out. In my own experience, I only know about Rumble and Odysee because a content creator I like wanted to mirror their work on other sites in order to avoid having all their eggs in one basket. If it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't even be aware of these platforms. Going a st…
Google Search does video search across multiple platforms relatively well.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#27It's interesting that TikTok is a formidable competitor that focused on a different experience and a slightly different format (short form). Tiktok seems to work by choosing for you and only showing a single video at a time (esp on mobile, which is where it's really most at home), but allowing you to quickly reject that choice and learning from your rejections. Is it possible to beat YouTube itself with a different e…
YT seems to think so, they've basically made a mini-TT experience with the shorts.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#28It comes preinstalled on all mobile phones. If YouTube were just a website like any other video host, people wouldn't care. Do you really care about which video host a video you want to watch is on? No, more than likely you care about the video itself. But YouTube is an app , on your phone, click it and search for what you want, oh whatever you're looking for is probably on YouTube anyway. And that's another thing, Y…
No longer preinstalled on iPhones. Not for a long while now since Apple’s app was discontinued in favor of Google’s own app.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#29Competitors would have to make the content creators want to move their communities, knowing a large part of their community will not follow.
But it's not all or nothing. You can have videos on two websites.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't YouTube have a competitor?
#30Rumble Odysee WTV Bitchute Daily Motion Peer Tube ..ad infinitum There's literally hundreds out there, not everything needs to be 'Facebook scale' to be successful. edit: formatting
Daily Motion was a strong alternative for a time in France, but it isn't used much now. Most long video content creators are on Youtube now. (DailyMotion is french)
Daily Motion seems to be a place where people just upload Jeopardy episodes and random movies and they don’t get taken down quickly.