Does YouTube need a serious competitor?

[Brapson]

YouTube is very much the home of video content on the internet. It's one of those websites that has really made the world a lot smaller. It's allowed various people to make a living doing what they love to do. A lot of exciting content on YouTube has been created over the years and as the years have gone by YouTube itself has began to change, sometimes quite noticeably causing uproars within the YouTube community. With Yahoo playing with the idea of creating it's own video site you begin to wonder if it will be a serious competitor to YouTube or fail just as Dai

 

Of course the most notable topic of discussion would be the various design changes that have taken place. It seems like the YouTube designers feel like they have to re-invent the site every 4-6 months but never really complete the task, leaving clues of the sites past and sometimes leaving the site broken. A prime example of this being a feature that many don't even know still exist, the inbox. It still uses a very Cosmic Panda (The previous YouTube's Designs Codename) style theme that's been doctored a little to fit the new template but hasn't been completed reworked into the site. With the introduction of G+ integration the comments area of the inbox became non-functional and they removed the inbox from the menus across YouTube. The design changes have always caused an uproar in the community, especially the Cosmic Panda design change. While the channel layout wasn't broken it offered much less customisation than the previous design. Why was that? Well in my opinion YouTube was beginning to mature and more than likely those on the YouTube design team wanted a more professional and standard layout through all channels. Personally, I hated the Cosmic Panda layout and many screamed and shouted about it in the hope that YouTube would revert. This may have been a mistake because the YouTube designers took this feedback on board and designed yet another channel layout, this time removing yet more customisation; profile backgrounds. This matches my theory that YouTube's designers wanted a more consistent and professional look across channels however this layout was quite a bit more broken and removed some of the heart and soul of YouTube, your profile became less about YOU and more like EVERYONE else's. There have been subtle design changes since then, most of which the community have been unhappy with including the disastrous G+ integration.

 

Then of course there is the algorithms that YouTube uses to detect copyright content which in the last year or so has also been changing. If you didn't know YouTube trialled a new Content ID system last November which went horribly wrong, gamers and those who use game footage were Content ID'd even if they were under the protection of a Network. This lead to many channels within the gaming community getting copyright strikes due to gameplay. This system is due to return sometime in the coming months though it is "supposedly" improved. This is a sticky issue as a site as big as YouTube needs these algorithms, it's just not logical nor practical to higher employees to watch YouTube content in fact it's probably impossible to do this task manually.

 

 

So the fact that YouTube has slowly changed from a very community based site, to something that is growing largely more corporate begs the question. Is it time for a serious YouTube competitor? Sure there is Dailymotion and Vimeo but neither of them can seem to grab the attention that is YouTube. With Yahoo playing with the idea of creating it's own video site you begin to wonder if it will be a serious competitor to YouTube or fail to grab hold just as Dailmotion and Vimeo have. Then there is the problem that if the competitor was to grow as large as YouTube then it would face the same problems regarding copyrighted content. Finally in order for a new competitor to catch on you would really need to get the big names on YouTube to move over to the new service which Yahoo is trying to do by offering a more competitive advertising price. Then again the new venture by Yahoo may turn out to be more similar to that of Netflix than YouTube, a closed off service.

 

The question stands though, does YouTube need a serious competitor? Something more community orientated once more? Discuss bellow.

[Tech_Dreamer]

apparently , yahoo is working on something and is contacting content providers to switch over for higher "salary"

 

 

 

ninja knows secrets

[Shd0w2]

Vimeo.

[Fred Castellum]

Vimeo.

Vimeo isn't catching on nearly fast enough to actually be a competitive threat for youtube at the moment.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Vimeo.

 

This. YouTube already has competitors, Vimeo is great, but what drives a social network is not the site but the community and the community isn't going to switch.

[Shd0w2]

Vimeo isn't catching on nearly fast enough to actually be a competitive threat for youtube at the moment.

I still love it

[ForsakenLive]

We need another competitor, we need another choice.

[Volbet]

The problem with Dailymotion, is that it also have en extremely strict copyright policy. 

As I see it Vimeo is the closest we can get to a competitor right now. But Vimeo does need to have a larger user base if it is ever to become a serious competitor. 

 

Of course there is Blip.tv, but as of my understanding, it is more focused on already establised content creators like Doug Walker and Lindsey Ellis, just to name two.

As of now Youtube really need a competitor, mostly becuase the current platform doesn't really inspire people to be creatibve anymore. By pushing channels that are already big, they push those channels format unto new content creators.

[jameshumphries47]

yes you tube does need a competitor that always improve products

[Guest MixedCore]

My "objective" side (if it even exists) says YES, but my "subjective" one says NO... I jus't can't be asked to move back and forth.

[Mooshi]

Yes.

[tharvey]

Is there a company out there that could compete with Youtube?  I can't think of anyone that could compete on that level.

[Unhelpful]

Youtube needs a competitor. Competition is good.

 

-Dramatic exaggeration of the day- Calling vimeo a competitor is like calling a childs lemonade stand a competitor for a supermarket.

[killers993]

Is there a company out there that could compete with Youtube?  I can't think of anyone that could compete on that level.

 

Microsoft, but even then it would probably be worse. 

[flibberdipper]

No.

[nicholaswillems]

Something that supports 60 fps video. (I think dailymotion does so or was it someone else?

[juretrn]

Vimeo? Oh please. How many videos you watch there? Probably 1 for every 1000 or even 10k youtube videos.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Vimeo? Oh please. How many videos you watch there? Probably 1 for every 1000 or even 10k youtube videos.

 

That doesn't mean they're not a better service for the viewer, the problem is no one (other than professionals) use it. YouTube offers a much larger viewerbase so of course that's where the content creators will flock to. As long as YouTube has the most content creators they will have the most viewers, and the other way around, it will keep expanding and be increasingly difficult to turn over.

[Probenja]

I don't think it needs another competitor, i like having one place to go for watching videos, and i don't think content creators would want to switch.

Vimeo is the best alternative out there, the videos look amazing in that site compared to youtube.

[juretrn]

That doesn't mean they're not a better service for the viewer, the problem is no one (other than professionals) use it. YouTube offers a much larger viewerbase so of course that's where the content creators will flock to. As long as YouTube has the most content creators they will have the most viewers, and the other way around, it will keep expanding and be increasingly difficult to turn over.

I meant to say it's not a serious competitor, obviously, regardless of technical advantages/disadvantages. 

[Askew]

Vimeo isn't catching on nearly fast enough to actually be a competitive threat for youtube at the moment.

And they do not allow the uploading of gameplay footage, as we know that accounts for some big chunks of YouTube, matter of fact the no1 channel is gameplay.

[Fred Castellum]

And they do not allow the uploading of gameplay footage, as we know that accounts for some big chunks of YouTube, matter of fact the no1 channel is gameplay.

Yup good point here. 

[wjdobie]

All a competitor will do is fragment the user base, and the only thing that will happen is the content creators are harmed.

YouTube has done a pretty good job so far, I trust it to keep moving in the right direction (they have removed google plus for a start!)