Why YouTube Will Eventually Lose the Internet Video Race
Youtube is the biggest video platform on the internet and probably my favorite website that I go to. Everyday I watch at least one video and have been entertained in so many ways for years from the awesome, hilarious, and ridiculous content created just for YouTube. I remember when I first found YouTube after trying to find funny viral videos online. It’s incredible how much it has changed from those initial videos in 2005 and it’s then epic sell to google in late 2006 for $1.65 Billion (It’s worth over $70 billion now).
With over 6 billion hours of video watched per month and 1 billion users It has been number one in online video basically since it was founded. You can’t think of online video at all without thinking of YouTube. But there is a serious problem when you’re always the best at what you do; And that’s complacence and a never lose attitude. YouTube hasn’t innovated in years on it’s existing platform and If they don’t change soon there will be a Harvard Business class just on the fall of it.
“If it ain’t broke…”
They’ve missed some serious opportunities to win in every way for video and become a seriously dominant player that could be frightening the likes of Disney Studio’s, Time Warner, and Netflix. But instead, 8 years after Netflix came out with a steaming buinss that has grown their entire business YouTube is finally getting their feet wet. This trend of being last won’t last. Here’s the places where YouTube has been losing and needs to start improving in right now:
Recommending Videos: Example — Facebook Mobile Videos
Every time you click on a video in the Facebook app you are put in a refreshing clearly optimized viewing mode that darkens the entire screen for the most optimal video watching experience. As well as this, the way Facebook offers new content to users in this mode is so easy and useful you can truly get lost in watching dozens of videos back to back (and a few ads).
Youtube still has a weak experience on mobile when it comes to watching more then one video. After a while of watching on the YouTube app it really becomes clear that the experience doesn’t stack up against Facebook. BTW Facebook has reported that they have 4 billion daily views. They’re just getting started.
Streaming Movies and TV Shows: Example — Netflix
I remember when YouTube came out with the feature of doing what Apple’s iTunes was already was doing. Pay for movies and TV shows on your computer, I still don’t understand this one. YouTube and Google had tons and tons of time to really enter this market and build some incredible things with the already super talented YouTube community creators. But alas, to this day you have to pay 17.99 still to see Good Will Hunting.
Acquisitions: Example — Twitter buying Vine
Has YouTube ever made a acquisition? Or here’s a better question — has Google ever bought anything to strengthin YouTube in different mediums of video (Don’t try to say Omnisio)? Quick answer is no. Vine, Vimeo, Meerkat, and even Snapchat before it’s valuation skyrocketed are all great companies YouTube/Google should of made bids for in the past. YouTube should of been buying all companies that have great video content and social aspects that can fit into the YouTube unbrella. Which all four of these companies mentioned do incredibly well.
I’m not necessarily saying that YouTube should of bought all four of these companies, but if you take a company like Vimeo you can really see where it can fit. Vimeo promotes itself as a high quality video platform for creatives with a unique business plan compared to YouTube. It could of been the creative arm to possibly experiment with that business model with the overwelming push of the YouTube community?
Another very important point is that original viral content is coming from new platforms. The majority of viral content is now coming from Twitter, Vine, and Facebook. This is something YouTube used to be the hailing king of and now is the sluggish cousin of the fast and relevent Twitter and Facebook. So what does that really mean? So what, kids are uploading videos to Twitter now and not YouTube. How does that corrolate to YouTube’s issues?
Final Thoughts
I love YouTube and think it’ll last for as long as Google makes money off it (or has enough revenue to pray it’ll make money the next year). But will it be #1 in 10 years? I doubt it. Google isn’t interested in YouTube, and it has consistently shown this. It’s a shame too. When YouTube founders first saw the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident they searched online looking for the video (Of course lol) and couldn’t find it. They then decided they wanted to create something that would be a simple and easy way to watch awesome videos. Including the viral video of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction that brought the idea to their minds. YouTube was founded on the basis of finding new and fresh content and sharing it with friends as quickly as possible. Sadly, It is not the fastest way to share things anymore and there seems to be no challenge to that problem from the incredibly successful company.
I can’t remember the last time I found a viral video straight from YouTube.
