Google not only does enjoy a lion’s share of the search market, but also now holds a firm top position in the video industry, thanks to their $1 Billion buyout of YouTube. YouTube is the world’s third most visited website according to Alexa, and that simply gives an unbeatable advantage over its competition. YouTube has become the to-go place to watch anything and everything ranging from funny cat videos to music videos and instructional and educational videos alike.
A healthy internet strives on competition. There can’t be only a single player in a game, in that case, it isn’t a game! Just like everything else YouTube too does have a strong competition that are onto its neck. The wise quote: “Go where the people are.” makes sensible in case of YouTube.
Why alternatives to YouTube?
Now, some might say things like, “If you say YouTube is most popular, why do I need alternatives for?”. You are actually both right and wrong. Right, that YouTube is the most popular, but that doesn’t always mean the best!
There a few drawbacks of YouTube and that is where its competitors come into the picture. Here’s a run-down of few things that went wrong in YouTube:
Websites Like YouTube For More Video Experience
So, now, let’s remind ourselves that this internet offers a healthy dose of variety and is not about a single giant website. Here are a few of the best alternatives to YouTube and some even offer what YouTube fails to offer.
Vimeo
Vimeo is the most classy video sharing website on the entire internet. It simply outclasses YouTube in every sense. Vimeo, which is literally the word ‘video’ with ‘me’ stuffed in the middle, launched in 2004. It actually does not compete directly with YouTube, where it puts in concentration on quality more than quantity, which in the latter’s case is vice-versa. Vimeo was created by creative individuals, film-makers and video creators who wanted to share their “creative work”.
The Vimeo homepage offers a great feeling in itself, being more about atracting casual passers-by than promoting content that’s hidden within it. Everything is categorized into its ‘Explore’ tab and its only a click away.
Vimeo isn’t the place to go if you are too much into the cats and dogs running on the treadmill stuff. Vimeo is more about classy short films, snapshots of interesting people’s interesting lives, experimental music videos, etc. The website has a 500mb upload limit per week, although this can be increased to 2gb by upgrading.
The best thing about Vimeo is its video player, which concentrates more on the video and less on the non-sense surrounding it.
Flickr
First of all, what is Flickr doing in this list? It is a photo sharing website, isn’t it? Yes, but if you didn’t know, Flickr also features sharing of videos online. Owned by Yahoo!, Flickr video is not one of those small and rising startup. It is pretty established and offers out-of-the-box features.
Flickr limits its videos to 90 seconds, keeping it interesting. They call it “long photos”. Free users could upload two 90 second videos per month, paid subscribers for $25 have unlimited uploads. Flickr video is for those creative guys who need to experiment with short videos and say it all in 90 seconds. Although it lacks many options right now, it is sure to improve soon.
Dailymotion
If there’s any website on the internet that is more YouTube-esque, that’s definitely Dailymotion, which shares the same type of layout and video categories. The French-owned site and founded in 2005 caps uploads at 150mb, and allows video uploads of about twenty minutes in length. It hasn’t been quite popular in the US yet although it is quite popular in Europe, Africa and Asia. Daily Motion is not too far behind YouTube in many terms, and with a global Alexa ranking of 92, it is a behemoth in its own sense.
Videos offered on Dailymotion are professional quality clips and they promote the best in their featured columns. HD uploads are locked in for pro users. There is a good chance for more coverage to your videos if you could make the mark in terms of quality.
Metacafe
Metacafe is one of the great community-based video sharing website. Metacafe specialised in short-length original video. Here’s what Metacafe says about themselves in their own words: “We don’t have full-length television episodes or movies chopped into pieces. The average video on our site is just over 90 seconds long”. Metacafe attracts over forty million unique viewers a month and it sure does not hold a big load of unwanted and garbage videos.
Metacafe, born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2003, it has been a long kid on the block. To get the most out of Metacafe, its worth checking out their originals, exclusives, and partner channels. The rest is a more cut short version of YouTube.
Photobucket
Just like Flickr, Photobucket is perhaps more popular for its repository of images and pictures but it sure does host an impressive collection of user-generated videos. Photobucket doesn’t even apply the 90 second limit on the videos uploaded.
Blip.tv
Blip is another video sharing website that launched almost the same time as YouTube but has always stayed on an entirely different path. Founded in 2005 and based in New York City, Blip focuses on offering a platform for makers of original Web series.
The Blip homepage starts out from the very top, highlighting the latest episodes of various of the Web series that makes up the bulk of Blip’s content. This is a very good strategy on their part, as the clicking on one of an episode could get you hooked and needing to watch more and more of the same series.
Just like Vimeo, Blip offers a great video viewing experience.
Veoh
Now you have seen short form videos and upload limit video sharing websites. If you are into longer videos, Veoh is the place to go. With no limit on the size of the uploaded video, you have the entire freedom. Veoh is ideal to find full-length movies and great short movies alike.
Veoh makes it relatively quick and easy to upload and view large videos online. Veoh is definitely the best for long form videos.
So, now that you know all of the best alternatives to YouTube, do you happen to know of any other alternatives? Feel free to shout out your thoughts and comments below.
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