YouTube has a monopoly partially because social networking aspects like search, recommended, etc. However, another reason competitors haven't cropped up is bec

YouTube has a monopoly partially because social networking aspects like search, recommended, etc. However, another reason competitors haven't cropped up is because copyright law in the US and elsewhere highly favors publishers over hosters or creators. Publishers will sue the crap out of you the moment you get big enough to make a difference. If Google hadn't dumped money into YouTube, they'd probably have gone under years ago when Viacom and others sued them for copyright infringement. We need copyright reform.