It's mostly free and meets people's expectations. Also, one of the driving goals of silicon valley companies is to grow as large as possible as soon as possible

It's mostly free and meets people's expectations. Also, one of the driving goals of silicon valley companies is to grow as large as possible as soon as possible so that it becomes a competitive advantage. At some point, it's impossible to complete against a giant even if the product is easy to replicate. Googles also has an ad network that finances the product's development and on going maintenance. So a competitor would have to compete against both giants to at least get a foothold. At this point, the only way to get competitors against YouTube is for the government to get involved and help the new companies in some way. One possible competitor is for a confederation of organizations to get together and produce a product. They would have to have a product that's at least as good and be willing to accept losses for a time. Also they have to stay together and act together as a force of one. It's unlikely to happen. I would say that a competitor would have to start by building an ad network first so that there's some money to finance a YouTube like product. The true competition is the one for people's attention. Find a product that can best get people's attention and you have chance to succeed against Google and YouTube.