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I highly doubt that youtube will become irrelevant any time soon. The infrastructure cost to hosting over a decade of video across the globe is immense and that

I highly doubt that youtube will become irrelevant any time soon. The infrastructure cost to hosting over a decade of video across the globe is immense and that alone creates a significant moat. Even if some channels leave, others will take their place quickly. Youtube has sufficient size for that.

penjelly 5y ago
yeah weve seen other video providers come and go, but it feels like nobody else is capable of hosting this much content and having this many active content creators. its kindof sad really, if its not on youtube it probably wont be seen.
- ravenstine 5y ago
  I don't think many alternative platforms are particularly serious. This is probably in part because hosting massive amounts of video and supporting streaming is a very hard problem. At the same time, they all shoot themselves in the foot in many ways, whether it's their marketing, lack of real moderation, low momentum of improvement, or their UI design.
ravenstine 5y ago
I didn't say "irrelevance". Just low relevance, kind of like how ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox are all still "relevant", but they mean a fraction to younger generations what they meant to even my generation (Gen Y). They're of such low relevance that those organizations have to pay YouTube to promote their content. There may come a day, maybe in another couple decades from now, where YouTube is paying some TNG platform to cross-post its content in much the same way. Relevance is a relative term, so I have to apologize for being pedantic here, but I also can't really help it in this case either. > Even if some channels leave, others will take their place quickly. Youtube has sufficient size for that. To some extent, yes. That doesn't mean it will be able to keep up with loss forever, especially when it's doing things to outright sabotage new channels. People will get tired of a mostly PG-rated platform once YouTube truly reaches that point. Cultures shift and change, and if global internet culture swings back to being more like it was in the 2000s, the warm safety blanket YouTube provides will be a totally uncool thing only old people and little kids watch. YouTube will someday have a rude awakening when their pushing of late-night TV and mainstream news clips is no longer a significant ROI to their customers. As for movies, well, they're definitely not the only ones in town for that.

penjelly 5y ago

yeah weve seen other video providers come and go, but it feels like nobody else is capable of hosting this much content and having this many active content creators. its kindof sad really, if its not on youtube it probably wont be seen.

ravenstine 5y ago
I don't think many alternative platforms are particularly serious. This is probably in part because hosting massive amounts of video and supporting streaming is a very hard problem. At the same time, they all shoot themselves in the foot in many ways, whether it's their marketing, lack of real moderation, low momentum of improvement, or their UI design.

ravenstine 5y ago

I didn't say "irrelevance". Just low relevance, kind of like how ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox are all still "relevant", but they mean a fraction to younger generations what they meant to even my generation (Gen Y). They're of such low relevance that those organizations have to pay YouTube to promote their content. There may come a day, maybe in another couple decades from now, where YouTube is paying some TNG platform to cross-post its content in much the same way. Relevance is a relative term, so I have to apologize for being pedantic here, but I also can't really help it in this case either. > Even if some channels leave, others will take their place quickly. Youtube has sufficient size for that. To some extent, yes. That doesn't mean it will be able to keep up with loss forever, especially when it's doing things to outright sabotage new channels. People will get tired of a mostly PG-rated platform once YouTube truly reaches that point. Cultures shift and change, and if global internet culture swings back to being more like it was in the 2000s, the warm safety blanket YouTube provides will be a totally uncool thing only old people and little kids watch. YouTube will someday have a rude awakening when their pushing of late-night TV and mainstream news clips is no longer a significant ROI to their customers. As for movies, well, they're definitely not the only ones in town for that.