5 ms·

network effects

by ews 3y ago

network effects

scarface_74 3y ago
And where are people going to go to host their videos for free at scale? It’s not like any little startup can come along and profitably host videos
- serf 3y ago
  > And where are people going to go to host their videos for free at scale? given that YT has been doing it since 2005, I think it's safe to say that there isn't any technological or copyright 'moat' aside from just sheer scale; I would presume if YT decided to alienate their entire userbase that some 'threads'-like overnight competitor would get spun up to suck the leavers up. I don't think that it's reasonable to assume that there will be some kind of multi-media vacuum formed in the absence of YT. there is a lot of good will to manipulate away from YT should their decision-making process get excessively heavy handed, and I think someone with money or power would jump at the chance to do so.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    > I think it's safe to say that there isn't any technological or copyright 'moat'; Except that whole video costs a lot to deliver at scale and YouTube piggy backs off of Google’s existing infrastructure. Not to mention all of the content-id technology that YouTube has to try to fight copyright infringement.
    - jtode 3y ago
      Perhaps scale is actually a non-problem in many cases, and only a critical one in a paradigm where there is a need to have as much traffic as possible on a site for profit reasons. A person who wants a place to talk about their cat doesn't actually need a global scale video platform, unless their cat organically goes viral and the site gets hugged to death. Most cat posters just need a given amount of heart emojis per post, that a rather small group of cat fanciers can actually manage without much problem. Similar dynamics apply to the vast majority of internet content. There might be a place for a big video platform in the post-free-money internet, where creators of (again, organically) viral content can shift network loads for a share of ad revenue or a modest fee. So while your dog is clearly bad mannered and mediocre, my dog is a goddam supermodel and he knows it and he's gonna be a star if I ever put a picture of him up. He would need YouTube for sure. My little songs and rants, nobody outside of a few friends and sidewalk passerby are ever gonna hear them and that's fine, so peertube is gonna do the job for me just fine. I think that one requires a certain kind of exposure-seeking, or else profit-seeking mindset in order to see what YouTube does as crucial. That's my take anyways.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  Facebook. TikTok. Heck, nebula. I think we keep thinking of like “What’s exactly like YouTube?” vs “What is an alternative video-format hosting platform?” The way we consume video format content keeps changing. If YouTube ends up losing people, then it doesn’t mean the think that takes its place needs to be the exact style of video content.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    “Facebook is for old people” The younger desire demographic doesn’t want to be on the same platform as their grandmother. Do you really want to depend on video platform that may not be around? Serving video costs a lot and investors don’t have the appetite to poor money into startups like they did even two years ago.
    - aaomidi 3y ago
      I think demographic shifts on platforms is a lot more elastic than we give it credit for.

network effects

by ews 3y ago

network effects

And where are people going to go to host their videos for free at scale? It’s not like any little startup can come along and profitably host videos

serf 3y ago
> And where are people going to go to host their videos for free at scale? given that YT has been doing it since 2005, I think it's safe to say that there isn't any technological or copyright 'moat' aside from just sheer scale; I would presume if YT decided to alienate their entire userbase that some 'threads'-like overnight competitor would get spun up to suck the leavers up. I don't think that it's reasonable to assume that there will be some kind of multi-media vacuum formed in the absence of YT. there is a lot of good will to manipulate away from YT should their decision-making process get excessively heavy handed, and I think someone with money or power would jump at the chance to do so.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  > I think it's safe to say that there isn't any technological or copyright 'moat'; Except that whole video costs a lot to deliver at scale and YouTube piggy backs off of Google’s existing infrastructure. Not to mention all of the content-id technology that YouTube has to try to fight copyright infringement.
  - jtode 3y ago
    Perhaps scale is actually a non-problem in many cases, and only a critical one in a paradigm where there is a need to have as much traffic as possible on a site for profit reasons. A person who wants a place to talk about their cat doesn't actually need a global scale video platform, unless their cat organically goes viral and the site gets hugged to death. Most cat posters just need a given amount of heart emojis per post, that a rather small group of cat fanciers can actually manage without much problem. Similar dynamics apply to the vast majority of internet content. There might be a place for a big video platform in the post-free-money internet, where creators of (again, organically) viral content can shift network loads for a share of ad revenue or a modest fee. So while your dog is clearly bad mannered and mediocre, my dog is a goddam supermodel and he knows it and he's gonna be a star if I ever put a picture of him up. He would need YouTube for sure. My little songs and rants, nobody outside of a few friends and sidewalk passerby are ever gonna hear them and that's fine, so peertube is gonna do the job for me just fine. I think that one requires a certain kind of exposure-seeking, or else profit-seeking mindset in order to see what YouTube does as crucial. That's my take anyways.
aaomidi 3y ago
Facebook. TikTok. Heck, nebula. I think we keep thinking of like “What’s exactly like YouTube?” vs “What is an alternative video-format hosting platform?” The way we consume video format content keeps changing. If YouTube ends up losing people, then it doesn’t mean the think that takes its place needs to be the exact style of video content.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  “Facebook is for old people” The younger desire demographic doesn’t want to be on the same platform as their grandmother. Do you really want to depend on video platform that may not be around? Serving video costs a lot and investors don’t have the appetite to poor money into startups like they did even two years ago.
  - aaomidi 3y ago
    I think demographic shifts on platforms is a lot more elastic than we give it credit for.