In other news, Youtube-clone video sites suddenly rise in popularity. Youtube doesn't have anything in particular that makes it unique--they're competing in a

In other news, Youtube-clone video sites suddenly rise in popularity. Youtube doesn't have anything in particular that makes it unique--they're competing in a market among many video sites that are equal if not far superior to them from a technical perspective and they have already lost in many parts of the world. See Nico Nico Douga in Japan, for example, which outcompeted Youtube with a unique interface, better attention to their specific target audience, and a more effective revenue model. They're breaking even--something not even Youtube can say yet. Changes like this, even if one can justify them by saying they are "forced by the record companies," will simply accelerate Youtube towards irrelevance in more and more markets. Youtube isn't like, say, World of Warcraft--anyone using the site can literally just pick up all their uploaded videos and leave at a cost of nothing to themselves. This is what makes changes like that described in this article so dangerous. No, Youtube isn't about to go away, or even lose significant popularity, but huge sites like Youtube don't die overnight--they lose niche audiences one by one.