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YouTube's Growing Competition
bart_scriv writes "BusinessWeek looks at YouTube's rapidly growing imitators and questions the site's long-term viability. In addition to the competition, YouTube continues to face problems caused by its reliance on copyrighted material; the site's popularity is service- (rather than emotion-) based, which makes it a ripe target for anyone that might replicate and improve the service. From the article: 'YouTube's own challengers are advancing at a rapid rate. AOL is re-engineering its video site to mirror YouTube's success, and CNN is launching CNN Exchange, which will house user-contributed video features. Then there are sites like Eefoof.com, Panjea.com, Revver and Blip.TV, which share up to 50 percent of ad page revenue with the creator of the videos. Others like Dabble.com (currently in beta) sort through all video hosting sites (like YouTube and its competition) for search content, while specialty video sites like Pornotube concentrate on one point of interest.'"
the easiest way to grab the videos is if you are using firefox and the videodownloader plugin from videodownloader.net
Google wins. Why? They offer the option to download the damn videos.
It's the only way to get the videos on your iPod, PSP, Gameboy (via Play-Yan micro), etc...
I wish, however, that Google would get rid of that "Windows/Mac" option (AVI sucks) and replaced it with MP4 and H264.
Granted, the iPod option is H.264 but it's resized to 320x240 and the PSP is MP4 but it's resized for the PSP's widescreen which is also lower resolution than my computer display.
It is not strong as ever.
Its share price is less than one half of what it was one year ago, there was talk of them buying back shares. Their US, UK and Germany (pretty much their only true strong markets) are stagnating. They are seriously getting their asses kicked in China. Competition in the form of Google and others is a constant threat. Brand Value is decreased due to rising fraud, poor customer support and ever increasing charges. It was widely criticized by analysts for overpaying for Skype, and Skype has lots and lots and lots of strong competition. And to rub salt in the wound, key management such as Jeff Jordan quit.
It is takeover fodder.
No, it is not in a strong position, it could fall hard, and fall fast, and fall soon.
That said, they have always been in a stronger position that YouTube. eBay did make money from the start but it's very hard to see where YouTube is getting its from. It's near impossible to see how it is sustainable going forward. YouTube looks much more like a Dot.com than other so called Web 2.0 companies. I think they will either be history soon enough or sucked into Yahoo, News Corp., or some similar satanic pact.