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Ask HN: Can you build something better than Youtube?

11 points by anilshanbhag ↗ HN
When I look at some of Google's properties, they are the best. For a change look at Youtube, its by far a single player monopoly with other players like dailymotion/metacafe/vimeo far behind.

I would like to get HNers opinion on the following: How can one unseat a giant like Youtube ? I sometimes feel its a lost opportunity as I was not able to code around the time people created Youtube.

13 comments

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chintan39
There is always a way to build something better then existing giants. Some of examples in past: AltaVista vs. Google MySpace vs. Facebook.

There will be somesite, someday that will takedown youtube.

zindlerb
The thing that will unseat youtube will probably not look like a competitor originally. I don't know what it will look like. Twitch seems like a possible canidate.
eip
It would help if you already Tier 1 network capacity. Several large and geographically distributed data centers. Access to black ops computer processing and storage technology. Billions of dollars. And about 8 years.
AbhishekBiswal
It is Possible. But if there is a startup working on it / a service already there, and is getting some traction, Google probably knows about it. Again, Google can make/introduce new features to keep the users coming back to it or it can simply acquire the service ( For example, Twitch ).
ShaneCurran
Vimeo is trying to achieve just that.
petervandijck
I'm pretty sure they're not, they started around the same time. They're just providing an alternative.
anilshanbhag
Agree with peter, Vimeo seems to have focused on Business customers who don't really depend on the service to drive visitors. There are no ads if you are a paid customer on Vimeo.

Vimeo is big but nothing compared to the gaint Youtube

sjg007
It will start as a mobile video social thing.
bluerail
It would take lots of money, hardware and resources to build and maintain a site like Youtube (did I missed the pounding legal and privacy issues to be dealt with)., and the possibility of revenue is so lower to compensate for the money spent which is a model that investors don't like..

As youtube already captured the desktop video streaming and most of the mobiles, a possibility will arise only if a new platform awaits.. like VR, or IoT.., these things would give an early bird ticket for the competition arena..

And, i am slightly eyeing on the possibilities for a Video streaming services in IoT field., Say for example, streaming vids in your fridge, roof, doors or whatever..

User9812
Sure, we can make something better, but who is going to fund such a site, because you're going to be losing millions in bandwidth for a long time.

There's a reason image hosting sites are everywhere, but no one is hosting video. It's just too expensive, and you can't make a return.

If we had some kind of peer-to-peer, decentralized video sharing platform, so we could share videos without region restrictions, and without worrying about paying for bandwidth or storage, we might be on to something. Something like torrents, but I'd need to be able to post a link here, and you could click it, and stream the video in your browser from other users.

gesman
"Betterness" rarely means more successful or more used or more well known. Technical superiority of offering is way not enough to tackle the challenge.

Partnering with juicy powers is a better bet.