Top 12 YouTube Competitors (Updated in 2023)

The top YouTube competitors include direct competitors like Vimeo, Twitch, Dailymotion as well as Indirect competitors like Netflix and Facebook videos. YouTube is an online digital platform for sharing videos that feature different types of content including corporate, educational, TV, music and blog video content among others. Most of the materials for this particular platform are free to watch although some regional restrictions often arise due to issues revolving around copyright.

Statistics indicate that over 1 billion hours are consumed at every given hour on this platform. It was founded initially as a means for sharing video original video content that users thought is worth sharing. However, it has over the years become an influential tool for making money.

Producers, directors, and artists are using it as a way of advertising their video content for interested parties to find a way of getting the content. It was established in 2005, but it is now the most extensive social media website used in the US.

Top 12 YouTube Competitors

YouTube Direct competitors

1) Vimeo

• Product Type: Video-sharing platform.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: November 5, 2004
• Founders: Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein.
• Headquarters: New York City, New York, United States.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Anjali Sud.
• Revenue: $102 million (June 30, 2023)
• Market cap: $0.66B (August 18, 2023)

Vimeo is an online platform that allows users to upload, download, view, and shares different types of videos. It was founded in 2004, and its headquarters is located in New York, US. It supports a wide range of languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, French and German among others. It has large membership due to the fact that it allows high definition video streaming, which apparently speaks volume of its quality and efficiency.

Vimeo also provides the users with different packages that members can subscribe to ranging from basic to premium. It thus makes it easy for interested persons to subscribe to a particular one that suits their needs and budget. The platform boasts more than 200 million users, 1.5 million paid subscribers, and over 100 billion video views. Due to its focus on high-end video and audio quality, the site has become a thriving community of over 60 million video creators and 175 million members, mostly related to film, art, music, and animation.

Vimeo Quarterly Net Income in 2023 is $6 (Millions of US $). Vimeo Annual Number of Employees in 2022 was 1,236.

Vimeo is one of the YouTube Competitors which most bloggers use & its membership continues to grow every year.

2) Twitch

• Product Type: Live and Video-sharing platform.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: June 6, 2011
• Founders: Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Kevin Lin, and Josh Strife Hayes.
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Emmett Shear.

Twitch is an online space that supports live streaming of videos. It is a subsidiary of Amazon and was launched in 2011 to cater for the interest of millions of people who were yearning for video streaming. Its traffic continued to upsurge over the years, and as of 2014, it was ranked at number 4 as the most visited video streaming website by different users.

Twitch’s continued innovation has enabled the platform to become one of the best platforms thus creating a firm name as a serious competitor in the market. The user experience on this platform is also regarded as an all-time satisfactory making it one of the brands to beat.

Twitch made an estimated $2.8 billion revenue in 2022. In 2022, Twitch had an average of 2.58 million concurrent viewers.7.6 million Twitch users stream on the platform once a month. As of August 2023, Twitch has over 7.3 million channels streaming each month.

3) Dailymotion

• Product Type: Video-sharing platform.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: March 2, 2005, in Paris, France.
• Founders: Guillaume Lefebvre, Olivier Poitrey, and Matthieu Pigasse.
• Headquarters: Paris, France.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Maxime Saada

Dailymotion is a French-based online video sharing platform. It allows the users to upload, download, view and share different types of video content. It also enables users, artists, producers, directors, premium partners and independent creators to offer mixed content. One fundamental aspect that makes Dailymotion stand out amidst intense competition in this industry is the fact that its availability is all over the world and also supports 18 languages.

It was launched in Paris in 2005 but has attracted members from all different countries around the world. Many people are using it as a platform for sharing original videos that are interesting and educational that at times cannot find their way to mainstream channels.

There are 300 million Dailymotion users worldwide in 2023. In 2023, Dailymotion revenue run rate hit $19.6M in revenue.

4) Photobucket

• Product Type: Image hosting and sharing service.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: March 20, 2003, in Denver, Colorado, United States.
• Founders: Alex Welch and Darren Crystal.
• Headquarters: Denver, Colorado, United States.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Ted Leonard

Photobucket is an American based online portal that is used in providing a wide range of online services including video hosting and image hosting to the online community. It was founded in 2003 with its headquarters in Denver. This online portal currently hosts over 10 billion images, which are often uploaded by the members estimated to be about 200 million.

It is an exciting platform because it is used both for business and personal purposes hence making it popular among different categories of people. This platform’s membership is a clear indication of how huge it is thus illustrating its strength as a competitor in the sector.

5) Flickr

• Product Type: Photo sharing and social networking service.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: February 10, 2004, in San Francisco, California, US.
• Founders: Stewart Butterfield, Caterina Fake, and Jason Kottke.
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, US.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Stan Chudnovsky.

Flickr is also another online website that is used for image and video hosting. It was launched in 2004 but only operated for one year before Yahoo acquired it. It allows the user to embed personal photos as well as sharing them hence enhancing effective interaction amongst the online community.

Statistics show that over four million photos are updated on a daily basis on this particular platform. It supports more than ten languages hence making an ideal platform for different users. Flickr is indeed a strong competitor in this specific sector since it helps individual and bloggers to share and embed photos that they have or need you use.

As of 2022, Flickr has over 112 million registered users and 60 million active users. The active users are counted as those who come to Flickr at least once a month.  Number of countries users come from: 72 countries. Flickr is the most used in USA, representing 31% of all Flickr’s traffic. It is followed by UK with almost 10% and Germany just over 5%. The majority of all Flickr users (45%) comes from other countries. Number of photos uploaded daily: 25 million photos. Number of photos shared daily: 3.5 million. Total number of photos shared: 10 billion.

6) Veoh

• Product Type: Video-sharing platform.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: September 2005, in San Diego, California, United States.
• Founders: Dmitry Shapiro and Ted Dunning.
• Headquarters: San Diego, California, United States.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Jon Goldman (CEO of FC2).

Veoh is a US-based internet television that enables users to search and watch some user-generated materials, studio and independent production content. It became popular among many users because it was able to give them several options to view a wide variety of content including the TV studio programmes.

It gives two main viewing options; through the website where users can use their phone and PCs and also through software app too. It operates as a subsidiary of Qlipso which acquired it in 2010 after it failed to meet its financial obligations. It has however continued to run using the Veoh trademark all through and have in the process acquired many more users and unique visitors from time to time.

As of july 2023, Veoh.com is expected to earn an estimated $130 USD per day from advertising revenue. The sale of veoh.com would possibly be worth $94,927 USD. Veoh.com receives an estimated 30,746 unique visitors every day. Veoh.com has monthly visitors (unique) 935,823.

7) Vube

• Product Type: Video-sharing platform.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: 2007, in Cairo, Egypt.
• Founders: Mohamed El Dahshan, Hazem Soliman, and Ahmed El Gohary.
• Headquarters: Cairo, Egypt.

Vube is a digital platform that allows users to upload and share a wide range of video content. The video content shared on this platform varied from sports, events, and music among others. One interesting element about Vube is that it rewarded users in the event that their videos became popular. It is however now defunct for several reasons, and one of the expert’s claims was due to unfavorable policies among others.

Indirect Competitors

8) Netflix

• Product Type: Subscription video on demand over-the-top streaming service.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California, United States.
• Founders: Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings.
• Headquarters: Los Gatos, California, United States.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Reed Hastings.
• Market capitalization: $178.59B (August 18, 2023)
• Revenue: $8.187B (June 30, 2023)

Netflix is a US-based streaming media that specializes in streaming digital media and video content. It started way back in 1997 but has over the years grown to become one of the largest digital online platforms with many streaming subscribers. It currently has over 200 million subscribers, an indication that it is indeed a force to reckon in the digital streaming market. Netflix is currently available in over 190 countries.

Fast forward to 2023, Netflix has become a global provider of streaming media and video on-demand online, with a variety of award-winning Netflix originals, TV shows, movies, documentaries, and more. Netflix has over 76,000 hidden TV Shows/Movies categories.

Netflix net income for the quarter ending June 30, 2023 was $1.488B. Netflix total number of employees in 2022 was 12,800.

In as much as it has grown globally in the recent past, the US is still it’s the biggest market where it commands a significant number of subscribers estimated to be about 55 million. 45% of Netflix’s revenue comes from US and Canada. Netflix produces nine popular original series out of ten. As a matter of interest, Netflix original programs scooped 20 awards in the 2017 Emmy Awards. Many adults are nowadays preferring Netflix movies and serials instead of watching YouTube. Hence it is considered as one amongst the top YouTube Competitors.

9) Amazon Prime videos

• Product Type: Subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: May 27, 2006, as Amazon Video on Demand, in Seattle, Washington, United States.
• Founders: Jeff Bezos.
• Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, United States.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Andy Jassy.

Amazon prime video is an online retailer of digital media products that allows subscribers to qualify for accelerated shipping, media streaming and an array of digital services. It operates a subsidiary of Amazon group and allows the subscribers to obtain all their preferred digital media products for their consumption.

Amazon Prime Video revenue reached $5.16 billion in 2022. Amazon Prime Day sales reached $12 billion in 2022.  Amazon Prime Video is the second-largest video streaming provider, with over 223 million subscribers in 2023. Amazon Prime Video is an employer to 7,000 workers.

Amazon primer videos are one of the biggest players in this particular sector offering intense competition to other established players including YouTube. It supports quite a number of operating systems hence widely accessed on phones, tablets as well as PCs.

10) Facebook Videos

• Product Type: Video-sharing platform.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: February 4, 2004, in Menlo Park, California, United States.
• Founders: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
• Headquarters: Menlo Park, California, United States.
• Area served: Worldwide.
• Current CEO: Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook is arguably the toughest YouTube Competitors in the market right now though it is an indirect competitor. It is the most extensive social networking website in the world.  It allows users to interact, get news, upload and share digital content. It currently has close to 3 billion users world wise making it the leading social networking platform with the highest number of active users.

Facebook is a social media site with well over 3.03 billion monthly active users in April 2023, revenue worth 31,999 billion dollars and over 65,964 employees. More than 500 million people use Facebook Stories every day. In July 2023, Facebook reports that 2.23 billion people can be reached through ads. Reels hit 140 billion Plays per day across Facebook apps.

Over the years, Facebook has been able to incorporate quite a significant number of features on its platform that allows the users to share videos and photos.

Other Social media network video

 11) Hulu

• Product Type: Subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: October 29, 2007, in Los Angeles, California, United States.
• Founders: Jason Kilar, Beth Comstock, and Mike Hopkins.
• Headquarters: New York City, New York, United States.
• Area served: United States and Japan.
• Current CEO: Joe Earley.
• Net worth: $16 billion (2023)
• Revenue: $10.7 billion (2022)

Hulu is an American based subscription video on demand service provider. Four different entities jointly own it, but it has grown over the years to become among the most liked platforms, especially the American youth who prefer watching television on it. Hulu provides its subscribers with both free and paid services.

Hulu’s library contains over 70,000 TV episodes and movies of different shows, including Hulu originals and content from renowned networks like NBCUniversal, ABC, Fox, Disney, Discovery Networks, HBO, and more.  In Q3 2023, Hulu had 48.3 million paid subscribers. Hulu has a 11% market share in streaming services.

It covers a market share of 9% in the US of those who watch Hulu at different times throughout the day. As of the end of 2016 financial year, Hulu had a total of 12 million subscribers worldwide that subscribed to the paid service. It thus shows that it is indeed a big deal in the industry.

12) Hotstar

• Product Type: Subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service.
• Industry: Technology.
• Founded: March 11, 2015, in Mumbai, India.
• Founders: Uday Shankar, Sameer Nair, and Ajit Mohan.
• Headquarters: Mumbai, India.
• Area served: India and Southeast Asia.
• Current CEO: K Madhavan.

Hotstar is an Indian-based platform that provides its users with digital and mobile entertainment. It is barely three years old in the industry but has risen to become on the fastest growing online digital platform judging by the number of users.it was initially intended for a mobile app for streaming ICC world cup cricket, matches but later transformed to support other services.

Disney+Hotstar paid subscribers count reached 40.4 million in FY Q3 2023, after losing a notable 12.5 million during the three-month period. The Walt Disney Company’s revenue for the second quarter ending April 1, 2023, stood at $21,815 million.

It allows users to stream video content online as well as get video-on-demand services. It currently has more than 150 advertisers which primarily imply that it is growing to become one of the most active competitors in the online digital media industry. It is available as a website and also has an application that is downloaded and installed on mobile devices that support iOS, and Android.

This was all About Youtube Competitors in the Media Industry

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