Youtube is an online video-sharing platform, with its headquarters in San Bruno, California. Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, three former employees of an American e-commerce company 'PayPal' created the service in February 2005. They introduced the platform with the idea that ordinary people would enjoy sharing their "home videos".
According to Alexa Internet rankings, Youtube is the second most visited website after Google. In November 2006, Google bought the site for US$1.65 billion. Rather than merging the sites, Google continued YouTube's operations as before. The platform now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.
YouTube allows users to upload, share, view, rate, report, and comment on videos. It also lets users add videos to playlists and subscribe to other users. The available content includes TV shows, video clips, short and documentary clips, live streams, video blogging, and music videos.
For monetizing on YouTube, it's necessary to follow Youtube monetization policies. In case of violation, Youtube may take action against your channel. Due to YouTube demonetization, channels lose their ability to earn advertising income. Early in 2017, YouTube restricted mode removed a video titled "GAY flag and me petting my cat" because it featured an image of a rainbow-colored flag and a cat. However, it was perfectly a harmless video.
In October, a conservative education site PragerU, prosecuted YouTube and Google, accusing them of censoring videos because of their political leanings. The action cited more than 50 PragerU online videos that were condemned to "demonetized" or "restricted" status by YouTube. Likewise, the well-known Infowars host and anti-government conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been removed from YouTube due to repeated violations of policies against hate speech.
YouTube was founded on the promise of creating user-generated content, but the platform started demonetizing videos and inevitably heading towards being like television. No one is happy with YouTube's content moderation policies. Content creators need platforms to address their audiences without restrictive intermediation.
Here are some platforms that might be appealing to creators who fail to fit in on YouTube.
BitChute is a social video-hosting platform known for accommodating conspiracy theorists and far-right individuals. The platform has no strict content rules and policies like YouTube. Most of the content creators on BitChute have been banned from other platforms, particularly YouTube, or their channels have demonetized.
In 2017, Ray Vahey registered BitChute in Newbury, England. At the time of launch, he described BitChute as an alternative to mainstream platforms. He believed these platforms had demonstrated "the increased levels of censorship" in the last couple of years by demonetizing channels and banning users.
In November 2018, PayPal banned BitChute. They also banned the Proud Boys, Alex Jones, Tommy Robinson, and several anti-fascist users and groups. In 2019, IndieGogo, a crowdfunding site, also banned BitChute. BitChute actively promotes content that was removed from other sites as hate speech. The platform's founder, Ray Vahey described BitChute as "politically neutral".
BitChute aims to put content creators first and provide the services they can use to express their ideas.
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Locals.com or Locals Technology Inc is a subscription-based community platform for content creators. This platform was co-founded by Dave Rubin and Assaf Lev. It started in New York City in 2019. David Rubin is an American political commentator, talk show host, and YouTube personality.
Rubin's move aims to combat manipulative algorithms, online censorship, and shadow-banning. He says that Big Tech has created obstacles for content creators who try to communicate with audiences and promote their work. His own content on Youtube was demonetized, so he wants to take power from Big Tech. Rubin usually speaks about censorship and free speech. He says Locals is his solution, taking power from online monsters and placing it into the hands of individuals.
This platform is for independent creators. They can publish their content, engage with the supporters and make money from the subscription. Locals provides the tools that creators need to publish, operate, and grow, all in one place. Content creators can generate stable revenue through subscriptions and grow their business with Locals.
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It's a French video-sharing platform owned by Vivendi. Dailymotion's North American launch partners included Vice Media, BBC News, Hearst Digital Media, and Bloomberg. This platform is available worldwide in 43 localized versions and 183 languages featuring local content and local home pages.
Olivier Poitrey and Benjamin Bejbaum founded the Dailymotion website in March 2005. Six individuals invested €6,000 to start the business. Dailymotion raised €7 million in Collaboration with Partech International and Atlas Ventures in September 2006.
Dailymotion offers a wide range of videos without censorship. It's a place where video-makers are free to share their thoughts and connect with a passionate audience. Content creators can make money with videos on Dailymotion. The platform helps publishers to grow their audiences and monetize the content.
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LBRY is a blockchain-based payment and file-sharing network that powers a decentralized platform. This website is one of the best-decentralized alternatives to YouTube. Jimmy Kiselak and Jeremy Kauffman founded the platform in May 2015. It builds on the LBRY protocol that is a decentralized file-sharing network developed using BitTorrent and blockchain technology.
Anyone can create an account and register content that can not be deleted by the company. If you have trouble keeping videos on YouTube, Lbry.tv might be the best alternative for you. The platform has various monetization options, such as locking content behind a paywall. This platform pays creators via Bitcoin, so it's not for those who are not versed in cryptocurrency.
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Vimeo is a video hosting and sharing platform with headquarters in New York City. The platform focuses on the delivery of high-definition videos across various devices. Vimeo drives revenue via subscription plans for video content producers and provides reliable monetization models than YouTube.
Zech Klein and Jake Lodwick initially built the site in 2004 to share humor videos among colleagues. The idea for a video-sharing site was inspired after CollegeHumor. Lodwick created the name Vimeo as a play on the words video and me.
Vimeo is an excellent platform for publishers and businesses, as it offers a lot of customization and branding options. On top of that, it provides some handy features like social integration, video analytics, and excellent video quality. Vimeo does not use advertising either on the page or embedded in videos. Instead, it sells its products and services to content creators for revenue.
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