[hervature]

I think people expect the competition to be too perfect of a substitute when it comes to the internet. You are picking the most competitive market - burger joints - in an industry that everyone is forced to partake in: food. On a calorie basis, McDonald's and Burger King actually have some of the most cost effective foods. To me, it is like asking "who is the competitor to Costco? A membership bulk-only retailer, only Sam's Club!"

If we relabel YouTube as "short segment internet video entertainment" than we have things like Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat that all compete for our attention. I would even say that Netflix, Amazon Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, etc. all compete with YouTube. Of course, they are all unique, but that shouldn't be the bar of measuring "competition". When I used to run a university bar, I would say "we aren't competing with the other bars in town, we are competing with Netflix. How do we convince people to leave their rooms and walk across campus?"

[whatshisface]

That's true from the perspective of users, but not content creators. 3Blue1Brown can't put videos on Netflix or Disney+, and I don't think Twitch would work. It's the content creators that are cornered YouTube's effective monopoly on serving user-uploaded videos with ads.

[hervature]

From the content creator viewpoint, I concede the landscape is much different. But again, is “user-uploaded videos with ads” what we are really talking about? They can sell their own ads and roll their own hosting quite easily. What you really mean is “user-uploaded videos with ads with the reach of YouTube” but of course there’s only one #1 user-uploaded video website.

[whatshisface]

>but of course there’s only one #1 user-uploaded video website.

That comment makes the issue sound a lot more slippery and ill-defined than it really is. If you're a small content creator, YouTube is your only option. It is actually quite simple; you don't have any plausible way to get people on your website, you won't get any views on Vimeo and you can't monetize it there, and Tiktok won't work unless you're running at most a few seconds. YouTube has a total sector monopoly on doing business with 3Blue1Brown.

[hervature]

> you don’t have any plausible way to get people on your website

Again, you mean “instantaneous access to millions of people who like to go to YouTube”. A website for $5/month opens you to more people than YouTube. If 3Blue1Brown has decided YouTube is best for them, then that’s great. But

> monopoly on “doing business with 3Blue1Brown.”

Sounds just as silly as Universal Pictures having a monopoly on movie series that involve bad acting and fast cars.

[whatshisface]

If you want to sell a script, you have Universal, WB, Netflix, I mean, I'm not in the industry, but it's a pretty long list. Every time another industry is brought up we quickly find that a person wanting to do business there has several major, practical routes to choose from. Wanting to make 12-60 minute videos for a living from a starting point of no budget or clout? YouTube is the only option. That's very strange from the perspective of every other industry or even other segments of the same industry. It's not normal for there to only be one business that you have any practical chance of succeeding with.

If it starts looking complicated, just take it back down to the specifics. If you are H3H3, you have no other options. You either do business with YouTube or do some other kind of business. That's the end of the story, and kind of weird, because there aren't any other absolute monopolies like that. For example, hosting a donate button is a practical alternative to Patreon.

[koheripbal]

All you are doing there is broadening the content definition to encompass more players.

The fact that YouTube is a many billion dollar business, and has no DIRECT competition should make it a target for anti-trust action.

[hervature]

I guess we should also be concerned with Tesla’s monopoly on supercharger networks. Just because there is no perfect substitution it does not mean there is no direct competition.