[jononor]

YouTubes biggest moat the last 10 years is probably more that all the viewers and creators are already there. Any competitor has a huge disadvantage - creators are not interested in a place without viewers, and viewers not in a place without creators/content.

[verdverm]

yeah, network effect is real, and you cannot get viewers without competitive video delivery, so perhaps the moat is more like having an ocean on both sides

[jononor]

Network effect means it will be a huge and risky undertaking, and one needs to solve the bootstrap problem. But the costs of video delivery means that one would have to burn serious cash in the meantime. So it works in tandem.

TikTok kinda did manage to make a dent though - I suspect it substitutes for YouTube in some cases (though not all).