Given its giant head start over the rest of the field, YouTube should probably be the dominant force in online video. Yet in 2014 it is in very real danger of becoming an afterthought.
Despite the Google-owned platform's enduring and vast share of global web traffic, it's innovative, forward-thinking and fearless platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, Sky Go and the BBC iPlayer which are dominating the discussion around video streaming. Meanwhile YouTube drifts further and further out of the conversation.
Be it through seemingly endless legal battles over content rights, an apparent identity crisis in terms of the video it provides, or Google's constant changing of strategies, the platform is in danger of starting to become a little old hat.
The firm's latest misstep came just last week with another rights controversy. At first it seemed independent music labels that failed to agree to the offered terms of YouTube's forthcoming music streaming service would have their videos removed from the service. It's not as extreme as that: instead of removing the videos, YouTube simply won't pay these artists. OK, it's still quite extreme. Queue more bad press.
This faux-pas got us thinking about YouTube's failure to dominate the online video market, why it appears to be standing still why the upstarts and start-ups breeze past. Here are 10 reasons YouTube just hasn't got it right.
1. Constant legal wrangling
Is it just us, or does YouTube always seem to be tied up in some sort of lawsuit or red tape? Its battle with Viacom over whether YouTube unlawfully profited from copyrighted content lasted 7 (SEVEN) years before finally coming to an end in March this year.
What did it achieve? An undisclosed out-of-court settlement and poor-quality unauthorised uploads of South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants expunged from YouTube. The two sides vowed to move forward with a "collaborative dialogue," but no licensed versions of those shows have appeared on the service.
2. Where's all the premium content?
As Amazon Prime secures landmark agreements to stream HBO hits such as The Wire and The Sopranos, and Netflix ploughs on with creating great original content like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, YouTube has added... well, not a lot really.
Legal battles have ensured users who upload unauthorised content have it instantly taken down, while the major studios seem reluctant to embrace the platform. Instead these companies simply use it as a promotional tool rather than an avenue for distribution or monetisation. There are plenty of trailers, clips, interviews and so on, but full episodes or even movies are nowhere to be found.
Back in to 2012 YouTube announced a $200m investment in securing premium original content through premium channels. Where are the fruits of that investment?
3. It's poorly packaged
"Everyone who thinks about YouTube still thinks 'free,'" said Dan Rayburn the online video evangelist for StreamingMedia.com.
"What they've never done is a good job of packaging their content into a product, whether it's free or premium or ad supported or pay to download. Why isn't there a YouTube+ where you pay £10 a month where you pay for premium content? You've got Amazon, Netflix and Hulu doing well yet Google still doesn't have anything today."
4. Forced Google+ integration
YouTube garnered a lot of ill will from users in November 2013 when it forced them to use Google+ accounts to comment on videos; prompting 239,000 people to sign a Change.org petition demanding it be changed back.
This revamp came under the guise of cleaning up the rancid cesspool of hatred that is the YouTube comments section. In reality it was a thinly veiled ploy to force the Google+ social network down the throats of an unwilling public. Add this to the constant popup requests for users to switch their account profile to their real name and you create a lot of discomfort.
5. Lowballing
Despite being video centric, YouTube is a much more popular avenue for music streaming than Spotify. Spotify's most played track is the abysmal Wake Me Up by Avicii, which has with 251m plays. Gangnam Style on YouTube has two billion and is (unlike Spotify) is serving ads on every play. Google is looking to press home this advantage by launching its own video-centric music subscription service allowing viewers and listeners to dispense of those ads for a monthly fee.
However, Google has failed to agree terms with the independent labels representing 5% of the music market. Those labels are refusing to sign an agreement, which requires them to lower royalty rates in line with the big boys. As a result those artists will receive no payment for their YouTube plays and YouTube will not help protect their copyright.
The Music Producer's Guild said it was "deeply concerned about Google's apparent abuse of its monopoly and associated market power and the adverse affect this will have on the wider industry and funds available for innovative and creative content production in the future."
6. Dead weight uploads
"The great thing about YouTube when it first came out was it allowed any average to upload a video at any time," Dan Rayburn tells us. "A lot of that content on YouTube is no longer a benefit to the company. It is simply a cost to them. By their own stats, 80% of content doesn't have ads against it." Likewise, the recent decision to open up live video streaming to users with only 1,000 subscribers is unlikely to create any revenue to offset the hosting costs.
7. Where's the focus?
Netflix's sole purpose is creating that winning streaming service. With that comes laser focus, as any mistakes could result in a subscribers bailing and share prices falling. In contrast, because YouTube is just a division of Google, it can afford to experiment and fail without it hurting too much. As a result they try and fail a lot.
"I just feel like there's no strategy," Dan Rayburn said. "They just try so many things. We heard them pitch so strong about spending $200m to work with content providers and helping the industry along, but a whole bunch of those channels disappear a year later. They didn't say what went wrong. Remember they built all these studios to help content owners to create content? We never hear anything about that either."
8. YouTube stars are not stars
According to recently appointed CEO Susan Wojcicki (naturally she's from an advertising background, not a content background), YouTube's unique brands are the original content uploaders that spawn millions of subscribers and hundreds of millions of views, producing content of a reasonably professional quality that serves plenty of ads. However, Justin Beiber aside, you don't see these guys and gals on billboards, in commercials, making movie cameos or being interviewed in magazines.
That may be because outside of the community few people care (it might also be they're among the most grossly annoying people on the planet). YouTube has identified this as a problem. So far it has failed so far to give its "stars" the exposure to make those hundreds of millions of views a big deal to the mainstream and to advertisers.
9. Everything else is convenient
YouTube has stayed close to its roots by allowing anyone to upload a video and share it on the web for free. However, in the social media dominated landscape, other services are becoming more convenient.
Short form videos from Instagram and Vine make it easy to capture and share a moment quickly. They even offer more creative editing options. Users can also upload videos directly to Facebook, easily sharing with their peers and bypassing YouTube completely.
Meanwhile, Netflix, Amazon Prime, iPlayer and practically every other video-on-demand service out there have interfaces that make it infinitely easier for users to find what they want. Those platforms are also thankfully free from poorly (or deliberately wrongly) labelled videos and horrendously shot TV clips filmed on a phone. You'll never be RickRolled on Netflix.
10. Asleep at the wheel?
This discussion began with talk of a pending YouTube music streaming service to rival Spotify. However, Spotify launched five years ago. For that entire period, YouTube has been a place where billions of people listen to music. With labels willingly posting their artists content to YouTube for years, why is this music streaming service only happening now?
- It's the streaming service Youtube needs to beat: read our Spotify review
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