
Goodbye for now - jhack
https://medium.com/vidme/goodbye-for-now-120b40becafa
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dudeget
I am very sad to see Vidme go. I loved the honesty of this blog post, it
really shows that they are aware of the independent video scene and why it is
almost impossible to compete with the giants (YouTube, and now to my
knowledge, instagram).

I always wanted them to succeed, but there was always something telling me
that success would be unlikely. YouTube is Google's big loss leader; they seem
to exist to keep Google's large internet presence and to keep people connected
to the Google ecosystem. If Google can't make YouTube profitable, it seems
highly unlikely that a startup would be able to.

It's interesting how Vimeo is still in the game during all of this. They exist
because they have a foothold onto the creative/indie/premium video scene. I'm
sure vidme was looking for a similar foothold; an niche audience that
YouTube/instagram/vimeo had not captured.

I hope the best for their new project. Also kudos to them for advertising
those they are not taking onto the new project.

~~~
throwaway2048
Calculations that youtube is an unprofitable loss leader make the assumption
that google pays retail rates for bandwidth. Google is peered with virtually
every transit network and ISP on earth, and pays (in relative terms) virtually
nothing.

Its a near certainty that youtube is infact massively profitable.

------
CM30
Damnit, I liked Vidme and thought it could potentially become a decent
competitor to YouTube.

However, with the business troubles related to a video site, I suspect there
are only three plausible ways to compete here:

1\. Have the video sharing site treated as a loss making venture run purely
out of a love for the community. This is unlikely to happen when a corporation
is involved (unless the CEO is a deeply religious/political individual who
thinks it helps their spiritual/social goals), but could happen if you had an
extremely dedicated, semi wealthy individual whose entire life revolved around
running a video sharing site for fun.

2\. Run the video site as a niche version, which is only open to a certain
community and focuses heavily on a certain type of video. This was how Twitch
took off, as well as how Discord originally marketed their chat service.

3\. Somehow make the service decentralised so no one pays all the costs. This
is how BitChute functions.

Either way, it's unlikely a startup or general business venture is going to be
what topples YouTube here.

