There are plenty of alternatives for submitting videos, but YouTube has the content. The best option, IMO, is to consume YouTube videos in a way that doesn't track or monetize you, such as NewPipe (Android) and YouTube downloader.
Personally, I just don't watch YouTube much and prefer other entertainment sources. I read news on personal blogs, link aggregators (like HN), and newspaper sites, I have a streaming subscription, play video games, read books, etc. If I want to share a video with friends/family, I either email it or send a link to my NextCloud instance.
The hardest things for me to switch from has been Gmail and Google Docs, just because I have so much stuff already there.
You mean , attracts the content, because it's not their own. Youtube in the end is a service for submitting video, and other competitors may disrupt them if the p2p model works well in the future.
I think OP was speaking of the userbase + what the users submit. It's the same problem when you want to switch to a "privacy-oriented" chat client. What's the point of being alone to chat, when most of your social network is elsewhere and doesn't want to move a toe?
I also don't have friends or many subscriptions on YouTube, but the videos I can find on it are amazing, and that's due to their network effect as well. It drives me to search for stuff on YouTube before other places.
