If you don't want to read the article Alternatives to YouTube, here is the podcast to listen to:
After explaining why not trusting Google for searches and the alternatives to Whatsapptoday we want to try to give you solutions as alternatives to YouTube.
We advise you not to skip the preamble of why YouTube should be boycotted in 2021, if you really don't care, click here for the only 5 real alternatives to YouTube.
Interesting as if you Googled 'Alternatives to Youtube' what Google suggestsbased on the sites that Google itself lists at the top of the search results, are at 90% platforms of US origin or part of the 5-eyes (or at least 14-eyes)
With the exception of D.tube, which only comes once... will it be a Googlebot glitch?
In this article we will look at alternatives to YouTube:
Why an alternative to YouTube?
There are many reasons why you should choose an alternative to YouTube... but let's focus mainly on four.
a) Dangerous monopoly and unfair competition
Google is part of Alphabet and has billions of users to whom it offers services, almost always for free, costing it a total of (in 2019) almost 128 billion.
It is the (world) market leader or at least a major provider for many services that billions of people use every day:
- operating systems (android and chromium),
- browser (chrome),
- translation (translator),
- search engine (google)
- email and calendar (gmail and calendar),
- host/file manager (google drive),
- video calls (google chat, duo and hangout),
- streaming videos (Youtube for instance),
- maps and street location (maps),
- app shop (playstore),
and much more.
Not to mention all the platforms for webmasters (recaptcha, google ads, search console, analytics, tag manager, optimise,..).
In short, even leaving aside their obscure and threatening privacy policy… it is fundamentally wrong economically that so many services, used by billions of users, are led by the same entity.
In fact, it is a forced monopoly as regards the main services (OS, browser, search engine, captcha, email, translation, app shop, maps, video hosting,...)
Why forced, this is a question to ask why choose alternatives to YouTube?
Well, because in fact, now that they have a monopoly they are starting to undermine little competition with unfair competition practices.
Here are some examples of what we are claiming and therefore why we should look for alternatives to YouTube.
Example 1:
Google translator is no longer available in other browsers but only in Chrome. This poses little choice for those people who perhaps do not speak English or the language of the content offered on the site is not understood. The only option for them if they want the content translated on the fly while surfing is to use Chrome. Fairly unfair given that Google Translator has become what it is, thanks to people's analysed data (conversations, translations, corrections, input from billions of users over the last 10 years).
Example 2:
Google Chrome cannot be uninstalled from Android or Chrome OS.
Example 3:
In any privacy-safe browser (firefox, waterfox, epic, brave,...) you struggle to complete the captcha. But with Chrome it almost never appears.
Example 4:
If you are connected (logged in) with any google app in your browser (e.g. gmail, youtube, etc.), the cookie is seen by Google Search and all your searches are logged in (yes... even if you deactivate this function in Google Account Settings).
Example 5:
With Google Optimise, you cannot preview variants unless you use Chrome.
These are just examples of subtle (and incorrect) inconveniences that Google uses to further extend its hegemony and spy on you all round.
b) Compensation to content creators in decline
The second reason for choosing alternatives to YouTube is precisely this.
In the 16 years or so of its existence, YouTube has paid its content creators less and less, although its earnings have increased dramatically.
Paradoxically, this is precisely because of the content made available by its users.
In short, users take dozens of hours: they create the content, edit it and promote it...
Youtube only puts in the platform to distribute it, and although that, it takes 45% on each of your earnings (as far as CPM is concerned).
You don't even earn 1$ net on 1000 views... but only those where the user watches more than 30 seconds and interacts with the ads.
Not only that... you must be able to activate monetisation on your videos!
Your videos must have reached at least 4,000 total hours of views across all your videos and you must have at least 1,000 subscribers to your channel to monetise them.
Which is almost a feat in 2021 with the competition that exists.
It can be said that nowadays almost 99% of the content creators on YouTube are exploited or paid very little.
Only 1% is compensated, the so-called influencers, who in any case usually only make a living from the products they advertise or review (not from what Google pays them in CPM).
(c) Censorship
The third point for choosing alternatives to YouTube is censorship.
Youtube is becoming famous for very easily censor content they do not like... and we are not talking about underage, violent or racial content...
Politicians, activists, ecologists, doctors, scientists, and opinion leaders of all kinds who expressed their opinions on the portal and did not like Google's AI algorithmthey saw their video simply censored:
And especially in 2020-2021 and about COVID, vaccines, pandemic, etc....
In short, the problem highlighted in point a) shows its effects in this point and the next.
d) Advertising
The last point for choosing alternatives to YouTube concerns advertising.
Well... you would have noticed... she simply became unbearable.
Ads getting longer and longer at the beginning of each video, increasingly difficult to bypass with an adblocker and even in the middle of playback!
The fake alternatives to YouTube
So, in this part we reveal what we think are some fake alternatives to YouTube, many of which are famous but They are NOT really alternatives:
- Vevo - American company, founded by the biggest record companies on the planet: Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and EMI.... with also big deals with Warner Music Group (WMG). Easy to see why it is not exactly a censorship-free platform 😉
- Veoh - an American company that went bankrupt after several complaints, was acquired by Qlipso, an Israeli-American company founded by videogamers... you be the judge...
- Vimeo - Another American company that is part of IACa holding company that owns dozens of brands (including Ask Media Group, Investopedia, HomeAdvisor, Lifewire,...). In short, back to the USA, back to a centralised platform in a single multinational with dozens of subsidiaries...
- Twitch - Amazon's part... never mind. No comment.
- 9gag - Hong Kong company but founded with US (Silicon valley capitals) and incubated by Y-combinator (also US).
- DailyMotion - DailyMotion is not so different from YouTube. It is part of Vivendi, a huge multinational company with a turnover of +15 billion a year and many subsidiaries with arms all over the world and in every branch of entertainment.
Vivendi is both a TV and film producer (Canal+), book publisher (Editis), video game creator (Gameloft), record label (Universal Music Group) and advertising and PR agency (Havas).
Small insert... Universal Music Group is the world's largest record label which, together with Sony Music and Warner Music Group, produces practically 70% of world music.
- MetaCafe - A partner of Google. If you know English you will already understand everything from this image taken from their PrivacyPolicy:
The 5 only real alternatives to YouTube
That said, here are some real alternatives to YouTube that respect your privacy, that of the content creators, and that do not censor it.
We have made a careful selection for you of alternatives to YouTube, taking into consideration various aspects such as:
- favouring decentralised ones (p2p or blockchain technology-based)
- whether there is a company behind it, its history and vision
- its policy with respect to censorship and freedom of expression
- its policy in terms of advertising (if any) and in terms of remuneration to creators
1) Peer.Tube
https://peer.tube/
Fully decentralised, P2P-based and supported by a non-profit community named Framasoft. It uses ActivityPub and the WebTorrent protocol, so it offloads part of the traffic to P2P servers when users watch videos.
2) D.Tube
https://d.tube/
Fully decentralised, based on P2P and blockchain (which in turn is based on Steemit) and completely open source. Statistics and data are visible to anyone.
3) Invidious
https://invidious.site/
Also P2P-based and open source. You won't find a lot of content but what there is is very good.
4) BitChute
https://www.bitchute.com/
Partly P2P-based, partly with a company of British origin behind it (therefore still part of of the 5-eyes) but from the guidelines, dictated by the community, regarding content very large.
5) Rumble
It was conceived in 2013 as a YouTube without censorship: in fact, apart from pornographic, harassing, racist or 'illegal' (according to their TOS) content, everything else is allowed. However, the company is Canadian, so part of the 5-eyes.
It is also worth mentioning:
NewPipe e FreeTube - They are open source apps that deliver YouTube videos to your phone, without all the awkward Google part (advertising, data collection, tracking habits, etc.). https://newpipe.net/ e https://freetubeapp.io/
PrivacyTools Tube - Based on PeerTube, thus open source and decentralised, it collects a multitude of videos on the topic of privacy. https://tube.privacytools.io
MediaGoblin, Libry and WebTorrent - Not real alternatives to YouTube as they are not 'platforms' easily accessible from the navigation bar. Let's say they are not for everyone... one has to be at least a little 'nerdy' to use them ;).
https://mediagoblin.org/
https://lbry.com/
https://webtorrent.io/desktop/
BrandNewTube - Alternative tuber that hosts content of all kinds and outside the box. The domain is registered in the USA, the company seems to be UK, the host is Turkish and the server in Ukraina. Quite a mix... but the alternative looks good.
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