Techcrunch has an interesting analysis this morning, comparing all the copy-cats of a potential Flickr for video. It starts like this:
“ I’ve been tracking a number of sites that offer flickr-like services for video.
I’ve taken a look at as many of these services that I could find. The most well known is YouTube, which we profiled in August and which recently raised venture money from Sequoia.
But there are at least eight others worth looking at as well. In addition to YouTube, these are CastPost, ClipShack, DailyMotion, Grouper, OurMedia, Revver, Vimeo and vSocial.”
He goes on to summarily compare them in this chart:
His summary: “ Which product is best for you depends on what types of features are most important to you. ”
My summary is that too much choice kills choice and dilutes the value proposition. Until you get a clear product/service that clearly brings value to the customer, that has a clear competitive advantage, all these services will compete on a new feature every week. And, except for Revver, business models are not adressed here: the company that will generate the most cash-flow and use it to grow its subscriber base will probably win in the end. Nevertheless, with $5m in the bank, Youtube is ahead in the game already.
