Is it time for a new YouTube?

YouTube, a video sharing website where people can upload share and comment on videos, has garnered much attention over the past half decade. YouTube is ranked as the third most visited site on the internet, behind Google and Facebook. The popular video site sees massive amounts of daily traffic, with nearly two-third of all videos viewed on the internet occur on YouTube. For all the success YouTube has seen, it still continues struggling to be profitable. Perhaps it is time to see some new reworking to the beloved site.


Created in 2005 by three former PayPal employees when they realized there was no easy way to share videos among people. Upon seeing YouTube's rapid growth and success, search engine giant Google decided to buy the small independent website for a staggering $1.65 billion. Many have since criticized the buyout because Google, after all these years, has still not found a way to make it truly profitable. As of recent, YouTube has taken steps to make it more profitable, with ads, renting videos and most recently movies.

Of course for all the good fortune that YouTube has, it has also suffered from its share of blemishes. From copyrighted material to inappropriate videos, there is always someone who seems to be upset at YouTube for the videos uploaded. Most recently YouTube bought the website Next New Networks in the hopes of producing original content. For all videos uploaded to YouTube, a staggering rate of 35 hours of videos uploaded per minute, only 30% of all videos make up 99% of all views.

Cue Japan's answer to Youtube, Nico Nico Douga. Launched in Japan in 2006, the Japanese video sharing site has seen tremendous growth as its counterpart YouTube. While not as big, ranking 15th most visited site in Japan, it perhaps has a more dedicated fan base than YouTube. What makes Nico Nico so special is the ability to post comments on top of the video. While a video is playing, comments scroll from right to left, or if they are a premium user they can get other functions than just the scrolling comments. These videos sometimes become popular not because of the video itself but rather the comments, from funny comments to timing the comments to a song, it makes it feel as if the viewer is watching it with many others at the same time.

Nico Nico's commenting system

Of course many people would be against paying for a service that is currently free. What makes Nico Nico Douga profitable is that it is free to watch videos but by paying you can upload videos and get extra benefits. These benefits are not like withholding content from a user such as today's video game DLC.

As mentioned earlier, YouTube's main videos come from a very small portion of the user base. Nico Nico promotes the unknown video rather than burying those precious gems. To make it big in YouTube it takes lots of luck, yet with Nico Nico if your video is good and creative it will be watched by many. One example is the MAD series on Nico Nico, it basically takes an anime and makes a montage to a tune, sometimes making the characters look like they are singing the song. The time and effort people put into their videos make it seem as if professionals made them. 

Almost on cue, Nico Nico Douga has released a beta version for English speakers. Niconico.com is the English equivalent of its Japanese counterpart. While this is very nice, it is a niche site, populated mainly by anime fans or those obsessed with Japan. Making changes similar to Nico Nico would help promote the countless videos uploaded to YouTube rather than keep on promoting those popular videos.

If you have any ideas on how YouTube could improve, feel free to leave a comment.