It is hard to find a person who is not aware of YouTube. With over 1.8 billion monthly users, YouTube is the second-ranked website on the globe. The Google-owned video sharing website is the most visited website in its category. Internet users watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos in a day, which is more than Netflix and videos on Facebook altogether. In a very short span of time, people are now spending more time watching YouTube videos on their Smart-TVs than content.
Indeed, YouTube’s unique business model has enticed users from all the spheres. Where normal users can relish watching videos, YouTube creators can create, upload, share, and earn fame from their creations on an excellent video sharing platform. Where creators can earn money from YouTube Ads, brands can lift their video marketing campaigns by collaborating with the YouTube influencers. The best part is the YouTube business plan offers incredible returns to every kind of user on its platform. Who would not love a single repository of entertainment, gaming, learning, gossip, movies, music, and earning at the same time? The question of the hour is…
Can you Make a Website like YouTube of Your Own?
Optimistically, Yes!
It is 2018. Today, you would face a much lesser hard time than YouTube must have faced while creating their website for the first time. With the advancement in technology and information sharing becoming extremely accessible via the internet, you can consume an infinity of resources and knowledge to create a video sharing website like YouTube with almost zero coding.
How Much Does it Cost to Make a Website like YouTube?
Honestly, it depends!
It depends on various factors such as business model, website technology, the scale of the business and website, streaming engines & servers, prime targets for the user base, and much more. This article will explain two major methods to create a video sharing website like YouTube.
However, before that, it is exceedingly crucial to comprehend four important aspects of the YouTube business model and of other video sharing websites like YouTube-
• How YouTube advanced a monopoly in free video sharing platforms? • Would users appreciate a new video sharing website or YouTube alternatives? • How sites like YouTube make money streaming free videos? • Who are the prime targets of a video sharing website like YouTube?
Video Sharing and YouTube Monopoly:
Can you beat YouTube’s monopoly in video streaming business?
YouTube was not this big a decade ago. In fact, it was nothing. People mocked Google for buying the video sharing platform for $1.65 billion. Today, according to a leading analyst at Google, a year ago, if YouTube were a stock, it would be worth $75 billion. It is safe to assume its net worth is more than $100 billion as of today.
Let us consider the YouTube business model here. Here is what YouTube offers-
• Unlimited hosting of video content in maximum resolution. • Dynamic re-encoding of videos to enjoy buffer-less streaming on all bandwidths across different devices. • 15 data-centers and streaming servers around the globe for lowest latency and least buffering. • Video content enhancement using latest tech. For example, 60 fps streaming. • Live streaming and VOD on the same platform. • More than 300 hours of videos are uploaded every minute.
YouTube offers all this as free of cost. Now, I ask you, do you think, YouTube is going away anytime sooner with all these? In less than a decade, YouTube has captured a major section of the video streaming market. At least a startup backed by a partial YouTube Clone would not compete with the Google-supported business, but that does not mean a video sharing website like YouTube cannot survive until YouTube is there. This brings to our next aspect.
Drawbacks of your Biggest Competitor- YouTube:
Lack of Niche-
If you look at the YouTube business model for users, it is a place for all kinds of videos. We cannot say that YouTube has a niche. However, the channel-based model allows YouTube creators to choose a niche for their videos, it is still not very micro-personalized to cater to a particular group of audience.
Fake and Unethical Content-
YouTube’s model to accommodate all kinds of videos, in one hand makes it suitable for all kinds of users; it is a drawback at the same time too. The platform has become a home of Fake News and conspiracy theories. Even YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki admits they face a tough time filtering out Fake news and other unethical content from the platform. A platform free of cost and accommodating everything is more of a clutter than being useful in many instances. Except for many genuine creators, YouTube has become a home of unethical channel owners who would do anything to gain more views and earn money from Ads.
Despite YouTube’s consistent vigilance, it is still full of unethical videos, Fake News, Click-baits, plagiarized content and much more. With these, users who want to see some genuine and useful stuff find a hard time filtering out the valuable content. Hence, one cannot deny the degraded user experience of genuine YouTube consumers.
Too Big to Keep an Eye on Everything-
Problem with YouTube is it is the biggest database of videos on the globe. Despite all their efforts, it is not possible to keep an eye on everything that is happening in the YouTube community. Neither it is possible to inspect 300 hours of videos being uploaded every single minute.
As a result, there are millions of videos on YouTube, which look like versions of popular animations and cartoon shows, but contain unethical and disturbing content. Such content is not suitable for children. If you do not pay a close attention, you would not find if your kid is watching a Peppa pig video or a fake animation that contains content unsuitable for kids. Problem is not just with the animations and cartoon videos. There are many contents still on YouTube, which are not suitable for many kinds of users.
Business Opportunity in YouTube’s Drawbacks:
If you think you have a plan to overcome the above drawbacks, and you can build a similar business but with a more personalized user experience, go ahead, this article is for you.
It is a fact that despite all these drawbacks, it is not easy to beat YouTube as a competitor. However, if you can come up with a similar platform with most of the drawbacks eliminated, a website like YouTube’s is not tough to achieve. You can do that by moving one-step after another-
Step 1: YouTube Business Model-
YouTube follows a hybrid revenue model. It utilizes a combination of-
–Ad Revenue Model: Charges from brands for video Ads.
–Subscription Revenue Model: Charges from users for Ad-free videos in YouTube Premium/Red.
–Transaction Revenue Model: Charges from users for individual premium content.
If you intend to create a video sharing website like YouTube, having these three revenue models is necessary. By following this hybrid model alone YouTube is able to entice every kind of user on its platform. However, it is also a notable fact that a major section of the revenue is generated through Ads only. Other two models are not that popular as AVOD is on YouTube. By following this model itself, YouTube creators earn from the platform.
Step 2: Prime Target Customers of Video Sharing Websites:
For a free video sharing and streaming platform like YouTube, the range of target customers is not limited. As discussed, it is also one of the major drawbacks of the platform, where many users face a hard time discovering some good and relevant content.
You can develop a niche for your own free platform, and utilize a similar audience targeting like YouTube under your own niche. A video site like YouTube retains three major target groups:
• Seekers-
These are the users visiting the site in search of video content. These people consume the videos on the website, also called as end-users.
• Creators and Amplifiers-
This group consists of two types of people. Creators, who produce video content for the consumers, and the Amplifiers who are popular influencers on social media. These influencers utilize their popularity to boost up videos so that they can reach the maximum audience. These amplifiers could be social media celebrities, actors, sports stars, etc. whose videos fans continuously await.
• Marketers
This group of users includes marketing firms and brands whose Ads run with the free videos. Site analytics is used to dynamically decide the target audience for the Ad and marketing videos.
Two ways to Create a Video Sharing Website like YouTube:
If we talk about the scenario a decade ago, building a website of your own was indeed a big task. There were people with good business ideas but not the technical expertise. Many aspiring entrepreneurs tried and failed. What we see today as internet giants like Tinder, Amazon, Netflix, and Uber, we cannot imagine the challenges they might have faced.
However, today, building even a huge website like YouTube is not a very tough nut to crack. For YouTube alone, there are two approaches to build your own YouTube-like website.
• Building from Scratch or • Going for Turnkey solutions
What is the difference here?
In the first approach, you would require a technical expertise plus a team of experts from different fields to develop a YouTube-like website from scratch. You would be responsible for market research, business requirement study, the latest security updates, streaming engines, data centers, website hosting, everything one can imagine for building a website.
On the other hand, the second approach utilizes the concept of “not re-inventing the wheel, when you can buy a wheel to build your own cart”. There are various software vendors who have already developed websites like YouTube- also called YouTube Clone scripts. An efficient YouTube clone comes ready-made with all the required features that are present in original YouTube. In fact, they also mimic the exact revenue models of the video sharing giant. Let us compare the two approaches in the following table to find out the things you need to do to build a website like YouTube.
Ready-made YouTube clone Script Vs Custom Development from Scratch.
Requirement
Did Netflix Clone have it already?
Remark
1
Web RTC for computer and mobile web browsers
The WebRTC is responsive to multiple screen sizes
2
App support Android phones
The script comes with a Native Android mobile app
3
App support for Apple phones
Native iOS mobile app is available
4
Subscription-based business model
Base script supports both subscription-based and pay-per-view models
5
Browsing behavior tracking and suggestion of recommended content to users
All platforms support the feature by default
6
on-site transactions safety
Integrated PayPal payment gateway
7
Analytics to track video performance
Integrated Google Analytics
8
Coupon Management System
Present by default
9
Commissions Management System
Present by default. Admin can update direct commission charges or percentage cuts.
10
Social login
Facebook and Google Plus API
Why Opt for YouTube Clone Script to Make a Website like YouTube?
As explained in the comparison above, clone scripts can come in handy saving a lot of time, money, and efforts required in creating a YouTube-like Website. Moreover, the cost of managing a whole team of developers, and industry experts would increase the total cost when we add the cost of developing your own server and CDN infrastructure.
Indeed, YouTube works so smoothly because it has its own team and server infrastructure, but it is not necessary to have it all in the very beginning itself. First get in the industry, understand the youtube business model, and comprehend the competition and opportunities. You can later integrate all other stuff as your business grows. When you can offer even a better user experience to your users without spending much, why should you beat around the bush doing what already been done?
Requirements for an Efficient YouTube Clone Script
You should consider these aspects and requirements, and tally them with whatever YouTube clone script you come across during your search-
By-default Features for Users of Sites like YouTube
• Create channels • Upload videos to the channels • Upload videos in compressed format for quick upload • Manage uploaded videos • Subscribe to multiple channels • Like and Dislike videos • Comment on videos • Create Playlists • Browse shared playlists • Allow normal users to become channel owners • Flag other users and their activities • Add videos to watch later • Dynamic video transcoding for adapting browsing in low internet bandwidth • Responsive video player with all basic playback controls
Admin Friendly features in a YouTube Clone Script:
• Ads Management • Earn from the banner Ads • Earn from embedded video Ads • Earn from membership plans • Earn from Premium content • Receive and make Payments through integrated payment gateways • Android App for a smooth mobile experience • SEO optimized site • Dynamic dashboard • Video analytics • Users Analytics • Integration with Google Analytics • Access to take down users’ videos
Create a Video Sharing Website of Your Own and Start Earning:
Online video streaming is growing rapidly. One-third of the internet traffic is for videos only. If video streaming business like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime, can grow with their unique propositions, why can’t yours? The need and requirement for video content are infinite. People will never stop watching videos. You just need offering something unique and interesting, and they will come to your site too.
Just remember that users these days are not just limited to entertainment alone. You will find an array of people with limitless intensions like learning, news, product reviews, research, gossip, and many more. If your business plan involves anything interesting for them, you will want to host those videos and earn by giving maximum exposure to them.
