If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, YouTube must be feeling good about itself. There are a staggering 173 vlog outlets today. Notable rivals include OurMedia.org, a not-for-profit Web site for videos and other content, videoblogger.org, Blip.tv, Open Media Network, etc.
YouTube, the current leader of the pack:
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- has 12.5 million visitors a month
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- serves more than 50 million videos a day
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- accepts 40,000 new videos per day
TechCrunch profiled YouTube last August, calling it flickr for videos. San Jose Mercury News last month reported that YouTube and other video-sharing Web sites signal a shift in the way entertainment will be made and consumed in the future. They’re creating a new form of television that’s “at once personal, grass-roots and unfettered.”
In other words, we’re entering a consumer-control era: “viewers are gaining the autonomy to choose what, when and where they watch — be it on an iPod, laptop or desktop computer,” with the emergence of technology for easily sharing video over the Internet. J.D. Lasica, executive director of Ourmedia, said, “People don’t want to be the next Spielberg but they want to express themselves.” And boy, express themselves they do - the masses are getting an opportunity to create and experiment with video while bypassing the central filter of a TV network.
Interesting refrain of “expressing yourself“, the quintessential American culture.