Today we ll talk about the coolest and largest video hosting sites in the world.
What is video hosting and what is it used for?
Video hosting is an online platform where you can post videos. That is, these are services such as YouTube and hundreds of its analogues. Sites where you can upload the video, and it will be seen by millions of viewers.
From a business point of view, video hosting is an additional way to communicate with the audience, promote your own brand, advertise yourself, increase customer loyalty and perform a lot of other marketing tasks. Video hosting is used by large corporations and aspiring entrepreneurs. For both, it is an effective tool that makes money when used properly.
Why publish videos on the Internet?
If you are a blogger, musician, artist, or just a person who has something to show and tell, then video hosting can be a great way to make money for you. Almost all video publishing platforms provide content creators with multiple ways to monetize content. For example, demonstration of advertising pre-rolls before the start of a video or in the middle. Or advertising integrations (when a conditional blogger is asked to casually mention a product in a good way and recommend).
If you are an entrepreneur, publishing content on a video hosting site will allow you to attract a new audience, increase the level of loyalty of existing consumers and set up communication with clients and buyers who best perceive information in the video format.
And you can also use video hosting as storage so as not to pay for the cloud.
How to choose a video hosting?
When choosing a video hosting service, you need to consider a number of criteria:
A country where video hosting is more popular. You need to choose a venue with the most potential viewers.
The general direction of development of the platform for video publishing. YouTube, for example, is versatile and doesn t box itself. But Vimeo, so historically, has turned into a service for placing beautiful commercials, short films and other “near-elite” content.
Video hosting should provide a specialized control panel for the development of business channels.
It is essential that a large number of people regularly visit the platform.
There should be mechanisms for monetizing published videos.
It is desirable that the video hosting rules do not have strict restrictions on the volume of published content (the length of videos and their number).
If there is integration with social networks, or at least mechanisms for embedding videos on other sites, then this is a big plus.
It is important for business that the site has a mechanism for tracking analytical data (demographics of viewers, etc.).
These are the options good video hosting sites should have.
The most popular hosting in the world
Now let s discuss the sites directly.
Youtube
Needs no introduction. The most popular, most effective and most profitable video publishing platform on the web with a huge content base, which is replenished with terabytes of new products every day.
From a user point of view, YouTube is good because there are collected top bloggers and there is always something to see, including thanks to recommendations. For business, such a system is also beneficial.
Properly configured targeting allows you to find new audiences.
YouTube has all the tools you need to run your business: detailed channel statistics, embedded ads for content monetization, marketing mechanisms for channel development, etc.
TikTok
One of the most popular video hosting sites. Yes, in TikTok there is a limit on the duration of the video – no more than 3 minutes. But the limitations and specifics of the service have made it incredibly popular.
Here new types of content are born, memes are formed, teenagers are engaged in the popularization of progressive views, and deputies advertise themselves to the music of the singer Dora.
For business, this is an unplowed field. It is possible to promote a brand channel even without advertising, simply by correctly falling into trends and being in tune with the target audience and its interests.
Mark Zuckerberg s project, like all his brainchildren, tries to sit on all the chairs at the same time and be what it cannot be. Nevertheless, Facebook stands its ground and actively stuffs Instagram with video hosting functions.
There are three video formats on the social network at once: video in Stories, Reels and IGTV. The first ones are videos of different lengths without specific publishing rules, they are visible only to subscribers. The second – copy TikTok, the third – YouTube. You can use everything at once for maximum expansion on Instagram.
The main advantage of the Instagram video function (despite the fact that users are not particularly interested in it) is low competition. The authors are not eager to leave their warm spots on YouTube and TikTok.
Dailymotion
Video hosting popular in the west. The service is suitable for those who want to promote their product overseas through video, but do not want to suffer from the fierce competition on YouTube. Or he just wants to organize himself an additional source of income.
Dailymotion has technical limitations and challenges. You cannot upload videos larger than 4 GB and longer than 1 hour. And there are also problems with monetization (rewards do not always come).
Vimeo
Perhaps one of the more well-known competitors of YouTube. As I wrote above, Vimeo is associated more with creative content. There are no typical bloggers, humor or translations of threads from Reddit. There is a lot more art, witty advertisements, creative social videos, etc.
Unlike most of its competitors, Vimeo is a paid platform. The free version of the channel allows you to publish no more than one video per week, and then no more than a gigabyte in size. This will not be enough for effective promotion of your brand. So in any case, you have to fork out.
List of the most popular hosting in Russia
Now let s talk about video hosting services popular in Russia.
YouTube, TikTok, Instagram
We also use them. The advantages and disadvantages are the same. Competition is high, but if you do it well, then there are chances to “shoot”. So this is almost ideal for business.
Yandex.Zen and Yandex.Ether
Not so long ago, an analogue of YouTube appeared in Yandex.Zen. So far, this is an experimental project, but its essence is clear. There will be authors of texts, and there will be authors of video content. Monetization is naturally present.
The site is relatively new. So far, there is not much to compete with, but there are few users. In the future, there will be more of them, so large businesses will definitely get themselves channels in Yandex video services.
As for Ether, this is the Russian analogue of YouTube without surplus. He also tries to shoot and clogs Yandex search results with branded content that responds to user requests.
Single bloggers have nothing to do there. Unless you are doing some kind of secondary content, and it makes no sense to climb with it on conditional YouTube, because no one will watch.
In contact with
VKontakte has been a popular media platform since its inception. This is what remains today. Alas, there are few unique videos there, as well as bloggers who publish content exclusively on VK.
But this does not mean that there will be fewer competitors in VK. Videos from YouTube and other sites often go there.
For business, VK, as a video hosting, is not particularly interesting. Apart from the automatic playback of videos in the feed, there is nothing there that can radically positively affect the number of views and income.
classmates
Another social network teeming with videos of a wide variety of breeds. Technically, it is not much different from VKontakte. In terms of the type and quality of content, too, there is little unique here.
A business may be interested if it targets the category of users, which usually lives in Odnoklassniki and almost does not appear on other social networks and does not visit other video hosting sites.
RuTube
Quite a well-known Russian video hosting. Local analogue of YouTube, gradually turning into a rudiment on the body of the domestic Internet. Registration and placement of videos on the server is free, but the work with users is organized here terribly, in particular, due to inadequate marketing.
Users are rapidly leaving RuTube, because they sometimes prohibit skipping commercials, and then ask them to briefly retell them so that they can eventually watch the desired video.
List of Best Video Hosting Services for Business Promotion
In this ranking, the best will be the one who best meets the required business criteria.
If you need the most popular platform with a huge audience, then you need to aim at YouTube and think about what content can interest people and bring money.
For those who need advanced analytical tools, Wistia is the way to go.
Those looking for more “sublime†content should try Vimeo Pro.
TikTok is well suited for advertising. With a good targeting company, the “exhaust” will be noticeable.
If you need platforms with little competition, then you can try to develop within Instagram.
Where can I find free video hosting without registration?
Unfortunately, there are no hosting sites that meet two requirements at once. Now all more or less tolerable sites for publishing videos require registration, although they provide their services for free (unless they sell your data to advertisers and stuff it with this very advertisement before watching each video).
But if registering somewhere is unbearable, then you can use services for temporal storage of files in the spirit of Filebin. You can upload a video there, and it will be available for download to anyone who has a link to it. True, to view it, you will first have to download the video to your device.
Instead of a conclusion
Cool marketing strategies are always built on complex solutions, when several communication channels are used at once. Promotion by publishing on video hosting is one of them. This is an effective method to make your product more popular and more loyal to your audience. Therefore, it is so important to find your place in this niche as well.