IBT Online has reviewed OVP performance criteria and we define nine metrics for your analysis, all to help you decide which OVP is best for your business. The metrics are: 1) community 2) search engine 3) cost 4) formats supported 5) analytics 6) academy 7) plugins and 8) integration. And, last but not least from the IBT Online perspective and as the Online Global service program demands, 9) how effective is that OVP globally? Now let’s grade the leading OVPs:
There are two standalone OVP providers that stand head and shoulders above the rest:
1. YouTube - is by far the stand out video platform leader. In terms of community there is no rival as YouTube states: “YouTube has over a billion users–almost a third of all people on the internet–and every day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of YouTube videos and generate billions of views”. From a search engine perspective YouTube is unavoidable, as it is the 2nd largest search engine on the internet! In terms of direct cost; it’s free! Analytics has improved and there is a Creator Academy (again free). There are a huge number of plugins. But we do have two reservations: the first is the YouTube “vortex”, getting lost between advert placements, competitor videos, lack of control and the volume and speed of the platform. The second reservation concerns the limited integration choices. And finally from an IBT Online Global perspective “YouTube has launched local versions in more than 88 countries. You can navigate YouTube in a total of 76 different languages (covering 95% of the Internet population).” So YouTube definitely operates on the global scale!
Comparing the two: Facebook video statistics put the amount of Facebook videos watched at 100M hours per day (Omnicore, 2020), while Render Forest reports that YouTube earns roughly 10 times that amount (1 Billion hours). So tailor the length of you videos to user behavioral data.
Image source: Renderforest
And then the rest, there are many hundred OVPs, each with specific strengths and weaknesses. Here are a few of the leaders:
3. Instagram - At >1 billion people worldwide, a strong community of visual (capture and share) storytellers with live-stream video, video streams, photos. As the 6th largest social media platform, globally, 89% of Instagram users are located from outside the US. From a business perspective, >5 million businesses worldwide “tell their stories at the center of visual discovery”.
4. Tik Tok - Owned by Chinese parent-company, ByteDance, Tik Tok made its debut in September of 2016, and their unprecedented growth hasn't stopped since. As of January 2020, Tik Tok has seen number as high as >800 million monthly active users around the globe, with the large majority of users being in overseas markets. Tik Tok is has created undeniable success in the video platform market, across the globe, and it is here to stay. Whether you are looking at building your domestic audience, or looking at China or India, for example, this should be a priority online video platform.
Image source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tik-tok-statistics/#1
5. Snapchat - Snapchat video marketing relevancy has increased monumentally since its debut in 2011. After evolving from only picture-sending, and video-recording restrictions to Snapchat stories, video marketing on this app has skyrocketed. Snapchat stories - where celebrities, businesses, and news now dominate a platform created to adapt a more personal feel to the 203 million daily users. Creating a business profile is simple, and creating video content to market can be creative and useful for your desired target market. Check out this page on how to efficiently market on the app.
6. Periscope - Twitter’s live-streaming video app (to deal with Meerkat), was late to the game (launched 02.2015). However, Periscope has a much bigger share in the all-important 16-through-24 age as compared to Meerkat (Omnicore, 2020). It allows people to live-broadcast via their Twitter feeds. Keyvon Beykpour, Periscope’s co-founder noted: “We think we’re building a teleportation product,”. Technically very well reviewed.
7. Dailymotion - users can upload, watch and share videos, available all around the world, in 18 different languages and 35 localized versions.
8. Vimeo - “Over 45 million people and businesses trust Vimeo” provides an insight into Vimeo’s reach as the 2nd biggest player. Great search, categories, channels, groups… Cost moves from free to freemium to Vimeo Business at $60/month. “Your videos will look their best across tons of devices. Stream on mobile, tablet, and TV in our gorgeous, ad-free player, which supports 4K Ultra HD and 360 video”. There is no question Vimeo is loved by the professional video creators for its quality, ability to be creative the music and so on. Their video school...probably the best arty tutorials.
9. Wistia - Software built specifically for businesses to grow their brand awareness, attract new and maintain existing customers. Wistia has a library and blog feature with lots of great tutorials. Videos are easy to track marketing performance, built-in analytics and video marketing tools providing detailed statistics and measurements of engagement online. Cost: $25/month for 25 videos! Globally, the delivery network (>150,000 servers worldwide) provides viewers great playback experience.
In conclusion, do check out these leading OVPs. There is lots to learn and you will come to conclusions as to what works best for your business. With YouTube and Facebook, there is no escaping their sheer community size, search scope, cost etc., so you just have to be there. But it is the next level OVPs that are a lot less obvious, demanding some sort of strength/weakness evaluation, review and then testing. Finally think through the cost of implementation and most importantly extrication, as exiting from an OVP can be a difficult and costly process. Best to get this right (as always) first time! So now it is up to us to wish you and your videos huge success, may you go viral!