Introducing YouTube Plus

This post is in response to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O81xPS40Z6s

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Vimeo, it is a video sharing site similar to YouTube. It has its strengths and weaknesses, as everything does, and it does certain things better and certain things worse than YouTube does.

To list some of the things it does better: HD video streaming, a welcoming interface, less competition, and custom thumbnails and URLs!

The cons: smaller audience, no chance to make money from the videos, segregation among users, no customizable channel pages.

I know, it seems awesome. Did you catch when I wrote “segregation among users” in the cons section? Were you scratching your head wondering what I meant? The thing about Vimeo is that there are Basic, Plus, and Pro accounts offered.

The Basic is free, Plus is $59.95 per year (or $9.95 monthly), and Pro is $199 per year. Different features are offered for different packages, and bonuses are mainly data-based, not cosmetically, such as on YouTube between Partners and non-Partners. For example, when it comes to HD uploading Basic accounts can upload 1 video per week, while a Plus account has unlimited HD uploading, which the Pro also shares. The Basic account allows for 500MB of video to be uploaded per week, while the Vimeo Plus grants 5GB per week, and the Pro account allows for 50GB!

To see more of these features, you can visit:
Plus: http://vimeo.com/plus
Pro: http://vimeo.com/pro

Quinn, also known as ThatSnazzyiPhoneGuy or SnazzyQ, from SnazzyLabs and Snazzy.FM recently published a video about how YouTube should introduce something like Vimeo’s Plus feature, for the same approximate $10.00 a month. You can view that video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O81xPS40Z6s

He brings up the valid points that many Partners would pay the small fee in order to have the features that Vimeo offers. That may well be relevant for Partners bringing in the money to pay for that, but what about those who want to remain competitive Partners, but who are recent Partners who can’t afford to pay that because they’re making barely any money? Not to mention the non-Partners struggling to make a name for themselves!

Is it really fair to divide the Partners and non-Partners even further? Or to divide the non-Partners who can’t afford that from the non-Partners who can, giving those who can a leg up on their competition?

I love Vimeo. I have an account, which you can find here: http://www.Vimeo.com/ShawReviews! I have a custom URL, just from using the Basic account! I love it! It has an upbeat, friendly interface that is genuinely awesome, which is why I think that those on Vimeo who want to pay $9.95/month for Plus or $199 for Pro should do so, because Vimeo needs that money to stay afloat as they are and plan on staying independently run.

However, YouTube has support from Google. They’re already raking in cash! They don’t need to charge more money to stay afloat, because they’re already flying, and doing so would only further alienate non-Partners.

If you have an opinion on this proposition, leave your comments below or contact me via Twitter: (http://www.Twitter.com/ShawReviews), or have a look at my Vimeo account: (http://www.Vimeo.com/ShawReviews)!