What was before YouTube? A creator‘s guide to the early online video landscape

As a passionate gamer and content creator who has built my brand on YouTube, it‘s always fascinating to look back at what the online video world was like BC: Before YouTube. I remember the early days of scouring file sharing sites and sketchy hosting platforms to share gameplay moments and finds with my friends. So what were those pre-YouTube platforms, and why didn‘t they reach the incredible scale and community that YouTube did? Grab some Doritos and a vintage Mountain Dew as we dive into the wayback machine!

The primordial ooze: Early video sharing & streaming

YouTube may seem inextricable from internet culture now, but online video is far from straightforward, especially in the dark ages of the mid 90s. I still remember when 28.8k modems were a big deal – streaming HD video on that? Yeah right!

The first spark of user-generated video came with ShareYourWorld launching in 1997. Finally a platform for uploading video clips and files! But between limited bandwidth, iffy compression, and barely-capable processors, watching them was basically impossible. The tech just wasn‘t there yet.

Over the next few years, companies kept taking stabs at video, trying to make it work. Xing Technology developed streaming for businesses with its clunky "Streamworks" in the late 90s, while Starworks somehow delivered on-demand MPEGs over ethernet. Even RealPlayer got in on the action. But for us gamers and creators, options to share our glorious gameplay moments were still niche at best.

Early competitors emerge

By the early 2000s, technology caught up enough for some legit consumer video sites to emerge. I lapped up every bite-sized clip I could find about the iconic XBox launch on platforms like iFilm and IFILM. But uploading my own videos? Not a chance.

Then came Google Video in 2005. Google Video — or actually, Google Videos plural — let everyday users finally upload video. Well, if you consider 20 minute limits and clunky file requirements "easy". They expected us to transcode videos ourselves! And forget commenting or sharing – the only way to show your friends a video was copying and pasting the link. Still, it was a taste of the potential out there.

Google Videos got some competition too as sites like Vimeo, Blip, Grouper, and even Yahoo Video popped up. And of course we can‘t forget YouTube coming on the scene in 2005 too, though it was still in diapers compared to the powerhouse it became.

So by 2005, we finally had options to share videos online. But these sites still had major limitations on length, format, and bitrates – not to mention actually finding an audience as a creator. Bring on Web 2.0!

The YouTube revolution

YouTube changed all the rules. When it launched in 2005, I was blown away by how quick and easy it was to share videos regardless of format, length, or size. And the community features – search, comments, response videos – made it explode.

Suddenly our crappy gameplay clips had thousands of views! I fondly remember the janky videos we produced on this upstart platform playing games like Doom and Quake. It felt revolutionary, like we‘d found the future in some nondescript startup.

So why did YouTube trounce the competition when previous platforms failed? A few key innovations:

Transcoding and streaming: YouTube‘s player could handle just about any format and resolution without making you prepare files first. And unlike the download-to-watch model of predecessors, YouTube streamed seamlessly.

This was huge. With average internet speeds around 2 Mbps in 2005, streaming unlocked content consumption for the masses. No muss, no fuss!

User focus: Where sites like Google Video catered to commercial entities, YouTube made it dead simple for us creators and consumers to throw videos up fast. Everyone was empowered to have a channel.

Social engagement: YouTube tapped into social in a way no platform had. Easy commenting, embeds, and responses let communities form around videos. I loved shouting out other creators and having real back-and-forth with viewers.

These factors helped YouTube completely dominate after 2006. Early competitors stood no chance once YouTube got mainstream traction and Google bought them for $1.6 billion the next year. Streisand effect to the extreme!

Here‘s a glimpse at how viewership and market share shook out across platforms:

And for creators specifically, YouTube rapidly became the essential platform for building an audience:

Sure, competitors like Vimeo and Dailymotion popped up hoping to siphon off some of YouTube‘s traction. And streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu found niche markets around premium movies and shows.

But 15 years later, nothing touches YouTube‘s ubiquity and sheer amount of video content: Over 30 million channels and 500 hours of fresh footage uploaded every minute! And for me as both a creator and viewer, I still haven‘t found a platform that rivals the vibrant community fostered on YouTube since its meteoric rise.

So for those of us creators who joined in the wild early days without much choice in video platforms, the YouTube revolution was the big bang moment that changed everything. Practically overnight we could find viewers, get feedback, and have real back-and-forth at a scale never imagined. Now that‘s what I call disruption – ain‘t technology grand?

And if you made it this far browsing video game history – hey, drop a subscribe why dontcha? Now if you‘ll excuse me, I‘ve got some Quake multiplayer footage to render…