As I am busy with the final design stage of the Interactive Mobile Web Platform, I have noted the two main big players competing over video hosting “FREE” facility – YouTube and Vimeo. Since this is going to be one of the main important decisions to be made by different role players interested on this proposed platform for the SMME community within the developing economies, I thought of writing an article for clarification purposes. However, I came across with well-written articles from various experts, tech hobbyists and open-source enthusiasts like myself, which might be of great benefit for the subject at hand.

One of the latest articles I thought it’s more relevant from what I needed to share with the SMME community is by Jessie Lahaie, posted through her blog on 27 September 2016. In a similar line of thoughts, Jessie has identified two of the most popular hosting platforms being adopted today by different role players within the media, entertainment and communication industries.

YouTube and Vimeo are by far the most established hosting platforms for video productions, providing great options, preferences and convenience to the end users. These two video hosting platforms make it more convenience and simpler to host videos without compromising the video experience, especially the delays owing to the location of video storage.

However, also noted by Kevin King on his blog post on 15 September 2014: big differences exist between YouTube and Vimeo when it comes to personal choices, preferences and convenience on the overall user experience when interacting with both YouTube and Vimeo. Therefore, it is critical that the SMME community, more especially to the members who have shown interest on the proposed Interactive Mobile Web Platform to understand the differences existing between hosting a video on YouTube and Vimeo platforms.

I like how Jessie actually approached the question of which platform is best for video hosting platform. She looked at the target audience and provided a very pertinent guidance based on the fact that YouTube and Vimeo have different communities of users. However, the bottom line is that YouTube has a very large community-based viewership but then there is a question of quality versus quantity. Similarly, Vimeo requires membership but also offers basic (free) and limited membership options. In most cases, this basic service offered by Vimeo may be more than enough for small business owners.

The recommendation is that the SMME community should first focus on the end user, which is interacting with his or her own platform whilst taking into account the preferences, choices and conveniences available to the target community.

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