Here Comes Vessel, A New Video Streaming Service That Will Compete With YouTube

It is high time YouTube encounters a competitor that perhaps might give it a run for its money. Or at least, shake things up a little bit. That new player is Vessel, which just launched very recently. Designed to compete directly with YouTube, Vessel's approach to video streaming is more of a temporary exclusivity type. Users will upload content to Vessel a few days before the same content appears on their regular YouTube accounts. Surprisingly, prominent YouTube users and other content creators (like TED Talks) have already signed up for Vessel.

But how much does it cost to sign up and get short-lived restricted access? That would be $2.99 a month. But if users sign up within the next 3 days, or are already part of the beta, they will get to have access for a full year completely free of charge.

What exactly makes Vessel different from YouTube? For one, it looks totally different from YouTube. Content is presented on a more graphically-oriented user interface. Whereas YouTube focuses on the specific channels users are subscribed to, Vessel shows videos according to genre or classification. 

There are still some similarities, of course. For example, you can still follow your favorite channels. However, they will be displayed in their respective genre feed, alongside other videos that Vessel thinks you might also be interested in. If users only want to watch a specific channel's content, they can still do so within that channel's own area.

There are also ads present, but they are mostly of the 5-second type. If you are tired of seeing those pesky 30-second ads pop up on YouTube, then Vessel will seem very refreshing for you.

But will Vessel take off with the masses? It would be really hard, almost impossible even, to knock YouTube off its pedestal. It is just far too established, too popular to be threatened. A few years back, Vimeo came into the field but never really got to YouTube's level in terms of usage and popularity. It is likely that Vessel won't affect YouTube's dominance that much.

But Vessel does offer something that is different. The main reason YouTube's competitors have not made that much of a mark is they pretty much are just YouTube clones. You can not say the same for Vessel. As far as video sharing platforms are concerned, Vessel is an entirely different product, in terms of functionality and style. It may not take away YouTube's place as king of videos, but at least it offers a different option for video content creators.