Video is a great way to provide customer education and support sales and marketing activities. With the growing penetration of broadband and the dozens of video hosting services, it’s easier than ever to publish and distribute your videos to your market.
Unfortunately, not all video hosting services are created equally. For example, many of these services are based in USA and so videos can take longer to load when viewing them here in Malaysia. Now that I’ve started producing more videos for Buzzmedia (see my first one here) I’ve had to do some research on the different options we have here in Malaysia.
Video hosting comparison
It wasn’t as simple as I thought and I wanted to share the pros and cons of each service. In my research, I looked at YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv and Facebook video and weighed them against the following criteria: speed, video quality, terms of service and upload limitations.
Speed
Probably the most important factor when considering on a video hosting service is the speed, i.e. the time it takes the video to load and begin playing. Out of all the video hosting services I have used the four which I’m reviewing here (YouTube, Vimeo, blip.tv and Facebook video) have decent speeds when viewing them from Malaysia. Others like Viddler, DailyMotion and even Ovi by Nokia take noticably longer to load. YouTube has definitely got the best loading speeds since Google caches the videos and has a content delivery network that covers the whole world. I didn’t test the services by any scientific means, and mainly watched my network meter while trying out each service.
Winner for best video streaming speed – YouTube
Video Quality
Video quality is how good the video looks after you’ve uploaded it to the different services. The 4 shortlisted services all also support high definition (HD) videos too. This test is a bit more subjective, but I think that Vimeo has the best looking video out of all the shortlisted services. YouTube has got noticably poorer video quality, however HD videos on YouTube look pretty good.
Winner for best video quality – Vimeo
Upload Allowance
Each of these services have a limit on the video length and size when you upload them:
- YouTube – 1GB or 10 minutes per video
- Vimeo – 500MB per week, no video length restriction
- Blip.tv – 1GB per video, no video length restriction
- Facebook Video – 1GB or 20 minutes per video
Winner for best upload allowance – Blip.tv
Terms of Service (Licensing)
This is the main stumbling block when choosing a video hosting service. Besides the normal stuff that you can’t upload (copyrighted material, pornography), some of these services prohibit you from uploading certain forms of content. For example, on Blip.tv you cannot upload videogames. Blip.tv is meant for “original, episodic content” and prohibits content that advertises a product or service (source).
The same goes for Vimeo. You are not allowed to upload “commercials, infomercials, or demos that actively sell or promote a product or service” (source). There are a lot of stories of Vimeo suddenly deciding to yank videos off their service because they violate these terms, for example Why you will regret using Vimeo by Paul Boag. Vimeo’s inconsistency in enforcing their terms has also caused a bit of disatisfaction among Vimeo users because there are some accounts that have very clear advertising in their videos but Vimeo allows them, presumably because they are major content producers.
On the other hand, YouTube seems to be the least restrictive while there isn’t much info on Facebook regarding what you can or cannot upload to their service.
Winner for most flexible terms of service – YouTube
Which Service to Choose
Each of the different services also provide a slightly different value proposition for using their service. If you’re an aspiring filmaker or podcaster and you don’t promote a product or service, Blip.tv and Vimeo look to be excellent choices. Blip.tv even shares advertising revenue and helps to publish your videos to other places including iTunes.
However if you are using videos to promote your business, product or software demos, talks and seminars you presented at, you are probably safer sticking with YouTube. YouTube has got the tightest allowances on video uploads, so you’ll probably spend more time editing your videos to make sure they are under 10 minutes and 1GB, but they will also reach the widest audience and load the quickest for audiences in Malaysia.
If you’re willing to consider paid only services, vzaar seems to load quite quickly here, and there are also others like Fliqz and Brightcove.
My main objective of writing this post was to help make sure that you are aware of the pros and cons of each service before you choose a video hosting service. I myself have decided to go with YouTube despite its shortcomings after learning about the terms of service of the other services. What do you think? Which video hosting service do you use?
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