Buzz
Choosing between YouTube and Vimeo for online revenue generation: Which platform suits you best?
1. Target Audience Scope
YouTube
- 1.9 billion monthly users as of 2019.
- Nearly 80% of internet users have an account.
- Abundant potential audience.
Vimeo
- 1.7 million monthly users as of 2019.
- 90 million registered users in 2019.
- Slightly fewer users than YouTube.
YouTube stands as the leading platform for video sharing, facilitating online income generation for users. Its widespread usage ensures that your shared videos are more easily discoverable through Google searches. Moreover, YouTube offers users seamless keyword searches and access to related videos, providing a substantial advantage. Therefore, uploading your content on YouTube enhances its visibility and consequently, promotes easier content dissemination.
Although YouTube boasts a massive audience and potential, it also poses a challenge. Your videos must compete amidst a sea of others. Even if your content is exceptionally creative and engaging, it may struggle to stand out.
As Vimeo attracts significantly fewer viewers compared to YouTube, your video views may be more limited.
2. Length and Bandwidth Limitations
YouTube
- No limit on the number of videos you can upload.
- Each upload is limited to 15 minutes.
Vimeo
- Video uploads are limited to 500MB per week and 10 videos per day.
- Each account is allocated 5GB of storage bandwidth.
YouTube offers an attractive option for frequent video sharers due to its unlimited video uploads. However, uploading videos longer than 15 minutes requires account verification. Depending on factors such as views, subscribers, video count, and other account statistics, YouTube gradually increases your upload limit.
Vimeo allows you to upload a maximum of 500GB per week and 10 videos per day. Free accounts are restricted to 5GB of storage space.
3. Viewer Engagement
YouTube
- Videos can be flagged and removed.
- Commenting can be disabled to prevent negative comments and harassment.
Vimeo
- Audience engagement is easier.
- More user-friendly, with a more sophisticated audience.
- Formats and content are more appealing to viewers.
YouTube relies on viewer feedback to report and flag videos for copyright, explicit content, violence, or any other inappropriate issues. If your video gets flagged, YouTube may remove it from the platform without prior warning. Therefore, as your video becomes more popular and attracts more viewers, you may encounter inappropriate, vulgar, and spammy comments, affecting your YouTube monetization process. This might also be why some users prefer to disable comments on their videos.
Vimeo, on the other hand, attracts a more refined audience due to its focus on creative arts, filmmaking, and music. You may receive friendlier comments and build stronger relationships with users on Vimeo compared to YouTube.
4. Monetization Matters
YouTube
- Revenue sharing possible for some types of copyright-infringing content.
- Premium version aimed at viewers, offering benefits like ad-free viewing experience.
- Uploading monetizable content requires membership to be a Pro.
Vimeo
- Tip Jar feature allows viewers to contribute money.
- You can sell or rent out your videos.
If your video garners enough views or your channel attracts sufficient subscribers, YouTube will invite you to participate in revenue-sharing partnership. Advertisements are placed at the end of the video and in the sidebar, giving you the opportunity to earn online income from video views.
While Vimeo Pro offers impressive features, upgrading to a Pro account incurs charges. However, it grants access to a plethora of useful features provided by Vimeo. If you aim to promote products or services through video on Vimeo, opting for a Pro account is mandatory. Uploading a video to earn money online on Vimeo with a free account poses the risk of video removal.
Uploading videos to Vimeo is as convenient as on YouTube, yet video quality improves significantly with an upgrade to Vimeo Pro. With a Pro account, videos are much lighter, requiring less bandwidth for viewers.
Analytics Feature
YouTube provides extensive metrics and reports, including data on viewing time, traffic, and audience demographics.
