YouTube is the world's biggest video provider in history. With upwards of a billion visitors per month and more than one hundred hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube is the company to beat. While companies like Dailymotion and Vimeo tried to compete with YouTube's services, the content creators and vloggers (people who record a video blog) prefer YouTube. However, a new startup is using a new twist to compete with YouTube.
The new video streaming service, known as Vessel, began its services Wednesday, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Vessel is a limited video sharing site that aims to be what Bloomberg calls "an HBO for the world of increasingly professional but free web video." The site uses a "premium subscription" model, where users can pay $2.99 to get pre-access to content from their favorite vloggers and creators.
The company was started by ex-Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and raised over 77 million dollars in the last 18 months.
Why does Kilar think a paid version of YouTube has any chance of succeeding? Kilar imagines that there are millions who would love to pay additional funds to get early access to their favorite media creators.
"We view a future where absolutely huge numbers of people all over the planet subscribe to get great content," Kilar said.
Pre-release access to content isn't a new idea. The model has been used by Hollywood for years to offer content to ticket-holders and premium cable subscribers.
If the front of the site is anything to go off of, Vessel has teamed up with popular content creators, such as Rhett and Link, Cyanide and Happiness and Machinima. However, it's unclear how many other creators will join Vessel.
Vessel is offering limited access to users upon request. Vessel also released an accompanying iOS app.
