What if youtube suddenly vanished?

[Skitarii]

What would be the consequences and what would fill the vacuum?

 

[Circular Square]

It would probably lead to the rise of other video-sharing platforms which would then rise and be bought and then commercialized. If YouTube dies, another will fall into its place.

 

[King Fructose]

Elon musk will start a new video streaming site and run it like a meme

 

[WhoBusTank69]

What would be the consequences

Something something "burning the library of alexandria"
Realistically, a massive chunk of internet history would be completely lost. Fragments will be found here and there through various archives but for the most part you only miss what you remember. It will give way to sites splintering from its legacy, but none will provide the revenue there once was.

and what would fill the vacuum?

Probably nothing, maybe Twitch. Remaking YouTube as it has become would kill any non-Google company with the storage space required.
There might be smaller video hosts, as there are now, but the juggernaut that is YouTube cannot be feasibly matched.

 

[NekoRightsActivist]

bilibili will occupy the market and we will all bow to our chink overlords

 

[Alligator Alcatraz]

Flock to Vimeo or Odyssey, I guess.

I honestly like Odyssey's aesthetic.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

To me it'd be as if some other and more obscure video site like Vimeo went down.

But it would have a significant economic impact on the world. YT is so widely used that you can see YT logos on food packaging.

 

[Amphotericin B]

I would hope Tiktok is next.

 

[Pissmaster]

Fine by me. YouTube really thinned out over the pandemic. Just give me a few days notice so I can buy a Bluray burner + discs, then I'll archive several channels, and I'll be good to go.

 

[Stabmaster Arson]

Archive now.
You're a fool if you think it will be there tomorrow.