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Can X out-tube YouTube?

Ask any full-time YouTube creator who relies on the monetisation of their videos for a living and they'll tell you they live in constant fear.

They live and work in the full understanding that at any time, YT's AI bots could run amok and either demonetise their channel or delete it entirely due to a glitch in the system or just bad luck. Indeed, the internet is littered with the tears of former YouTube creators who were unceremoniously kicked from the platform for no good reason.

For the vast majority of those who've turned video creation on YT into a full-time gig they exist by "just scraping by" and living from month to month on the meagre earnings their efforts generate.

But hey... theyre "influencers" and that's the best job you could ever have -- if you believe the youth of today.

Fortunately for those who constantly live in fear of being "deplatformed", Elon Musk's X is about to offer an alternative.

X is rolling out a video on demand app for smart TVs and other android devices.

Musk believes that by bringing X videos to the big screen in your living room his platform has a good chance to provide some real and much needed competition to YouTube.

Who knows, he might be right.

Musk has already introduced monentisation for X users and although it doesn't seem to pay much at this point in time, that could change in future.

Very successful and popular electronics engineer Dave Jones whose YouTube channels have attracted over a million subscribers has been one of those to start posting their videos to X.

However, with just 65,000 followers on X, his earnings from the platform are somewhat mediocre and do not, at this time, represent a living wage. I think he's presently raking in a mighty $50 a month or so from Mr Musk.

For some, the big attraction of switching from YouTube to X will be the much lighter hand of censorship promised by X.

I know from personal experience that YouTube fiercely forces its ideologies on those who use the platform and if you dare to say anything that contradicts YouTube's own view of the world, you get punished for doing so.

Indeed, it is "stepping out of line" with opinions that account for a great many of the deleted videos and even deleted channels that worry creators so much.

In theory, this is far less likely to be an issue on X, where Musk has even stood up to pressure from governments that have demanded he take down content on the platform. In fact, right now X is banned in Brazil due to just such a situation and Australia has come to blows with Musk in the past over video content it wanted banned.

Another benefit of watching videos on X at the moment is that the advertising is far less intrusive. I tire of YouTube telling me, while watching on the big screen, that there will be 60 seconds of unskippable ads ahead. No such intrusion (yet) by X on my viewing experience.

As regular readers will know, I'm no Musk fanboy and I regularly criticise his failure to deliver on promises related to EVs (where's my Roadster?), the Hyperloop, missions to Mars, solar roof tiles and much more. However, if he can turn X into a viable competitor to YouTube then I, and millions of other YouTube creators, will be rooting for him and the company all the way.

I guess only time will tell.

Carpe Diem folks!

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