On YouTube I watched the Lebron James commercial for Nike, Rise, because I heard it was brilliant.
(Check out the commercial if you haven't seen it yet. Do you hate Lebron even more? Does it positively rebuild his public image?)
On Hulu I watched the latest episode of Modern Family, Chirp, because, well, I hadn't watched it yet.
While I was familiar with both platforms through personal experience, I made some additional observations.
First, YouTube primarily focuses on user-generated content that encourages conversation and secondarily emphasizes commercial content . Indeed, there is a real sense of community on some of the YouTube pages. For example, Rise had a lot of comments debating whether or not the commercial was good or bad - some hate Lebron more while others love him more. The conversations went on for pages.
This commercial, with over 3 million views, is just one example of how a professionally produced video on the site encourages participation and creates viral buzz; however, the majority of content is uploaded by amateurs. There is a big emphasis on maintaining an participation environment.
One major point of differentiation, I think, is that YouTube creates buzz better than Hulu. Whether you're a teenager dancing in the living room or a communications professional branding a client, there are unlimited opportunities for creative expression and exposure. You don't see this kind of participation on Hulu, as much. Also, the informational opportunities on YouTube are more accessible than Hulu for the average user because they high light popular ones and offer suggestions right on the homepage. YouTube is almost becoming a news source or search engine instead of simply an entertainment platform.
Hulu has a slightly different focus than YouTube. For the most part, I use Hulu to watch TV shows I already follow or to watch an episode of a new TV show to gauge whether or not I want to start watching it regularly. Hulu is a platform with a higher barrier to entry in terms of contributing, but tends to have higher quality content. There is a lot of content overlap between YouTube and Hulu, but each site has a different focus.
Overall, both YouTube and Hulu offer opportunities for users to come together, share information, critque work, express creative ideas and more. Also, I don't know where I'd be without them. Especially since I find myself using YouTube more and more as a news source. If I want to know more about a specific topic, one of the first places I check is YouTube for a video overview.
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