>"Instead of creating a "DroneFlying" channel on Youtube.com and attempt to monetize there, you create a url www.DroneFlying.com with AWS Media Services to serve the videos. I would expect some folks to come up with spreadsheets to compare the two strategies."
One major factor to consider is what the value of Youtube becomes here. In this case it is free HD video hosting and a built-in social network and platform for getting organic and paid exposure to your brand. Simply creating droneflying.com and posting some videos there won't get you any eyeballs.
Anecdotally I discover about half of the youtube videos I watch through youtube's search (for things like tutorials), but the other big chunk is from other social media platforms like reddit, twitter and facebook (i.e. other people linking me videos). A really small portion of the videos I watch are from suggested videos on their site.
A far cry from the early days of youtube where I would spend hours just flipping from suggested video to suggested video.
I'm not one who tunes in regularly to someone's content either, but I imagine that people who do follow several youtubers would probably still watch their favorite people on another service.
Twitch has also already proved that the Let's Play genre was ripe for the taking by another platform and they built their own discovery model around it.
Not disagreeing with your comment just sharing some of my own observations. If someone wanted to be the "youtube of droneflying" and there was an audience for it, they could probably plug this service into their own social media platform and make it happen (again, if there's the audience).
> "A really small portion of the videos I watch are from suggested videos on their site."
That was me as well until about a year ago. I got a Chromecast, and more importantly, the YouTube app on my mobile device (iPhone specifically). There's something about the presentation/interface and recommendation engine there which has helped turn me into a YouTube addict, unlike the website itself or the apps on other devices such as Apple TV.
I'd love to take YouTube's dominance down a notch, but it provides way more features.
Implementing each individual feature probably wouldn't be that difficult, but you'll end up replicating tons of functionality. If you're targeting an international audience, getting all the i18n/l10n stuff worked out is non-trivial.
One major factor to consider is what the value of Youtube becomes here. In this case it is free HD video hosting and a built-in social network and platform for getting organic and paid exposure to your brand. Simply creating droneflying.com and posting some videos there won't get you any eyeballs.