YouTube is still a big platform, but I notice that they've lost their monopoly on hosting and distributing long-form video as of ~a few years ago. IMO the way to look at it now is that all the major social media platforms are video platforms. X, insta, TikTok, etc. all allow posting long videos directly to the platform.
Youtube still has the monopoly for "outside users". Most other platforms force you to create an account to view the video, even the ones that historically didn't (ahem, twitter).
Imagine you sold a product for general popularion, and wanted to publish a tutorial video somewhere online... except for self-hosting it, youtube is the only viable option, sadly.
There is tremendous friction on mobile for watching TikTok videos without an account. I do not have a TikTok account and have had videos just not work without signing up. Not sure if they have been AB testing this or something because once in a while the video does work.
This is by design.
It tease you with some content, than force you to install app at random interval.
Many Chinese apps do this. I think Meta is doing this now as well
