metacafe.com
There is no doubt about it: the internet is a goldmine of hilarious, inspiring, and otherwise entertaining videos. Surely, one of the main purposes of the internet is to find and share these videos with friends. In fact, we are quite fortunate these days as there are loads of funny, cute, and otherwise memorable memes to be found.
YouTube has come a long way from its infancy, and it is now one of the most popular platforms for sharing funny videos.
The popularity of YouTube channels has led to many people being able to make a decent living from their videos. This can be done through doing unboxings, reaction videos, reviews, or anything else that can be monetized. It's amazing to see how far YouTube has come over the years, and it's especially impressive given how it started out. For instance, when YouTube first started, people didn't know that it would one day have its own form of cable television.
That being said, there are downsides to YouTube's meteoric rise as a cultural phenomenon. To the point where many people who once swore by the video streaming and sharing platform are reluctant to even use it if it can be avoided. We all know, for example, how obnoxious YouTube has become with advertising. How they gradually started adding more and more ads before videos to the point where it is today: you can hardly watch anything on YouTube anymore - what you get is like 50% ads and 50% actual video content.
So, then, what should a video lover do in light of YouTube's recent sale to Google? People have started looking for alternatives to YouTube, as it has completely sold out. Some have even suggested uploading normal videos to Porn Hub in order to continue sharing content.
But before you resign to that extreme alternative, I ask you to consider one of the many other video sharing websites that exist, which don't require our fun viral videos to appear alongside millions of NSFW clips. Sites like Daily Motion or Meta Café might just be the next best thing now that YouTube has become one giant streaming commercial feed.
Some people might not know about Meta Café, a website that offers a variety of features that can be very useful for social media users. It has videos, allows users to upload their own content, and even provides galleries so that users can easily share pictures and ideas. Becoming familiar with Meta Cafe is essential for anyone who wants to be sure they're never missing anything funny or interesting on social media.
History
Meta Café has not been as popular as it once was, however the website's global reach is still impressive. In March 2011, Meta Café had 13 million unique monthly users in the United States alone and 40 million unique monthly users globally. These numbers are very impressive in the world of online video streaming sites.
Meta Café was founded by Eyal Hertzog and Arik Czerniak in Tel Aviv, Israel. They received a sizable investment from Benchmark Capital of $3 million and relocated their headquarters to Palo Alto, California in September 2006. By the end of that year, they had raised $12 million and were the third-largest video streaming site in the world.
In 2006, Meta Café announced that they were going to start paying content producers. This program worked by giving credit to any video that was watched at least twenty thousand times and did not violate copyright laws or Meta Cafe community standards. For every one thousand views generated in the United States, a video received $50.
Despite its benefits, this program was curtailed near the end of 2008 and ended due to a lack of profitability. A leadership change may also have been a factor.
Erick Hachenburg, who formerly worked as an executive for Electronic Arts (EA), briefly took over as Meta Café's CEO in 2007. However, by 2011, he had left his post after being acquired by a digital talent agency called The Collective. Rumor has it that the total amount paid for the acquisition was far less than the amount that had been invested into Meta Café up to that point.
Design
Meta Café, unsurprisingly to me, does not look entirely unlike YouTube in terms of design. Sure, the site's theme is different (oppositional, in fact) with blue pops of color against a white background instead of YouTube's iconic red and white theme. But in terms of the way the site itself is laid out, the influence is clear.
At the top of the page, you will find the search bar. This allows users to type in whatever keywords they can think up. And to the left of that, you will find a dropdown hamburger style menu. This allows users to browse everything the site has to offer - either by Home, Trending, Popular, or Latest; or by category (such as art, animation, cooking, music, entertainment, news, sports, video games, pets, etc.). In the middle of the page is a bunch of featured videos to browse through.
When I clicked into a video on Meta Café, the design shortcomings of the site became apparent to me. The video pages are unnecessarily cluttered, and it is hard to seamlessly navigate from one video to the next. The margins are full of content - ads, related videos, videos you might like, and recommended channels. They are trying to cram too much in too small a space and it comes off as sloppy and distracting.
Content
Meta Café, a social media-focused cafe, offers viral-worthy videos, sharable image galleries, and low quality videos.
This is where Meta Café really starts to fall short. The videos, in my opinion, are often low-quality garbage. They are way too short to even be vaguely interesting as they pretend to be. If I had to describe the nature of the content, I would say that, instead of being viral or meme-friendly, they are actually closer to something like clickbait. Sensationalized low-quality videos can be a time suck, but they don't seem to offer much beyond that.
Desktop and Mobile Experience
Although there is no Meta Café app, I found that the site is well optimized for mobile browsers. However, the site suffers from a lack of optimization for far too many sites these days. The site functions just as well on your laptop as it does on your smartphone or tablet. So, there is nothing to worry about on that front.
Pricing and Plans
Meta Café is a free resource that allows users to upload videos. However, this service comes with the downside of numerous ads. You may find ads before videos, as well as many embedded ads on every page. It can be relatively annoying, but it is still free.
Suggestions that I have for Meta Café
Please calm down with the ads. It is definitely overboard. Honestly, YouTube is better on this front. And that is saying a lot. I would also like to see Meta Café release an app one of these days. Perhaps a premium version of the site could act as a counterweight so that they don't rely so heavily on ad revenue.
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