Amazon Echo Show Does Have Video – Check out Dailymotion
When YouTube access on Echo Show was removed by Google twice, there was widespread belief that it meant no video was available for the device. That is not true. There was always Amazon Prime video as many acknowledge, but there is also Twitch, Dailymotion, Vimeo and other sources.
Dailymotion Gets the Default
When you ask, “Alexa, play YouTube” on Echo Show she says, “YouTube is not available. Playing top results.” This currently defaults to a Dailymotion video of the Selena Gomez song Wolves. If you ask, “Alexa, open YouTube” you get a response, “YouTube is not available. Here is what I found.” This provides a carousel of video choices that you can browse by voice or through touch and swipe. Of the top 20 responses, 16 are from Dailymotion and four from Vimeo.
Dailymotion is a video sharing site that was founded in Paris less than one month after YouTube in 2005. Vivendi is currently the majority owner. The site claims to have 300 million monthly active users and 3.5 billion monthly video views. That is an impressive number but far below YouTube’s 1.5 billion active users and five billion daily video views. According to Variety, Dailymotion shifted its focus to premium content in June and has attempted to remove all pirated and explicit content. Anyone can still upload videos similar to YouTube despite the new emphasis on premium content. Echo Show could become a new source of traffic for the service.
Other Video Options
If you are an Amazon Prime member you can also ask Alexa to browse Prime Video. That will pull up a carousel of current video options offered by the service. Note that you can only access this through the account of the Amazon Prime member. So, if you have a household with multiple accounts you many have to switch to the owner’s account to access these videos.
You can also watch Twitch which is an Amazon owned video sharing site. Twitch is primarily for watching livestream of video games and eSports, but there are on demand viewing options and a variety of other topics.
Where is Facebook Video?
None of these options rise to the depth and variety of YouTube which has become the world’s primary video content repository. Amazon is supposedly trying to work out an agreement with Google to bring YouTube back to Echo Show. However, in the interim, a good solution would be Facebook Live and its Watch offering. Facebook claims over 100 million hours of daily video viewing time. YouTube may have “hundreds of millions” of daily video viewing hours, but Facebook is closing the gap because of its large user base and influx of original video content.
Amazon is providing video for Echo Show owners using a number YouTube alternatives. Recent trademark filings also suggest the company is considering its own direct YouTube competitor called either AmazonTube or OpenTube. Facebook’s video offerings could be an even bigger opportunity for Amazon and make YouTube think twice about abandoning the Echo Show audience.
Google Once Again Pulls YouTube From Amazon Echo Show, A New Opening for Facebook
