What are the Differences Between Video Hosting Platforms and Video Conferencing Tools?

Organizations around the world are relying on video hosting platforms and  video conferencing tools more than ever. Many industries are using these technologies to restructure the way communication happens on a fundamental level.

Unsurprisingly, a large number of small business owners and enterprise office managers find themselves in the position to acquire, integrate, and deploy these tools at record pace. But it’s easy to get confused when dealing with these closely-related technologies.

This confusion is justified. Both technologies are capable of supporting real-time two-way interaction through video, with barely any perceptible delay. So what’s the difference?

 

It turns out that there are significant differences between video hosting platforms and video conferencing tools. Understanding those differences is vital to making the right acquisition for your organization.

 

We understand that confusion, so we’ve put together a short guide pointing out those important differences.

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Video hosting platforms explained

Top video hosting platforms offer the technological infrastructure for digital asset management and video-based messaging, both inside and outside your organization. This makes video hosting ideal for marketers, educators, and publishers who need to communicate with customers, users, and partners outside their company.

These services replace popular free video hosting platforms like YouTube while generating value for companies in four main areas:

    • Brand consistency: Organizations that rely on YouTube cannot maintain brand consistency or incorporate interactivity into their video content. Brands that want to drive traffic to their own websites and build valuable, exclusive relationships with their customers make use of customizable video hosting platforms that are fine-tuned to match their brand.
    • Video marketing capabilities. Your video SEO strategy is critical to the success of your marketing campaign. Video hosting solutions ensures that your content is truly optimized for search. Video content only becomes a powerful lead generator when it is accompanied by on-video forms, compelling calls-to-action, and helpful annotations.
    • Social video analytics. YouTube embeds do not let you distinguish between user engagement and interaction the way you can with an email marketing campaign. Knowing who watches your video content, where and when they watch, and how much of each video they watched is absolutely critical to achieving success in the world of video marketing.
    • Dynamic content presentation. Video hosting platforms let organizations transform their websites into dynamic, immersive environments fueled with video content. It is simply not possible to create a Netflix-like user experience without investing in a purpose-built video hosting integration.

Additionally, video hosting platforms protect their organizations’ intellectual properties and provide streamlined, user-friendly digital asset management tools that encompass the entire marketing process. These tools are what high-performance marketers use to make products fly off shelves.

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What about video conferencing software?

Video conferencing software allows multiple people to communicate through video remotely. It can connect executives, managers, employees, vendors, and customers across continents, delivering near real-time synchronous communication for everyone involved.

It’s easy to see the value of this technology, especially in today’s business environment. Video conferencing technology empowers people to work remotely, collaborate effectively, and share data instantaneously with one another.

This makes video conferencing software an important tool for sales and customer outreach. Every video conferencing call saves its equivalent in expensive, time-consuming travel costs.

 

56% of CFOs worldwide plan to invest in video conferencing systems to lessen the need to travel.

 

However, video conferencing truly shines when it is implemented for internal purposes. It is the perfect tool for optimizing meetings, conducting comprehensive training sessions, and enhancing inter-departmental communication.

Until recently, Microsoft’s Skype was the go-to solution for video conferencing on nearly every scale. The service had become popular enough to become a generic verb, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 2014, but suffered serious setbacks starting with an ill-advised 2017 redesign and mounting competition.

Now, the industry has fully embraced those competitors, with Zoom taking the lion’s share of the market during this critical moment. Organizations that rely on Zoom to communicate internally are able to maintain production output, keep employees informed, and expand collaboration even while implementing social distancing measures.

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Integrated solutions offer the best of both worlds

It should be clear by now that while private video hosting platforms and video conferencing platforms are two different things, they complement one another perfectly. Organizations that rely on only one or the other are missing out on important benefits that can only be leveraged by using the two in tandem.

A robust video hosting platform should be able to integrate Zoom (or any other popular conferencing software) in a way that adds value to the services it offers. Zoom is widely considered one of the best cross-platform video conferencing software options because of its ease of use, accessibility, and reliably high-quality performance.

Organizations with distributed teams are increasingly finding themselves, sending the same information to multiple employees, partners, and vendors. The ability to streamline video-based communication and get real-time feedback can be a competitive advantage in an environment that puts pressure on companies to communicate better.

Zoom, in particular, offers state-of-the-art security to users while allowing for unlimited call-times for users in Japan, China, the United States, and Italy. Organizations that integrate Zoom with Cincopa are able to treat their video conferencing sessions like digital assets in a centralized library, publish and share Zoom recordings, and even add closed captions to recordings on-demand.

In-video search is another key feature that showcases how well video hosting platforms and conferencing solutions like Zoom work together. This feature means that employees do not have to watch the entirety of a two-hour meeting just to understand the part of the video that talks about their specific responsibilities. They can jump straight to that section, get the necessary information, and start working in minutes.

Treat your video hosting infrastructure like a strategic asset

If the healthcare and economic crises prompted by the Coronavirus pandemic has one key takeaway for business owners and office managers in every industry, it’s that the value of video hosting infrastructure cannot be underestimated. Well-equipped organizations with robust video hosting capabilities are far more resilient to the impact of the crisis than those that have to play catch up.

Being able to quickly identify, acquire, and deploy a video hosting solution that adds value to your communication and collaboration processes is key to achieving sustainable, long-lasting success during challenging times. Incorporating a fully featured video hosting platform into your technology stack now is key to jumpstarting your organization’s growth.

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Originally published on August 15th, 2023, updated on October 17th, 2023
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What are the Differences Between Video Hosting Platforms and Video Conferencing Tools?

by Austin Jesse Mitchell time to read: 4 min
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