Bitview : The Old New YouTube
A 2009 version of YouTube alive again.
Bitview has been operational since December 2017.
It was supposed to emulate the older Youtube layouts. It began from the 2005 youtube layout and is currently at 2009 youtube layout. The developers have confirmed plans to emulate youtube’s evolution till at least 2013.
Online Siblings
Around 2023, the parent entity of the company was renamed as Bittoco to distinguish the company from Bitview the site. Bittoco also acquired Blips (Vintage Twitter) and Retrobook (Vintage Facebook).
Content
In 2021, their blog addressed an important question: -
What should I upload on BitView?
Hello there BitViewers. We’ve recently seen people making videos on what they want but we’ve noticed some people posting comments saying, “it’s not made in the style of 2008” and we do not agree with them statements. We don’t mind what kind of videos you upload on the site (apart from videos which break the rules like Pornography, gore, hate speech or copyrighted videos). We want this platform to be welcoming to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you make original content, make videos in a style of a particular year or even making a video in your own language. You know that the BitView team and the community will welcome you to this site and the community as a whole.
~BitViewTeam
If stolen content is uploaded the three-strike rule similar to YouTube applies, however channels uploading only stolen content will be terminated immediately. They further elaborated what they meant by stolen content:-
“By ‘stolen content’, we mean content which you or your friends either didn’t help to create or modify OR don’t have permission from the copyright holder(s) to use. BitView isn’t a time capsule, but instead a website which emulates both the charming design and simple yet social community of early YouTube so you can create, share, and discuss your content with the world. Get out your camera and start recording! Here’s to another exciting year on BitView!
~ hypermug1 and the Bittoco team”
Bitview 2017 emulating Youtube 2005
Bitview is also available on mobile resembling the 2010 Youtube Mobile, as far as it’s feasible.
Channels can be customized in a manner similar to old youtube.
Controversies
Hacking
Bitview was hacked in March 2024 and again in December 2024.
BMF Controversy
BMF was a former moderator for BitView. Around 2021, he faced major allegations for his rude behaviour and racist remarks. In the aftermath of his feud with ex-VidLii user JoshtheJosher, Vistafan12 had demoted BMF from his position.
The Yikes Deluge
In late 2024, the Youtuber Yikes, known for causing the Talkomatic crash(it was restored later), joined Bitview for the purpose of making a video. This generated backlash, Yikes even deleted his account after finishing his video before publishing it as a way to prevent users from spamming the community.
However, the video still resulted in a spike in the userbase, resulting in a giant video queue and uploading being shut down for video processing.
On Jan 4, 2025, the Official Bitview Blog expressed their stance on the change to the platform:
“I just want to make a recent post about the massive array on attacks from some particular users who are going into other users comments informing them that their video is “TOO NEW FOR BITVIEW”. I’ve recently seen it on the video “You better not mess with my gang” by HalfwayVR (https://www.bitview.net/watch?v=JdK5L45fRhX) and the comment section within the video really makes me upset how these types of people are forcing them to make the content their way instead of how the creator wants to make it. If you tell people to leave the platform just down to them making content you don’t like or doesn’t follow the “old aesthetics of YouTube” then you are apart of the problem which turns users away from the platform and I don’t want you to be within our platform. I want to see original content, not Roblox notepad tutorials on how to spawn Telamon in Knowle Tesco Express. There was a user within the alternative video sharing community / old YouTube community called CraftingLord21 who would make commentary videos about the community. I remember there was some users attacking him for making “newer videos for these types of sites” but CL21 was making original content. It might not be the best but it at least help inform and archived the community to what it was like back in 2016–2022.
That is all what I wanted to say, if you want the TL;DR of this massive ramble of a rant blog, basically “Be more happy with the original content instead of pushing people off the site for it ”
Thank you for reading this and thank you once again for joining this site alongside Blips
Love and Respect
sks
Recent statistics as made available by Official Bitview Blog.
“Users — 85,090
Videos — 112,715
Total Views — 5,131,637
Total Comments — 158,188
Total Favourites — 71,851
Total Ratings — 280,886
Total Friends — 38,902
Total Subs — 161,060"
