Vessel opens its doors to public

Vessel, the new online video subscription service built by former Hulu boss Jason Kilar, was launched Tuesday. The new service provides early access to videos from YouTube stars through a monthly subscription fee. People who are willing to pay $2.99 per month will get content from popular YouTube stars 72 hours before public launch.

The service in private beta debuted Tuesday and is available to everyone on both web and iOS. Anyone who signs up with Vessel by 3am EDT Friday will receive a one-year subscription for free.

Consumers now watch more video on mobile devices, and YouTube has become the definite leader to deliver the service.

However, some creators complain that YouTube doesn't pay them at levels proportionate with the size of their audiences. But Vessel aims to address that issue and will attract the best content and the viewers.

The new service will share 70% of advertising revenue and 60% of subscription revenue with content providers. Although YouTube has not revealed the terms of its deals with creators, its standard revenue share is widely known to be 55% of advertising revenue.

Vessel emphasizes on short-form clips and differs from YouTube as it only hosts established video makers. It asks viewers to pay for early access to clips and offers creators a bigger cut of the rewards.

Vessel has thousands of clips separated into 160 categories, including sports, music, video games and food. It has 30 advertisers lined up for launch, including Geico, Frito-Lay and Unilever.

Kilar said, "We're a next generation video company. Allowing you early access to the creators you love, and optimized for the phone".