YouTube is so pervasive - I feel like it even seeps into my pores. Everywhere you turn on the internet, there is a YouTube link, and basically every embedded video is hosted by YouTube. Hulu is much less used because its content is so specific, whereas you can find anything on YouTube.
I'd say the main difference between YouTube and Hulu is that Hulu is like TV: both are corporations, yes, but Hulu feels like a TV channel that is privately owned and operated, while YouTube has the social media aspect of letting users command content by uploading their own videos, making profiles, messaging each other, being able to comment, etc. Hulu is untouchable, and we have no control over it. This also means that YouTube must employ content moderators, whereas Hulu's content is already moderated: all they do is serve as an online space to stream ready-to-watch TV content.
I rarely watch Hulu, but I'll always go there to watch SNL because the entire episodes are available, and any SNL content seems to be banned from YouTube. I "borrow" a friend's Hulu+ account and stream it through my XBOX to my TV, so I can watch shows from the couch - a real TV experience! Whereas I have to watch YouTube from my laptop or my phone. Luckily YouTube clips are short so I don't need to settle in to watch them. The most annoying thing is that even though my friend is paying for Hulu+, you still have to sit through all the commercials. I hate this! I thought watching TV from the internet was supposed to be the smart way to sidestep the banal noise that are commercials. YouTube has started to play commercials as well, but since you're only watching a 3min clip, it seems less annoying than Hulu's repeated commercial breaks during an hour long show.
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