We’ve posted about several video upload and distribution companies including the most successful, such as YouTube, Guba, and Google Video. But like all good ideas on the web or in Hollywood, there’s the fear that it will be done to death. When it comes to investing in technology there is already a dotcom bubble history that makes investors nervous.

Recently both USA Today and CNN Money carried stories about the growing number of online video companies. We’ve posted about many of the companies out there that are in beta or already up and running. CNN Money reported that there are now some 173 companies offering some kind of online video service. Most of these are aimed at the video sharing market. The problem for investors is that currently only a few companies are making the lion's share of profits.

Besides the ones that we’ve posted about recently, the competition has created some interesting options for users. TVU Networks is a free video service that is similar to JumpTV. It is really only starting out and has about 20 channels, with five of those in English. The interesting thing about the service is that it uses technology that is more like P2P than a download or a direct stream. This is intended to keep everybody’s costs down. I don’t really know much about the technical side of it. They appear to be based out of China.

Again, this could be very beneficial to users because there are so many services out there and hopefully the best will make it through. The problem comes from the fact that the market is so flooded that the company with the biggest backers, not the best service, has the best chance of making it.