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whoa, what? I feel like most of the value in Youtube is watching videos made by specialized content creators. Some of those creators may create content as an ac

whoa, what? I feel like most of the value in Youtube is watching videos made by specialized content creators. Some of those creators may create content as an act of passion in their spare time, but some of them want to make money in some way. Youtube is willing to pay them money so that they're incentivized to make content. In order to cover those payouts and also cover hosting costs, they show ads. They could not pay out to content creators, but then creators would probably produce less content. They could also charge a direct fee for viewing content, but that severely limits the audience reach for most of the site. How many people would choose to watch youtube videos on a pay as you go model? An order of magnitude less? Probably more. I think advertising is a pretty elegant model for something like Youtube because it manages to make a lot of people happy: content creators get paid to do something really cool, viewers get a constant stream of new stuff to watch for 'free,' Google makes a lot of money, and advertisers get to reach an audience that in the best case may be specially interested in their products. I think the problem with Youtube right now is their inability to respond nimbly to unwanted trends. As a human society, we've decided some things are so bad we're willing to ban their production and trade (human slavery, weapons of mass destruction). Some things are pretty much harmless (shoes, pizza). Lots of stuff falls in the middle (payday lending, pyramid schemes). Humans are exceptionally good are creating new stuff on each part of the spectrum, but Youtube seems to not be able to get a grip on the stuff near the bad end.

henryfjordan 8y ago
The point is that Youtube wants to make a profit off all this, and with profit comes responsibility to follow broadcasting laws. OP isn't saying that Youtube shouldn't exist, but that they chose to exist with that business model and so they need to solve the problems that come with it.
frogpelt 8y ago
Nailed it. Leaving YouTube out of it, if you become extremely popular doing a thing and you have a million or ten millions sets of eyeballs tuning in to watch you do that thing, you will become an advertiser (unless you somehow think it's immoral). That's how consumer-based economies work. We don't buy things just because we need them or ask for them. Therefore, we are advertised to.
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  If you don't monetise it then someone else will, and presumably Google will prefer them (in listings, etc.) because they're playing the game and giving advertiser's an opportunity to spend [more] on the platform.

henryfjordan 8y ago

The point is that Youtube wants to make a profit off all this, and with profit comes responsibility to follow broadcasting laws. OP isn't saying that Youtube shouldn't exist, but that they chose to exist with that business model and so they need to solve the problems that come with it.

frogpelt 8y ago

Nailed it. Leaving YouTube out of it, if you become extremely popular doing a thing and you have a million or ten millions sets of eyeballs tuning in to watch you do that thing, you will become an advertiser (unless you somehow think it's immoral). That's how consumer-based economies work. We don't buy things just because we need them or ask for them. Therefore, we are advertised to.

pbhjpbhj 8y ago
If you don't monetise it then someone else will, and presumably Google will prefer them (in listings, etc.) because they're playing the game and giving advertiser's an opportunity to spend [more] on the platform.