4 ms·

A reply to you makes the unsubstantiated claim that YouTube is a profit-seeking company. They ignore the fact that, no, YouTube has not operated as a profit-se

A reply to you makes the unsubstantiated claim that YouTube is a profit-seeking company. They ignore the fact that, no, YouTube has not operated as a profit-seeking company. The reason YouTube is, and will remain, the pre-eminent video platform is because it was run at a profound loss for over a decade, losing hundreds of millions of dollars at a clip, for no reason other than to totally suppress competition. Framing them as some kind of capitalist company is genuinely false. If you wish to build a competitor to YouTube, your first task is to secure a billion dollars or so to build a competitive infrastructure with investors who are prepared to lose money on its operation for no less than a decade and quite possibly forever (or until Google goes bankrupt).

analognoise 7y ago
Your local auto parts store prices oil lower than a mechanic can get it for, just to bring people in the door to sell them other items. This is a well known tactic; these items are called "loss leaders". The fact that in this environment other people have successfully made video sharing websites (without a billion dollars, no less) means that the environment is competitive, even with the loss leader tactic. On TOP of that, "Sharing videos" is not something that is required for civil society. It's an ancillary waste of time, but in no way owed to the public sphere.
- alasdair_ 7y ago
  >Your local auto parts store prices oil lower than a mechanic can get it for Why doesn't the mechanic just buy their oil from the auto parts store?
  - analognoise 7y ago
    They do! But they charge you full retail price on the bill, without the loss leader pricing. If you've ever had an oil change and thought, "I can get oil for less" - you're right.
mbesto 7y ago
> The reason YouTube is, and will remain, the pre-eminent video platform is because it was run at a profound loss for over a decade, losing hundreds of millions of dollars at a clip, for no reason other than to totally suppress competition. No one actually knows whether YT is technically profitable as a sole entity. So the premise of your argument and the argument you're referring to is basically flawed unless you have insider information.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  And practically impossible to determine. How much does Google "earn" by having a better idea of who its audience is? How much does Google "earn" by keeping its competition weak(er)? How much does Google "earn" by being able to speech-to-text all video and increase its corpus of knowledge? How much does Google "earn" by being a better search engine because it can provide video results? How much does Youtube bandwidth "cost" Google when it has links into every exchange there is anyway?

analognoise 7y ago

Your local auto parts store prices oil lower than a mechanic can get it for, just to bring people in the door to sell them other items. This is a well known tactic; these items are called "loss leaders". The fact that in this environment other people have successfully made video sharing websites (without a billion dollars, no less) means that the environment is competitive, even with the loss leader tactic. On TOP of that, "Sharing videos" is not something that is required for civil society. It's an ancillary waste of time, but in no way owed to the public sphere.

alasdair_ 7y ago
>Your local auto parts store prices oil lower than a mechanic can get it for Why doesn't the mechanic just buy their oil from the auto parts store?
- analognoise 7y ago
  They do! But they charge you full retail price on the bill, without the loss leader pricing. If you've ever had an oil change and thought, "I can get oil for less" - you're right.

mbesto 7y ago

> The reason YouTube is, and will remain, the pre-eminent video platform is because it was run at a profound loss for over a decade, losing hundreds of millions of dollars at a clip, for no reason other than to totally suppress competition. No one actually knows whether YT is technically profitable as a sole entity. So the premise of your argument and the argument you're referring to is basically flawed unless you have insider information.

Scoundreller 7y ago
And practically impossible to determine. How much does Google "earn" by having a better idea of who its audience is? How much does Google "earn" by keeping its competition weak(er)? How much does Google "earn" by being able to speech-to-text all video and increase its corpus of knowledge? How much does Google "earn" by being a better search engine because it can provide video results? How much does Youtube bandwidth "cost" Google when it has links into every exchange there is anyway?