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> And yet many people don't want to pay for YT Premium. YouTube wouldn't exist if targeted ads didn't exist. Is that actually true? Did pre-google YouTube hav
by tombert 5y ago
> And yet many people don't want to pay for YT Premium. YouTube wouldn't exist if targeted ads didn't exist.
Is that actually true? Did pre-google YouTube have the level of targeted ads that we have right now? I would be incredibly surprised if the level of surveillance at that time was anywhere near what we have now. Granted, Youtube would almost certainly not be as profitable as it is right now, but I do think it would be possible.
That said, I don't think you're wrong; things would be pretty different, but I also think this might lead to more competition in the video sharing space. As it stands right now, no one can compete with the market dominance of YouTube, particularly because of their insanely good recommendation system.
- endisneigh 5y agoPre Google YouTube was not a sustainable service nor was it nearly as big as it currently is. There isn't really any way to have a video streaming service that mainstream without ads.
- tombert 5y agoI thought YouTube had ads before Google that just weren't hyper-targeted. Could be wrong on that. Even if I don't like them, I can live with contextual ads (e.g. I'm watching a video about video games and I see an ad for a Switch).
- judge2020 5y agoGoogle bought it in October 2006 [0] after it had ad concepts in August 2006 [1]. 0: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15196982 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15196982 1: https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/youtube5year/home/history-of-monetization-at-youtube https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/youtube5year/ho...