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The difference is in the bait and switch tactic they employ. They started by offering the service for free and without ads till there were no good competitors.

The difference is in the bait and switch tactic they employ. They started by offering the service for free and without ads till there were no good competitors. And then they switched to showing obscene amount of ads. Most users and a good bunch of creators are unhappy about the way they ruin the viewing experience. If YouTube declared their true intentions at the beginning, we wouldn't be yearning for competent alternatives today. Greed is definitely the word.

Zak 5y ago
I dislike ads as much as anyone, and I use adblockers aggressively. If I can't use something without regularly seeing ads, I usually stop using it. With all of that said, Youtube operated at a loss for a long time, which is impossible for anyone but a government or a charity to sustain indefinitely. According to this article, Youtube was not profitable in 2015, nine years after Google bought it: https://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-for-youtube-1424897967 https://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-f... I don't think "greed" makes sense as an insult directed at a for-profit corporation. It is by nature a machine to maximize shareholder value; it is nearly as amoral as its recommendation algorithm that tries to maximize watch time. Of course, letting machines run amok is dangerous and antitrust laws used to keep them in check, but not so much anymore.
- deleted 5y ago
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jsnell 5y ago
YouTube has been running ads from the start and specifically video ads for 15 years. They've been paying creators via revenue share of those ads for 14 years. Something like 95% of the growth of that site has happened after the switch to video ads. The argument that it was a bait and switch seems pretty hard to justify.
- xmprt 5y ago
  This is a bit disingenuous because the ads from 15 years ago are very different from the ads today. Additionally, YouTube didn't even have ads (of any form) for the first few years and once they did roll them out, it was only given to specific creators who applied to be YouTube partners or people who were part of a network like Machinima or Maker Studio. Today, there are pre-rolls, post-rolls, unskippables, multiple ads in a single ad segment, mid-rolls, etc. That's significantly more than the ads from years ago. Also, ads often supports copyright claimants instead of the actual content creators.

Zak 5y ago

I dislike ads as much as anyone, and I use adblockers aggressively. If I can't use something without regularly seeing ads, I usually stop using it. With all of that said, Youtube operated at a loss for a long time, which is impossible for anyone but a government or a charity to sustain indefinitely. According to this article, Youtube was not profitable in 2015, nine years after Google bought it: https://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-for-youtube-1424897967 https://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-f... I don't think "greed" makes sense as an insult directed at a for-profit corporation. It is by nature a machine to maximize shareholder value; it is nearly as amoral as its recommendation algorithm that tries to maximize watch time. Of course, letting machines run amok is dangerous and antitrust laws used to keep them in check, but not so much anymore.

deleted 5y ago
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jsnell 5y ago

YouTube has been running ads from the start and specifically video ads for 15 years. They've been paying creators via revenue share of those ads for 14 years. Something like 95% of the growth of that site has happened after the switch to video ads. The argument that it was a bait and switch seems pretty hard to justify.

xmprt 5y ago
This is a bit disingenuous because the ads from 15 years ago are very different from the ads today. Additionally, YouTube didn't even have ads (of any form) for the first few years and once they did roll them out, it was only given to specific creators who applied to be YouTube partners or people who were part of a network like Machinima or Maker Studio. Today, there are pre-rolls, post-rolls, unskippables, multiple ads in a single ad segment, mid-rolls, etc. That's significantly more than the ads from years ago. Also, ads often supports copyright claimants instead of the actual content creators.