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Can someone tell me how YouTube is supposed to make money without ads and premium service? No one has been able to give me a straight answer.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
The same way YouTube was making money from 2005 till today?
- govg 4y ago
  Have they been profitable all this while though? They were operating at massive losses for a long while.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    The fact that they chose to operate at a loss for decades in order to unfairly monopolize market share is their own self inflicted problem. You reap what you sow. I'm not paying YouTube/Google one single dime. They already monetize all my private data and viewing habits.
  - theptip 4y ago
    I think the right question is: are they free cash flow-positive? I don't know the numbers off the top of my head. "Operating at a loss" means different things to different people. Profit is an irrelevant metric for a company like YT that would reinvest every dollar of FCF into growth. (See Amazon for the well-fleshed out reasoning as to why this is so.)
jterrys 4y ago
Cute thought experiment: Google is notorious for snuffing products they consider unprofitable. Yet persisted with Youtube for 16 years. Why?
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Because owning the world's biggest video distribution monopoly was worth 16+ years of losses for them. Same like owning Twitter. They have almost no competition.
  - jterrys 4y ago
    bingo bango. Youtube is worth it for them. This is just squeezing extra blood out of its users and seeing what they can get away with
- bergenty 4y ago
  - fdewrewrewf 4y ago
    Youtube was a jewel. Sign out, clear your cookies, and take a look at the default recommendations to a new user. It's a cheap TikTok clone. It's a shame, because I've learned so much. I have also wasted a lot of time and attention there. Edit: I should clarify "learned so much". I learned a lot by watching knowledgable and skilled people share their experiences and wisdom. However, there comes a point where you are just watching someone else lead their lives, instead of leading your own.
    - kajaktum 4y ago
      > Youtube was a jewel. Sign out, clear your cookies, and take a look at the default recommendations to a new user. It's a cheap TikTok clone. How is this fair to Youtube? Youtube literally have no idea who you are (supposed to, anyways). What are they supposed to show to a random Youtube consumer? Whatever the average consumer finds interesting. Unfortunately for humanity, its TikTok videos.
- kajaktum 4y ago
  Why? Because its probably the largest video hosting website by multiple orders of magnitude? And you still hasn't given me a straight answer. Let's say YOU are Youtube, and you are trying to be an honest businessman (while staying alive). What would you do? 1. Turn it into a fully paid service. Which means you will probably never take off and some other guy will create an ((((free)))) alternative like Youtube. 2. Free service with premium features but people apparently don't like it because they feel like they are missing out. I personally prefer 1 because that would remove 99% of the shitty videos that plague the website. I was saddened when I saw that people don't share my sentiment. That was the one moment where people have the opportunity to say "yes, let us pay you and you give us a direct and simple service". I easily "watch" around 12 hours of HD Youtube videos counting all the music in the background that I listen to. It is _definitely_ worth the premium price.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

The same way YouTube was making money from 2005 till today?

govg 4y ago
Have they been profitable all this while though? They were operating at massive losses for a long while.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  The fact that they chose to operate at a loss for decades in order to unfairly monopolize market share is their own self inflicted problem. You reap what you sow. I'm not paying YouTube/Google one single dime. They already monetize all my private data and viewing habits.
- theptip 4y ago
  I think the right question is: are they free cash flow-positive? I don't know the numbers off the top of my head. "Operating at a loss" means different things to different people. Profit is an irrelevant metric for a company like YT that would reinvest every dollar of FCF into growth. (See Amazon for the well-fleshed out reasoning as to why this is so.)

jterrys 4y ago

Cute thought experiment: Google is notorious for snuffing products they consider unprofitable. Yet persisted with Youtube for 16 years. Why?

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Because owning the world's biggest video distribution monopoly was worth 16+ years of losses for them. Same like owning Twitter. They have almost no competition.
- jterrys 4y ago
  bingo bango. Youtube is worth it for them. This is just squeezing extra blood out of its users and seeing what they can get away with
bergenty 4y ago
- fdewrewrewf 4y ago
  Youtube was a jewel. Sign out, clear your cookies, and take a look at the default recommendations to a new user. It's a cheap TikTok clone. It's a shame, because I've learned so much. I have also wasted a lot of time and attention there. Edit: I should clarify "learned so much". I learned a lot by watching knowledgable and skilled people share their experiences and wisdom. However, there comes a point where you are just watching someone else lead their lives, instead of leading your own.
  - kajaktum 4y ago
    > Youtube was a jewel. Sign out, clear your cookies, and take a look at the default recommendations to a new user. It's a cheap TikTok clone. How is this fair to Youtube? Youtube literally have no idea who you are (supposed to, anyways). What are they supposed to show to a random Youtube consumer? Whatever the average consumer finds interesting. Unfortunately for humanity, its TikTok videos.
kajaktum 4y ago
Why? Because its probably the largest video hosting website by multiple orders of magnitude? And you still hasn't given me a straight answer. Let's say YOU are Youtube, and you are trying to be an honest businessman (while staying alive). What would you do? 1. Turn it into a fully paid service. Which means you will probably never take off and some other guy will create an ((((free)))) alternative like Youtube. 2. Free service with premium features but people apparently don't like it because they feel like they are missing out. I personally prefer 1 because that would remove 99% of the shitty videos that plague the website. I was saddened when I saw that people don't share my sentiment. That was the one moment where people have the opportunity to say "yes, let us pay you and you give us a direct and simple service". I easily "watch" around 12 hours of HD Youtube videos counting all the music in the background that I listen to. It is _definitely_ worth the premium price.