4 ms·

That sounds like the modus operandi of so many companies. Google can’t figure out how to make money without ads, so they punish people (blocking ad blockers on

That sounds like the modus operandi of so many companies. Google can’t figure out how to make money without ads, so they punish people (blocking ad blockers on chrome and not allowing access to YouTube if using an ad blocker) because of their own failure.

rafram 3y ago
> Google can’t figure out how to make money without ads They can and they have. YouTube Premium exists! You can pay for it! The two business models that are feasible for YouTube are (1) free and you have to see ads and (2) paid and you don’t have to see ads. They offer both. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect to be allowed to pick (1) but opt out of the ad side of the bargain. Their ad-blocking shenanigans are obnoxious, but it’s disingenuous to claim that they “can’t figure out” how to monetize YouTube without ads when they actually do provide that option.
- chongli 3y ago
  I subscribe to YouTube premium because I think it's worth it. Lots of people have called me a "sucker" or worse, a Google shill, for paying money for a "free service." These same people then turned around and threw a temper tantrum when YouTube started detecting and punishing ad blockers. I think after years of enjoying a free service people have become extremely entitled about it.
  - seec 3y ago
    Some content on YouTube is worth it but I would say most of it actually isn't. The rules have been gamified for max monetization. So now something that shouldn't take 10 min to say is full of fillers and bullshit. Most "pro" content creators are also double-dipping with sponsors ads inside the video. I think it's disrespectful and it should be an either/or situation. If YouTube displays ads, then they have to be reasonable and the videos themselves shouldn't have any ads. If creators want to display ads, then they should pay YouTube for the video hosting and bandwidth. YouTube created this mess. Under the disguise of "free money" they attracted all kind of creators/organisation lured into a video hosting platform (something that is expensive to do at scale) under the unsustainable promise of "we host your stuff for free and you can even make money out of it". This removed most of the risk for launching video production activity but also killed diversity of potential business models and alternative sources/technical solutions. Now both parties are extremely greedy and want even more money because somehow, they think they have a captive audience. YouTube shove more ads and creators shove more sponsor bullshit. They are the ones full of shit, it's not the people requesting a fairer deal that are entitled, you have it backward. I used to watch YouTube completely with ads up until 1-2 years ago; it just became unwatchable and pretty much every "creator" has some sort of ad in the video anyway. It's particularly disgusting because in general those are people already making 3-4 times median/average wage with complete freedom and what would be considered low output in a traditional job paying way less. Like most tech companies, YouTube enforced winner take all feudalism and single source for maximum control on the market. If those creators had started their own website with their own hosting and figured out a way to monetize this (subscriptions, their own ads with sponsors, products, etc) and actually taken any risk to start (like pretty much every single business has to) we would not be here. It's a situation entirely created by dishonest representation of reality and then trying to impose rules by force to extract even more money. If YouTube needs more money to run, they better ask the creators placing ads all over their content to pay for the bandwidth/views. It's completely wrong to blame AdBlock users, they alone created wrong incentives and they alone are the one responsible for all the monetization shenanigans/cheating going on... As far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty happy they are going at war with AdBlock, because we will see what's what. It may open up opportunities somewhere else, because I don't see people paying for Premium and I don't see people sticking around with so many ads. People's attention is going to be redirected somewhere else (free or cheaper content exists, starting with the public library or TV) and we may get something better out of that.
- Brian_K_White 3y ago
  I pay for pemium and youtube still sucks. I still see ads in the form of embedded and in the form of other shit on the page, and now my home screen is blank, and I only get to use my account about 1/2 the time anyway because in the real world I'm often watching on someone else's device, and I have no option to disable shorts, and I'm subject to their capricious copyright and censoring bs which both directly removes content and indirectly cows all the creators into self censoring. The problems with youtube are not the victims fault. It's fucking garbage.
  - stickfigure 3y ago
    Your experience is very different from mine! I pay for YT, and I really love it. So does my family. The sponsored messages are annoying... but the creators choose that. The good news is that I can fast forward? I'm free to unsubscribe from creators where annoying > value. Honestly, Youtube is probably the service I'm most happy to pay for. Could it be run better? Probably! But it's still great.
- rchaud 3y ago
  > They can and they have. YouTube Premium exists! You can pay for it! No they haven't. YT Premium price goes up by a significant amount each year, without a corresponding increase in value. That's not a business model, it's an experiment to see what the profitability price point is. If they knew what it was, they could go Netflix and make it paid-only. But then they'd lose out on all the sweet sweet ad revenue which apparently still doesn't cover the bills. Since they haven't reached it, and since 95% of their audience still accesses it with ads,
  - geoffpado 3y ago
    Not even Netflix is paid-only any more…
    - rafram 3y ago
      Netflix’s ad-supported tier still costs money! As does Hulu’s.

rafram 3y ago

> Google can’t figure out how to make money without ads They can and they have. YouTube Premium exists! You can pay for it! The two business models that are feasible for YouTube are (1) free and you have to see ads and (2) paid and you don’t have to see ads. They offer both. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect to be allowed to pick (1) but opt out of the ad side of the bargain. Their ad-blocking shenanigans are obnoxious, but it’s disingenuous to claim that they “can’t figure out” how to monetize YouTube without ads when they actually do provide that option.

chongli 3y ago
I subscribe to YouTube premium because I think it's worth it. Lots of people have called me a "sucker" or worse, a Google shill, for paying money for a "free service." These same people then turned around and threw a temper tantrum when YouTube started detecting and punishing ad blockers. I think after years of enjoying a free service people have become extremely entitled about it.
- seec 3y ago
  Some content on YouTube is worth it but I would say most of it actually isn't. The rules have been gamified for max monetization. So now something that shouldn't take 10 min to say is full of fillers and bullshit. Most "pro" content creators are also double-dipping with sponsors ads inside the video. I think it's disrespectful and it should be an either/or situation. If YouTube displays ads, then they have to be reasonable and the videos themselves shouldn't have any ads. If creators want to display ads, then they should pay YouTube for the video hosting and bandwidth. YouTube created this mess. Under the disguise of "free money" they attracted all kind of creators/organisation lured into a video hosting platform (something that is expensive to do at scale) under the unsustainable promise of "we host your stuff for free and you can even make money out of it". This removed most of the risk for launching video production activity but also killed diversity of potential business models and alternative sources/technical solutions. Now both parties are extremely greedy and want even more money because somehow, they think they have a captive audience. YouTube shove more ads and creators shove more sponsor bullshit. They are the ones full of shit, it's not the people requesting a fairer deal that are entitled, you have it backward. I used to watch YouTube completely with ads up until 1-2 years ago; it just became unwatchable and pretty much every "creator" has some sort of ad in the video anyway. It's particularly disgusting because in general those are people already making 3-4 times median/average wage with complete freedom and what would be considered low output in a traditional job paying way less. Like most tech companies, YouTube enforced winner take all feudalism and single source for maximum control on the market. If those creators had started their own website with their own hosting and figured out a way to monetize this (subscriptions, their own ads with sponsors, products, etc) and actually taken any risk to start (like pretty much every single business has to) we would not be here. It's a situation entirely created by dishonest representation of reality and then trying to impose rules by force to extract even more money. If YouTube needs more money to run, they better ask the creators placing ads all over their content to pay for the bandwidth/views. It's completely wrong to blame AdBlock users, they alone created wrong incentives and they alone are the one responsible for all the monetization shenanigans/cheating going on... As far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty happy they are going at war with AdBlock, because we will see what's what. It may open up opportunities somewhere else, because I don't see people paying for Premium and I don't see people sticking around with so many ads. People's attention is going to be redirected somewhere else (free or cheaper content exists, starting with the public library or TV) and we may get something better out of that.
Brian_K_White 3y ago
I pay for pemium and youtube still sucks. I still see ads in the form of embedded and in the form of other shit on the page, and now my home screen is blank, and I only get to use my account about 1/2 the time anyway because in the real world I'm often watching on someone else's device, and I have no option to disable shorts, and I'm subject to their capricious copyright and censoring bs which both directly removes content and indirectly cows all the creators into self censoring. The problems with youtube are not the victims fault. It's fucking garbage.
- stickfigure 3y ago
  Your experience is very different from mine! I pay for YT, and I really love it. So does my family. The sponsored messages are annoying... but the creators choose that. The good news is that I can fast forward? I'm free to unsubscribe from creators where annoying > value. Honestly, Youtube is probably the service I'm most happy to pay for. Could it be run better? Probably! But it's still great.
rchaud 3y ago
> They can and they have. YouTube Premium exists! You can pay for it! No they haven't. YT Premium price goes up by a significant amount each year, without a corresponding increase in value. That's not a business model, it's an experiment to see what the profitability price point is. If they knew what it was, they could go Netflix and make it paid-only. But then they'd lose out on all the sweet sweet ad revenue which apparently still doesn't cover the bills. Since they haven't reached it, and since 95% of their audience still accesses it with ads,
- geoffpado 3y ago
  Not even Netflix is paid-only any more…
  - rafram 3y ago
    Netflix’s ad-supported tier still costs money! As does Hulu’s.