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Why does YouTube allow people to access it in Albania? Surely if a country doesn't let you make money from your service you'd withdraw from it, or possibly requ

Why does YouTube allow people to access it in Albania? Surely if a country doesn't let you make money from your service you'd withdraw from it, or possibly require Albanians to pay for YouTube premium to access it.

justsomehnguy 3y ago
Because people still watch Youtube and Youtube can legally add these people to the viewcount and then sell that viewcount to the buyers of ads.
- missedthecue 3y ago
  Why do the buyers of ads care? I don't get it. They only care about impressions of ads.
  - justsomehnguy 3y ago
    Because Youtube 'sells' the viewcount as a substitute for the impressions. 'Hey, look! This video had 55M views! Imagine how many buyers you could have!'
    - Invertigrate 3y ago
      That makes absolutely no sense. The advertisers can't advertise to Albanian so they can't pay for neither impressions nor clicks. If you mean that the goal of this is to attract advertisers by seeing a larger view count, then that doesn't make any sense either as I don't think there's any doubt among advertisers that YouTube is the leading video platform online.
      - TheCapeGreek 3y ago
        "Bigger number = better" marketing is still easier than something more fine-grained, even if YT is the leading platform.
RoyalHenOil 3y ago
Another possibility is that they want to quell competition. If Albanians couldn't watch YouTube, that would create a ripe market for a YouTube alternative to make a name for itself. From there, it could expand to other countries in the region, and then maybe to Europe as a whole.
- pseudocomposer 3y ago
  How would such a company pay for those bandwidth costs? YouTube was famously unprofitable until long after the Google acquisition. I don’t think the EU markets would provide as long an investment runway as YouTube got for this theoretical competitor.
  - RoyalHenOil 3y ago
    I presume the same way YouTube, Amazon, Uber, etc., did it: by operating in the red and getting funded. I think there are likely a lot of VCs who would be very interested in having a stake in a serious competitor to YouTube.
xigoi 3y ago
That would destroy their position as the one and only video hosting service in Albania and likely spread to other countries.
mortallywounded 3y ago
Because Albanians help boost numbers on videos where monitization is viable, thus making the platform look more appealing to advertisers.
amadeuspagel 3y ago
Albania is a small and poor country, the three million albanians probably don't cause them significant server costs, and they couldn't afford Youtube Premium anyway.

justsomehnguy 3y ago

Because people still watch Youtube and Youtube can legally add these people to the viewcount and then sell that viewcount to the buyers of ads.

missedthecue 3y ago
Why do the buyers of ads care? I don't get it. They only care about impressions of ads.
- justsomehnguy 3y ago
  Because Youtube 'sells' the viewcount as a substitute for the impressions. 'Hey, look! This video had 55M views! Imagine how many buyers you could have!'
  - Invertigrate 3y ago
    That makes absolutely no sense. The advertisers can't advertise to Albanian so they can't pay for neither impressions nor clicks. If you mean that the goal of this is to attract advertisers by seeing a larger view count, then that doesn't make any sense either as I don't think there's any doubt among advertisers that YouTube is the leading video platform online.
    - TheCapeGreek 3y ago
      "Bigger number = better" marketing is still easier than something more fine-grained, even if YT is the leading platform.

RoyalHenOil 3y ago

Another possibility is that they want to quell competition. If Albanians couldn't watch YouTube, that would create a ripe market for a YouTube alternative to make a name for itself. From there, it could expand to other countries in the region, and then maybe to Europe as a whole.

pseudocomposer 3y ago
How would such a company pay for those bandwidth costs? YouTube was famously unprofitable until long after the Google acquisition. I don’t think the EU markets would provide as long an investment runway as YouTube got for this theoretical competitor.
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago
  I presume the same way YouTube, Amazon, Uber, etc., did it: by operating in the red and getting funded. I think there are likely a lot of VCs who would be very interested in having a stake in a serious competitor to YouTube.

xigoi 3y ago

That would destroy their position as the one and only video hosting service in Albania and likely spread to other countries.

mortallywounded 3y ago

Because Albanians help boost numbers on videos where monitization is viable, thus making the platform look more appealing to advertisers.

amadeuspagel 3y ago

Albania is a small and poor country, the three million albanians probably don't cause them significant server costs, and they couldn't afford Youtube Premium anyway.