They knew what they were getting into when they acquired yt - or at least they should have known. I was a teen when yt started and even I could see how much of a money pit it would be. If G wants to throw wads of cash at it, fine. But I’m not propping up their fiscally-failed project with my own money.
You try to bait others into your poorly-crafted arguments when the core statement is stupid: there is no way yt would or will be profitable, full stop. That’s it. And G waited way, way too long to try and monitize or start a subscription model, and now they have a sea of users who will not pay because ‘it’s always been free’. Through and through G fucked themselves with yt. They only have themselves to blame for the situation they now find themselves in.
It’s an amazing video sharing site that’s made the world better in so many ways, especially for small businesses and individuals. Just the access to video guides on how to repair things was a game changer on its own, breaking content creators out of the traditional media monopoly has been absolutely huge.
All this and the only cost is they occasionally show adverts, it’s such a tiny tiny price
occasionally
Something tells me that you either haven’t been on yt since 2010, or you block their ads yourself. When I watch family members use yt, it’s 3x 30-second back-to-back unskippable ads for a 5 minute video. If it’s a longer video like a show episode, several randomly placed ads interrupt the video. It pains me.
It was acceptable when they did a toast overlay for 10 seconds at the bottom of a video during the midsection, that you could also click away with no delay if it bothered you. Now it’s just like cable TV. (shoutout to yt TV which started at $35 and is now like $85 even if you don’t want 90% of the content)
I wouldn’t say it ‘made the world a better place’ either, as most content is redundant (lets have 75 short unboxing and first impression vids of this week’s new phone!) or just pointless (reaction videos, prank videos…). It’s a place for netizens to throw videos at and see if they get lucky.
I subscribe to 65 people, most of which have stopped producing content long ago (10y+). I have… 4 creators that I actually care about (2 of them I support through patreon, 1 via occasional merchandise, the other doesn’t have any means of external support). If they relocated, I’d follow them. But if the rest (~25 active-ish) suddenly stopped, eh it’s a bummer but no real loss.
Kinda akin to MySpace. Everyone in my circle knows about it and remembers it fondly in the early days, but now it’s not really maintaining a pulse. It’s just there, existing - and always craving more money.
I can agree with some of that but I really don’t think it’s akin to MySpace, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t use YouTube for something, sure there are a million Iphone unboxing videos but there’s also how to reach the awkward nut on my exact model car, literally everything I need to get started in my new hobby, and a million funny videos and interesting projects to relax to.
We might see something replace YouTube it it’s better at video sharing, there’s a way for creators to get paid and it can attract an audience but that’s a big ask.
