• AnotherOne ( AnotherOne@feddit.de ) 
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    3 years ago

    No, you love the creators you watch. Youtube, as a google company, created a businessmodel out of stealing data/private information and selling it to the highest bidder. I use newpipe, i never see ads but if i have a creator i want to support i send them money as direct as possible without middlemen (direct donations during livestreams for example). i pay the creator for their work. If google wouldn’t violate my human dignity by shoving a camera up my ass 24/7 i might consider giving them money to run their servers but as long as they try to make me a product they won’t see money nor data from me

      • yeah I would say block ads, and then whatever u would normally spend on premium, donate to your favorite creators

        the creatora only get 55% (which isn’t bad all things considered) of the ad/premium revenue. by donating directly u spend the same but they get more

        • But to be fair, if YouTube themselves don’t make anything then the service that hosts my content creators isn’t sustainable. So just getting premium feels like the most moral option all things considered, at least for me.

          • yeah except idc, google can go fuck themselves. if yt dies, there are other platforms, such as peer tube. not as big, but if yt goes to shit, that where the creators will most likely go

          • zeca ( zeca@lemmy.ml ) 
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            1 year ago

            Youtube is part of a larger company that makes money in various ways and does profit a lot despite the high costs of youtube. Its existence serves a purpose to google, otherwise they would have already extinguished it or changed the way it operates. To see if its sustainable or not you need to look broadly into the system in which youtube is inserted.

    • Catsrules ( Catsrules@lemmy.ml ) 
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      3 years ago

      No, you love the creators you watch.

      And Youtube makes that possible. Show me another service that is as good as Youtube is? Unlimited uploads for everyone, extremely fast constant delivery network. Require no logins or accounts to access the site. 4K video etc… etc… All for the low price of free with ads, or pay for no adds. They every are even one of the best at paying content creators. There is a reason almost every content creator ends up having some kind of account on Youtube.

      Youtube, as a google company, created a businessmodel out of stealing data/private information and selling it to the highest bidder.

      I don’t believe Google is in the business of selling data. There business is ad delivery. They keep the data to themselves as it is their secret sauce to deliver ads.

      • beefcat ( beefcat@beehaw.org ) 
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        3 years ago

        Google absolutely is in the business of selling user data, through their ad network. AdSense customers use that data to target ads. It’s their whole business model. Just because they aren’t being given a database with all that data doesn’t mean they aren’t paying for access to it.

        Facebook operates the same way.

      • Litanys ( chris@lem.cochrun.xyz ) 
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        3 years ago

        They keep the data to themselves as it is their secret sauce to deliver ads.

        I don’t think that’s entirely true. They won’t sell direct data, but through their ad and search systems your ads can drill down to very specific people and thus you know about them. It’s still crappy. It’s kinda unfair I think to outright say they don’t sell your data. You data is their core money maker. It’s just in a round about way. Sure maybe it doesn’t bother you, but in my opinion, the collection of data is the core problem with modern technology, not even just the internet. Data is extremely powerful and valuable.

        • Catsrules ( Catsrules@lemmy.ml ) 
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          3 years ago

          I don’t think that’s entirely true. They won’t sell direct data, but through their ad and search systems your ads can drill down to very specific people and thus you know about them.

          Sure you can drill down to specific characteristics of people but as far as I am aware it is Google that actually handles the interactions/delivers the information. So I am not really sure what information a third party could gather about a specific person.

          But yeah I totally agree data collection is a huge problem basically every tech company is doing it. One of the reason why I try and self host as much as possible. To truly solve the problem we need better privacy laws in place.

  • Bizarroland ( Bizarroland@kbin.social ) 
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    3 years ago

    If money could stop things from enshitifying, there would be very few shitty things on the planet.

    If everybody on the planet subscribed to YouTube premium they would still become enshittified.

    Even with 8 billion monthly subscriptions at $10 a month or more, Google would raise the prices and provide less service.

    They would do whatever they have to do whatever they can do to extract the most amount of money they possibly can out of the product.

    This is not just because Google is a shit company, this is because greed knows no bounds. The only way for a company to stop being enshitified is for the company from the top down to be radically opposed to enshittification.

    Only a good King can stop enshittification.

    There are no good Kings in Google.

  • I’m still annoyed at the removal of google play music. I want to just buy tracks or albums, instead of a subscription, and just own a flac/mp3/music file I can do anything with.

    I rip cds now, and feel 0 guilt for that even though its illegal here because quite frankly the artists are getting more money this way.

  • You’ve found quite the hornets nest, it seems.

    I pay for premium because YouTube does video delivery better than anyone else in the world, and it’s not free for them to provide. Lots of things to hate about YouTube/Alphabet, but theft is a corrupt way of expressing discontentment.

    Also, if I pay for premium, then content creators get paid, and I don’t have to shell out for merch to not feel like a terrible person.

      • I imagine if it doesn’t make sense to you already, I won’t be able to help you understand, but here goes anyway.

        A company pays a lot of money to have a service developed and hosted, then offers a paid teir, and an ad supported teir. If you neither pay, nor watch ads, yet still use the service, then the company is incurring fees due to your usage while receiving no revenue for providing the service.

        Like, YouTube videos are great. Practically a utility at this point. However YouTube, the platform, is a company not a charity; if you cost them money, while providing $0 revenue, you’re stealing their money.

        Personally I don’t think theft is justified outside extreme desparation (stealing food, basically), and given that YouTube gives you an option that does not require giving them money I find it hard to justify stealing bandwidth.

          • If YouTube started banning Adblockers they’d end up with really bad PR and an arms race, neither of which would sound terribly appealing (although I predict this is a policy change in the works already).

            The problem with account bans is that, unlike steam accounts, YouTube accounts have no value associated with them. You ban one and another one pops up.

            If I went to the drive through, and they handed me a coffee and said “that’ll be $3. Would you like to pay with cash? or points?” And I just drove off, they wouldn’t chase me over it, but it is absolutely still theft.

            Listen, if you want to pirate content, go ahead, I can’t stop you, and it’s not like I haven’t done it myself, but don’t lie to yourself.

        • You skipped the part where, upon purchasing YouTube, Google used their infinitely deep pockets to deliberately run all other video hosting services, and there were several, out of business and create a monopoly. I’m not going to question my morals over blocking ads from a company that itself is morally bankrupt.

        • The user should always be in control of the 1s and 0s entering their computer. Allowing some data and not allowing others is not theft. It’s not all-or-nothing for which data Google sends me and recieves from me, that’s absurd.

          • This abstraction doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. Of course you’re in charge of your computer, but just because you’re free to choose a certain option, doesn’t make it moral, or legal. Using a companys service and making a special effort to withhold payment then saying “it’s not theft, they’re totally cool with it” is absurd. Why would they be cool with that?

            • I don’t care of they’re cool with it, I’ll use my computer how I want to. Google makes hundreds of billions in annual revenue, it’s hard to feel bad for them. Calling that theft is a massive stretch, they are not losing anything except for potential profit, you could argue bandwidth but that is so intangible compared to any kind of physical theft.

              Keep in mind with adblocking we’re dealing with fractions of a penny per video and Google is still making money off me regardless. I directly support creators I like, sending them $10 is an order of magnitude more money than they would get over a lifetime of me watching ads.

              • you could argue bandwidth but that is so intangible compared to any kind of physical theft.

                Have you ever paid hosting fees? Digital != Intangible.

                Its up to you to decide what kinds of theft you’re ok with. I definitely pirate things, but I don’t lie about it and say it’s not theft. I just accept that sometimes I’m the bad guy.

  • som ( awwsom@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    yes it does make profit. it’s revenue is over 31 billion dollars if it was not making profit after having this much revenue. Google will just delete it.

    • sabreW4K3 ( sabreW4K3@lemmy.tf ) 
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      3 years ago

      Yes, YouTube is profitable for Google. In 2022, YouTube generated an estimated $29.2 billion in revenue, and its parent company, Alphabet, reported that YouTube contributed roughly 10% to all Google revenue. YouTube’s primary revenue streams are advertising and subscription services. In 2022, advertising accounted for about 85% of YouTube’s revenue, while subscription services accounted for about 15%.

      YouTube’s advertising revenue comes from a variety of sources, including:

      • Display ads: These are static or animated ads that appear before, during, or after videos.
      • Video ads: These are longer ads that play before, during, or after videos.
      • TrueView ads: These are skippable ads that appear before videos.
      • Bumper ads: These are 6-second unskippable ads that appear before videos.
      • Sponsored videos: These are videos that are created by advertisers and promoted on YouTube.

      YouTube’s subscription services include:

      • YouTube Premium: This service offers ad-free viewing, background playback, and access to YouTube Originals.
      • YouTube Music Premium: This service offers ad-free music listening, background playback, and access to YouTube Music Originals.

      YouTube’s profitability is due to a number of factors, including:

      • Its large user base: YouTube has over 2 billion active users per month.
      • Its high engagement: YouTube users watch an average of 1 hour and 15 minutes of video per day.
      • Its targeted advertising: YouTube’s advertising platform allows advertisers to target their ads to specific demographics and interests.

      While YouTube is profitable, it is not as profitable as some other online platforms. For example, Facebook’s advertising revenue is about 98% of its total revenue. This is because YouTube shares a portion of its advertising revenue with content creators. However, YouTube’s profitability is still significant, and it is a major source of revenue for Google.

    • Steuls ( Steuls@kbin.social ) 
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      3 years ago

      Its current operating profit is estimated to be about 3-18% of the total revenue after removing costs, which while something wont last long when you have a finite number of people to show ads and get subs from but an infinite amount of data to store and transmit worldwide.

  • Enshittification is not a thing that will be slowed if only we just pay Google more. It’s a well-honed business strategy. Nobody in their right mind would stop their plans just because people start paying them more, voluntarily.