Is YouTube Done? (MOD Warning - See post #193)

ClassLessCoyote

Staying classy
Jun 10, 2009
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There's lots of doom and gloom going around since the Wall Street Journal published a story on Pewdiepie that led to some advertisers pulling their funds out of the site. Creators are complaining about getting less revenue and having their videos deemed not advertiser friendly. Are the content creators and fans of YouTube going to jump ship if there's no money to be made and the content of the videos become boring in order to make the advertisers happy?
 

Shareefruck

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Apr 2, 2005
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Those are some pretty big leaps to make, and even if we were wholeheartedly confident about them coming true, it would still be wildly premature to declare them "done".
 

kook10

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Jun 27, 2011
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Certainly Alphabet/Google wouldn't let it be done. I think they are just waiting to unveil their tv long play. Youtube is in some way only the technology to serve the next phase of the strategy.

In its current version, it can't compete in the long run without getting serious about producing content (or having stronger production partners). Now other players can swoop in offer competing deals to their content makers. YouTube Red is not a serious contender - in fact I think it is just a stopgap to get their toe in the space. I mean, Netflix has the money to make 40 features a year - they don't know what to do with all their cash. YouTube / Google isn't to the point where they would have any clue what to do with a production budget of that size. However, if they bought/merged an entity with a company like CBS or Viacom, then immediately they are in the production business and can roll out a real subscription model.

That said, I think YouTube will split into two - with user-generated content remaining under the YouTube brand and subscription content being called something else. [been wrong before though :P]
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
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There's lots of doom and gloom going around since the Wall Street Journal published a story on Pewdiepie that led to some advertisers pulling their funds out of the site. Creators are complaining about getting less revenue and having their videos deemed not advertiser friendly. Are the content creators and fans of YouTube going to jump ship if there's no money to be made and the content of the videos become boring in order to make the advertisers happy?

Not everyone who uploads stuff to make money. It is the Vloggers who have made a shed load of money that are causing the concern. The have been hit hard.
 

Trap Jesus

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Feb 13, 2012
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What other (sfw) video sharing site even comes close in popularity? They are fine.

Pretty much this. Even in the worst case scenario of a ton of the creators leaving, you'd probably just see new people rise up to take their place. The rise to fame on YouTube is absurdly accessible to a lot of the creators.
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
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Somewhere on Uranus
People seem more upset about the video recommendation algorithms than the actual ad revenue.


Vbloggers such as Philip Defranco and a few other have been banging on over their videos being demonitized.

HE has a valid point. He talks about topics and loses his monetary support. Both CNN and Fox talk about it and show graphic stuff and yet they do not. So there seems to be a obvious attack on some channels while not others and that is the problem
 

ClassLessCoyote

Staying classy
Jun 10, 2009
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Vbloggers such as Philip Defranco and a few other have been banging on over their videos being demonitized.

HE has a valid point. He talks about topics and loses his monetary support. Both CNN and Fox talk about it and show graphic stuff and yet they do not. So there seems to be a obvious attack on some channels while not others and that is the problem

There's also talk of LGBT content being age restricted and talk of where only family friendly stuff can get ad revenue. Looks like other YouTubers are either focusing more on other revenue streams they created or staring other streams like Twitch and Patreon.
 

Mikeaveli

Registered User
Sep 25, 2013
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Vbloggers such as Philip Defranco and a few other have been banging on over their videos being demonitized.

HE has a valid point. He talks about topics and loses his monetary support. Both CNN and Fox talk about it and show graphic stuff and yet they do not. So there seems to be a obvious attack on some channels while not others and that is the problem

Off topic but does anyone else get a bad vibe from DeFranco on the whole situation? Why is it that I can't see how much his Patrons are giving him?
 

jw2

Registered User
Jun 13, 2012
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Boston
What other (sfw) video sharing site even comes close in popularity? They are fine.

Facebook, Snapchat , PH...

All tech has a timeline. It's possible for a new platform to overtake them. It's definitely gotten "stale". But they're not "done".
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
99,857
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Somewhere on Uranus
Off topic but does anyone else get a bad vibe from DeFranco on the whole situation? Why is it that I can't see how much his Patrons are giving him?

the problem MANY have with him banging on over the subject is rooted in the fact he made a lot of money selling his channels a few years ago

in 2012 he sold 3 or 4 channels to Discovery and group 9 and for 4 years(until December 2016) he was on a $250k a year contract and was paid a reported 1 to 3 mil for each youtube channel he sold(this is depending on the individual source)

He made a lot of money and since he did not own his channel--the revenue stream did not affect him since he was on salary.

Late 2016 his contract ended and in Feb of this year he got the ownership of his main channel back and now since he no longer has the contract he now needs the youtube ad money and that is one reason why he keeps bring it up
 

Mount Suribachi

Registered User
Nov 15, 2013
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There's also talk of LGBT content being age restricted and talk of where only family friendly stuff can get ad revenue. Looks like other YouTubers are either focusing more on other revenue streams they created or staring other streams like Twitch and Patreon.

Conservative channels have been targeted with demonitization as well, so the censorship goes both ways.

The whole "Pewdiepie is a Nazi!" fiasco showed just how scared and desperate legacy media are. I'm in my 40s and I find myself watching more on Youtube than I do traditional TV, so how much more for todays teenagers?

Right now there is no viable alternative to YT, but if they don't figure out a way to allow freedom of content, and for content creators to make a living from it, then eventually something better will come along and replace it.
 

Five Alarm Fire

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Jun 17, 2009
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There are a lot of bad apples on YouTube that will be weeded out by the new advertising rules. YouTube didn't only have an inappropriate content problem last year, but a cyber bullying problem as well. The website will still generate a ton of traffic and revenue.
 

johnjm22

Pseudo Intellectual
Aug 2, 2005
19,399
14,500
It's not the PewDiePie's and Phillip DeFranco's that are really getting hurt by this. These guy's are huge and can figure out other ways to monetize by leveraging their celebrity status.

YouTube has an entire "middle class" of content creators that can't absorb an ~80% loss in ad revenue. These are the ones that are really taking it hard.

All the quirky unique content creators are part of what made YouTube the place that it is today. It's part of the YouTube culture and I would hate to see it go.
 

ArGarBarGar

What do we want!? Unfair!
Sep 8, 2008
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Conservative channels have been targeted with demonitization as well, so the censorship goes both ways.

The whole "Pewdiepie is a Nazi!" fiasco showed just how scared and desperate legacy media are. I'm in my 40s and I find myself watching more on Youtube than I do traditional TV, so how much more for todays teenagers?

Right now there is no viable alternative to YT, but if they don't figure out a way to allow freedom of content, and for content creators to make a living from it, then eventually something better will come along and replace it.

I mean if you make a stupid "joke" like that when you are the biggest Youtube star you shouldn't be surprised when you are subject to criticism from the mainstream media.

Youtube will be fine. Patreon has been a major boon for content creators and a lot of them are switching to that while using Youtube to upload their videos for the amount of exposure they can get from it.
 

discostu

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Nov 12, 2002
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I don't know too much about their YouTube side, but Google is pretty notorious for being hard on content providers, and captures as much of the revenue stream from them as they can.

I caught the following article recently dealing with some of their featured results on their search engine:

https://theoutline.com/post/1399/how-google-ate-celebritynetworth-com

We're now pretty far along in the digital age, and you see power consolidated among the top players, creating the ability to squeeze providers.
 

Voight

#winning
Feb 8, 2012
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Mulberry Street
Much like Facebook, I doubt it will ever die. There isn't any competition that comes close to topping them and they are the go to video site, "You Tube Famous" is a normal phrase these days.

I enjoyed it more when there was less ads but what can you do.
 

Nalens Oga

Registered User
Jan 5, 2010
16,780
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Canada
I just realized that the kids today probably don't remember Youtube from back in 2006 or 2007 lol.

The website became popular before vlogs and whatever other crap gets monetized these days. They'd be earning a profit on cat videos and music vids alone.
 

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