Whoa
Becoming ever more obnoxious with ad placement because your ad-supported service is losing money and you don’t know what else to do is a classic late-stage-enshittification step. It is usually the last one before the service becomes openly hostile to its users and partners and becomes a mostly-worthless relic. I did not think Youtube was at that stage or even close to it but maybe it is.
I can’t really tell if Youtube is losing money or not, but it creates about $8 billion per quarter, and Google’s overall operating expense is $55 billion per quarter, and I think it actually might be a safe assumption that Youtube is a pretty decent amount of that expense given its scale and its storage, bandwidth, and employee-resources requirements.
Here’s the thing about YouTube. From the very beginning, it was a video-hosting platform. Users create content. They upload the content to YouTube’s servers. Other users view the content, and upload their own. A simple formula, no? That’s why their pre-Google slogan was “Broadcast Yourself”. The thing is, storing video data long-term is expensive. This is where Google comes into play, because, unless you’ve got Google’s money, you cannot afford to store literally 100s of Yottabytes of video data, not for very long, anyway. Even if YouTube becomes a “mostly-worthless relic”, there’s nobody who can readily replace it. I suppose someone could create a fediverse version of it where you simply upload your own content to your own server and then sell (or give) access to other users, but it would be slow to start, and small as not everyone can afford their own server to host their content on. Or, a service that aggregates videos by scraping them from from video servers that it has access to, creating a hub for users to enjoy the content made by other users that is stored on their own servers.
Yeah. As with many things, “Can this make money?” is not the same as “Is this a nice thing to have around?” and the disconnect between the two when capitalism tends to assume they’ll be the same thing, is a source of unhappiness in many ways.
Funnily enough, one of the things Reddit’s PCM community tried to push was the concept of nationalizing YouTube because “it’s a public service.”
They thought the average browser was too stupid to ask why all these Nazis wanted that, where all of a sudden the 1st Amendment actually comes into play, and now you can’t take down their blatant misinformation and hate speech.
Good point, i never thought about that angle. Looks like the only option is self hosting then.
Hmm that’s pretty fucking clever for complete choads.
Ads never bothered me on YouTube.
They’re bothering me enough now that I’m going with an android phone after more than a decade on iPhones just so I can get back to YouTube the way it used to be with a decent ad blocker (better than it used to be actually).
I can’t fucking stand it, and again, it didn’t bother me before.
Want to show someone a short clip? Nah. Gotta skip two fucking ads first while you stand there looking stupid and waiting.
I’m fucking done.
The irony of a Google product pissing you off so you switch from iOS to Android
All to get those sweet sweet modified APKs
From very trusty Telegram sources no less!
On a more serious note, f-droid is where I got NewPipe. Also, you don’t need to own a fucking macbook and pay a fucking developer’s license to be able to develop for Android, which is good.
Telegram? F-droid? Just patch the original apk’s locally. Easy
What this commenter won’t tell you is that the patches are only for specific versions of the app, it’s what makes it a pain, can’t just patch the one that phone updates all the time from the store or the app will be quite bugged.
So pissed at YouTube (Google) you’re switching to Android (…)? Was this their master plan all along?
I’m going to go with a degoogled version of the OS (LineageOS is my current plan).
The only way I’ll back out is if Apple allows an ad blocker that will cover any app I’m using. I’m currently paying for one that only works on Safari and YouTube videos take a thousand years to load up.
Now if a legit version of Firefox makes its way to iPhone in the US with ublock, I’ll be happy with that.
If you don’t like ads then don’t watch YouTube.
The tears of people subsidizing my having never watched an ad (by having premium) fuels me for this week. Bring on the disagreement, but this is going to be a hard week, I’m going to listen to 2-3 hours of YouTube a day, and never have to pay attention to it to skip an ad. And my cats will listen to it ad free all day when I’m not at home.
Same with the dozen podcasts I listen regularly.
Mid to late 2000s adds were very easy to avoid
Didn’t have to pay to see much of anything.
Just every now and then a virus.
Soon we will return to that, except smarter and more adept at not downloading viruses and traps songs labelled as Linkin park
First, it was side banners that you could easily ignore.
Then, late 90s, early 2000s, popups that interrupted your attention. This was such a problem that EVERY browser added a “block all popups” setting, which never blocked the ads, but to this day may block stuff from sites you actually want to use.
Finally, it became javascript. Fucking javascript. “What could go wrong?”
@GrymEdm
Die alternative:
docs.invidious.io/instances/That, and the absolute curbstomping of creativity through their copyright enforcement methods has gutted the core of a once great service. We are simply watching this thing shamble on to find a place to die: like a heart-shot elk bounding off into the bushes
like a heart-shot elk bounding off into the bushes
This person has some stories, I bet! 😅
That’s an unexpectedly poetic and melancholic way of portraying some lamentable decisions.
I have a lot of appreciation for writing, and do a lot of it myself (for reports).
My father in law uses the built in YouTube app on the TV. There were 3 ads that played. The first one was 15 minutes. The second one was also around 15 minutes. The third one was an hour. One fucking hour for a 5 minutes video.
It always makes me mad when somebody put a playlist on YouTube and out of nowhere a bad song starts playing because it’s an ad.
I also felt like lately there are too much ads on videos.
YouTube Ads alone yielded $31B in revenu for Google in 2023.
YouTube Ads is not going to disappear, unfortunately.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/289659/youtube-share-of-google-total-ad-revenues/
Was YouTube ever profitable?
I actually had trouble finding that out (although I only looked for like, 15 minutes). It’s apparently difficult to determine according to some tech websites. I do have this chart that says since 2017 YouTube ad revenue has been 7-11% of Google’s global revenue but I don’t know if that = profit. Decided to meme anyways because I have ads blocked on PC but still see them on my phone.
Youtube has always claimed that it doesn’t turn a profit but I don’t believe them. My reasoning is that if the server costs are more than the revenue today, then they’re going to be worse tomorrow. A gorillian gigabytes of data are uploaded to that thing every nanosecond. A company can’t get exponentially less profitable every second and still survive. And what else is there to prop it up? Google ad results? No way is Youtube not profitable. They’re saying that to avoid tax.
Hosting a streaming service is incredibly expensive. Especially at the scale of YouTube. I can imagine YouTube is costing far more for Google than Search itself.
My guess is that YouTube has never really been profitable, which is why they’re pushing users to buy Premium.
get firefox with ublock origin. block that garbage on mobile too.
deleted by creator
“I have ads blocked on PC but still see them on my phone.”
If you’re on Android, ReVanced. And if you’re on iOS, well get fucked or something, idk
I just use Firefox with extensions on mobile honestly
Yeah I completely gave up on the app. Firefox with ublock is a blessing, internet in general is basically unusable on mobile without it.
In iOS you can use Yattee and link to an alternative Frontend. Works well for me.
He explicitly told you to get lost or something, dude!
Seconded on this one. I use Yattee with Piped as my frontend, with an account as well, and it’s been pretty solid so far.
I use adguard on ios, also a vpn btw, and blocks all ads in browser and blocks ads in yt videos in their app. Used yattee for a bit, but tbh I didn’t like the UX, then it stopped working so I switched
You just got me free music, I couldn’t afford it anymore so I have to drop it. Thank you
On ios there’s brave browser and firefox focus.
Given the tech turnover rate at google (the rate at which they kill products) the answer is most probably yes.
I was fine with giving them 5 seconds of attention in exchange for a video. Then they added more and more, and moved the skip button SOMETIMES. It’s straight up disrespectful.
I was okay with giving the recovering alcoholic just a small drink but this, I can’t abide.
I also HATE that if you miss the skip button on the first of multiple ads, they disable the skip button for another number of seconds.
Removed by mod
Good point. The ad quality has dropped by so much, hard to imagine ads this bad are possible. Really shitty mobile games are a huge part of that advertisement. A lot of stuff that just seems scam my too.
I constantly see an ad by zeiss (which is a german company but they’re in california) and I don’t even know what they produce but I swear to God I’ll never get a Zeiss product. An acquaintance worked with them for a while and I have trouble taking him seriously now. (They’re pretty american in that way but they’re also very german)
I fucking hate zeiss after this ad.
I was getting ads for a very blatant scam. They used extremely well known buzzwords for it too, it’s actually embarrassing that it could have passed even automated screening.
Sometimes I think they don’t even have an automated screening. Instagram/Facebook sure as fuck don’t.
Please tell me about this cult that worships alphabeta-blocking milkshakes. Sounds intriguing.
I watch one set of ads. As soon as the second ad starts I download the video and fuck youtube.
Is there a blocker I can use on the android YouTube app? I put videos when I’m doing dishes, and in the last year the ads have gotten so long that if you don’t skip em or can’t (cause you’re hands are wet) they go on for 10 minutes or more. The worst are the ads that end, but don’t leave your screen until you physically press skip.
Brave or Vanced or Firefox with uBlock origin
Vanced is dead. Use revanced or revancify(requires terminal).
The only reason Brave needs crypto at all is so the CEO can keep donating money against gay marriage without getting caught.
I don’t think the Brave CEO cares about getting caught
YouTube revanced gives me ad blocking with sponsor block included
NewPipe app is a good one, or Tubular if you want sponsor block too (though you can’t comment or like videos etc. on either). But if you want to use the actual YT app, the solutions in the other comments are good.
I assume that setting up a Pihole or some other ad-blocking DNS could also work.I assumed wrong. See reply.Pi-hole does not block content that is hosted on the same source as the ads. Youtube, hulu and friends host their own ad services (dont quote me on exactly which streaming platforms this does and does not work on, uBlock should also be part of this suite of ad-blocking) so it wont spare you from those. However people using ad services like google adsense on their website will have content blocked as DNS will resolve to the place your trying to go and the webpage asyn-loading its ads will not.
NewPipe
Check out “ReVanced” YouTube.
It takes set up and maintenance but it is well worth the effort as you get all YouTube premium features, latest YouTube app updates, and other enhancements.
Direct link to GitHub- https://github.com/ReVanced
EDIT:
Removed the incorrect “.net” Link as mentioned below.
This is not their official website. Never download revanced from anywhere other than their GitHub repository or https://revanced.app
Thank you! I quickly (and carelessly) searched and pasted the link. Thank you for the correction.
Yea dude so many people go to that .net site i don’t know whether it’s legit. But i search GitHub and open the link provided in the side bar
If you have a rooted phone and Magisk there is a module that essentially turns the stock YouTube app into the Premium version without adds and background play enabled.
Wow really? What’s it called?
The reason YouTube makes the ads so unbearably obnoxious is they want people to pay for premium. That’s all they’re doing is annoying people until they pay. I’ve been paying for premium since the beginning, I know it’s awful, but at least I have never seen any ads.
I use Firefox with ublock origin and I don’t any ads either.
yeah I admire all of you who refuse to use the YouTube app and you watch YouTube through a browser, but in my opinion watching YouTube through a browser is clunky and tedious.
ReVanced, NewPipe, SmartTube. You’re correct that their mobile browser experience sucks.
Yeah premium makes 15 dollars per month. Ads for an average viewer makes dozens of cents per month.
youtube prem + youtube music family plan with 6 total users at $22.99 is pretty reasonable.
Per year?
Per month.
That’s not good at all.
Yeah, it’s really expensive.
I remember when YouTube was free, and ad-free. I’ve been posting videos to YouTube since 2005. Then a few years later they put a price on it, “Premium” became $9 a month. Something something Pepperidge Farm remembers
And I was grandfathered in at that price even after they raised their prices for everyone else, but then for some reason I got upset and I canceled YouTube but then I couldn’t live without it so I subscribed again and they put me back in at the regular price with all the new people 😡
I had the same deal, my comment is in regard to the family plan, which allocates 6 total accounts. I thought $3.83 per person a month was reasonable for the hd music alone, youtube prem was just a plus, but based on other comments I’m apparently a dipshit. 🤷
No worries they bumped up everyone that had a grandfathered in price after a year or two
Tbf the only reason I know that YouTube has paid subscriptions is because of threads like this one, so it doesn’t seem like they’re really pushing their paid service.
Maybe they’re only targeting people who, for some reason, don’t block ads, and that’s why I’m unaware, but they should offer a little more than the things you can get for free already (no ads, downloading) if they want to draw in the adblocker crowd too.
Now people will start to google what’s up with all those ads and end up installing uBlock.
They definitely push it. The mobile app has popups advertising it etc.
I must be out of touch.
I didn’t think I’d need an app to visit YouTube.
Yeah, at least i got both youtube and music, so far it’s worth my money. I’d love to get nebula + a music app but it cost way more.
Until they pull a Microsoft and start throwing ads into the paid model as well.
Or like all the other streaming platforms that you paid a subscription for to not see ads, but believe it or not you now have ads.
yeah I havent experienced it myself with YouTube, but I have heard some people say they pay for premium and they’ve started getting ads 😡 YouTube is a huge part of my life and I would be livid if this happened and I don’t know what I would do because I don’t know how I could live without YT I would love to say that I would abandon YouTube if they pulled this shit on me, but I just can’t even imagine my life without YouTube. I don’t pay for any other service, no Hulu, no Disney Plus, no HBO blah blah whatever the heck other people are paying for. when I’m craving watching something, I always go to YouTube. And I have several YouTube channels too, so YT is an integral part of my life 😭
Unfortunately, this is becoming increasingly common. Amazon now also shows ads on the Prime streaming service even though you already pay a subscription fee for it.
Objectively wrong.
YouTube could not be profitable showing one quick ad per video, especially if it’s longer content.
Im of the firm belief that youtube should make creators pay for storage of their videos.
Free teir for short videos, no monetization, YT places ads. Paid teir for longer form videos and monetization. This would ensure that long form videos should ideally be profitable for creators, or companies uploading their training videos etc pay a nominal fee for their storage.
This is the fairest way to keep youtube in the green.
Yeah it’s very clear to me the top creators make far too much money and I agree that business model bears fruit.
However, the cost of YouTube isn’t the storage, it’s serving views of the videos. That payment scheme you’ve suggested doesn’t scale well with number of views of single videos, that’s why they chose to increase income per view and not per video.
this process will cause most smaller creators to just leave the platform, it’s already super difficult to to get established, this would essentially force them to operate at a loss until they can get a foothold which concidering a lot of the time it can take months to years to get established? I can’t see that system being sustainable either.
I know this is a controversial opinion, but I dont think youtube should be a place where small creators should expect to make money from direct monetization. That model is what brought youtube to the state its in. Selling patron, merch, or driving traffic to their own website for services, yes. Direct monetization of ads on youtube, no.
