Oh man, this is it. YouTube is finally over #youtubeisoverparty
This time for real though, unlike in
May of 2019
February of 2019
January, 2019
October, 2018
July, 2018
March, 2018
March, 2017
February, 2017
September, 2016
YouTube will likely never be over. Thread: 1/8
This time for real though, unlike in
May of 2019
February of 2019
January, 2019
October, 2018
July, 2018
March, 2018
March, 2017
February, 2017
September, 2016
YouTube will likely never be over. Thread: 1/8
Every few months when YouTube changes their terms of service or their algorithm adjusts, everyone wrings their hands and gets their panties in a bunch about how the website is over and "this time for real!" But it never is. Here's why: 2/8
Hosting video costs money. Every competitor that comes along tries to promise the same service as YouTube, but they can't deliver. Over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. That's 5 billion videos watched per day. BILLION. 3/8
Any competitor who comes along needs capital to host content and for logistics & rights technology. YouTube created the content ID system in response to a $1 billion lawsuit from Viacom. No other video platform has a rights management system as sophisticated as YouTube 4/8
So why don't these competitors raise capital? Good idea! Investors expect a return on their investment, so let's say a fictional YouTube competitor named MeTube came along and did just that. How? You guessed it... ADVERTISEMENTS. What could go wrong? 5/8
So now you have a thriving ecosystem of creators who are tired of YouTube, and they love this new wild-west platform... except now they've got ads, and suddenly advertisers don't want their brands associated with content they deem hateful or non-monetizeable. Uh-oh... 6/8
So MeTube decides to roll out some new rules and terms of service, cutting off ads from certain creators. And BAM! You've got yourself another YouTube. It's the business model of the Internet. Don't like pressure from advertisers and censorship? Don't accept ads. 7/8
YouTube will likely never go away because they have a strong parent company with huge money reserves. And even if a new competitor had those same resources, they'd run into the same hurdles and lawsuits from Hollywood unless they had their own content ID system, which they don't.
For all the griping, YouTube is about the best we've got. They're trying to strike a balance between creators and investors. You can't have a video content platform at scale without investors, and you can't have investors without delivering. Don't like it? Find a better model.
