YouTube has been spotted testing server-side ads, which could pose a problem to ad blockers.

  • Wogi@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I mean, if you’re not paying for it, and they can’t advertise to you, what do they need you for?

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      To keep claiming they have x billion accounts…

      There’s a big reason why these companies don’t remove the bots and willingly allow them to do whatever. It boosts their numbers to inflate their actual worth.

    • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      at least on my part, what they get from channel memberships (a whopping 30%) I’m sure exceeds the amount in ad revenue they lose from me

    • tabular@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Does YouTube have competition? Your line of inquiry doesn’t mean much if the content is only on YouTube.

      • Wogi@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’m not sure what point you think you’re making.

        YouTube doesn’t want you visiting if they can’t either put ads in front of you or get you to subscribe to premium. I appreciate wanting to access YouTube without ads, but from where they’re sitting, if they scare you off with server side ads all the better.

        • tabular@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Simply put: why care about their point of view? Google does not have your best interests in mind, often the opposite. There’s no where else to get almost all of the content, why do without or waste time with ads in this short life.

          • Wogi@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            YouTube could fall off the face of the earth and I would probably see my quality of life improve slightly.

            I don’t give a shit about Google. Perspective here is important when you threaten to leave the platform all together, as if they would care. If you’re one of the users they gain no ad revenue or subscription revenue from, they’re probably happy to see you go.

            Could they be doing more to try to turn Adblock users in to paid subscribers? Sure. I’m not here to defend their methods. I’m just saying that if you’re not paying, and you can’t be served ads, they really don’t care if you continue to use the service or not.

    • Cypher@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I did pay for it but they massively increased the price while the recommendation algorithm was deliberately made worse and they wouldn’t stop pushing short format videos.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      Youtube is google No 1 source of machine learning content. Fuckloads of video, audio and subtitle data they can use to feed and train their systems. Youtube itself doesnt need to make profit, thats just a bonus for them.

      • Wogi@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        YouTube advertising is more than 10% of Google services total profits.

        That’s not a bonus, that’s a dependant revenue stream.

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          Yeah no, that is revenue. Youtube is 10% of total Google/Alphabet revenue. That doesnt necessarily equate to 10% of profits.