• BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Asking genuinely, if you were in charge of YouTube, and you don’t think anyone should pay for YouTube, and you don’t think you should run ads, how exactly would you go about paying for the massive amount of engineers and infrastructure needed to keep the lights on?

    • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      For me personally, I would rather pay for a service than with my time via ads.

      That said, the services provided these days are unreliable, gatekept, metered and not enjoyable. Why should I pay for shitty service?

      Therefore I’m only left with one option and my wellies are strapped tight! 🫡

      • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Well, if YouTube were truly so terrible that you think it offers no real value, you wouldn’t use it at all. If you yourself don’t use it, that’s all well and good, but if you do still use it anyway but block ads, then you’re admitting that it offers some amount of actual value while refusing to pay for it. In that case, it’s hardly unreasonable for YouTube to decide to not take on the cost of offering the service to those that aren’t going to pay for it. You’d probably be more than a little annoyed if your boss told you that you’ll be working extra hours for free.

    • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Honestly?

      Not my monkeys, not my circus.

      I don’t care what YouTube wants to do or how they do it, they need viewers and if they can’t figure out how to keep em, ah well. They gotta create a service that caters to my behavior, not the other way around.

      • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Well, actually, they have to create a service that caters to people who bring them revenue. If that isn’t you, they don’t have to, and actively shouldn’t, cater to you at all.

        You’re just saying “I don’t have an actual answer” in a roundabout way.

        • drkt@feddit.dk
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          1 year ago

          The reason I don’t bring them revenue is because they continue to make the experience worse. Paying isn’t going to make that stop, it’s just going to temporarily shift the bar a little; the bar is however still moving towards a shittier experience for all.

          Why would I look at this and go “Yes, I’ll pay!” There are a lot of services I would genuinely pay for if I didn’t have an impending dread that the service is just about to get worse again regardless of if I pay or not. It’s not like paying is a magic bullet, either, it comes with a ton of different issues like privacy. They still sell your soul to advertisers if you pay them.

          • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Ultimately, they have no obligation to provide you something of value for free, and given that you do apparently use YouTube, they are objectively providing you something of value. They’re completely within their rights to not do that.

        • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 year ago

          Well, I don’t, but it isn’t my problem.

          Google makes enough money as is, I don’t really care if the make poor decisions and end up with an unviable business model. I’ll do other things with my time.

          I don’t really care about Google’s wellbeing. I pay directly to the content creators I like and I hate seeing ads anywhere in my life and I’m willing to put in time and effort to make sure I see as few as possible.

          If they say that the marketing data they scrape from user activity isn’t enough for em, well, sucks to suck I guess.

          • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I don’t really care if the make poor decisions and end up with an unviable business model. I’ll do other things with my time.

            Alternatively, they’ll take steps towards a more viable business model, and you’ll also find other things to do with your time.

            I’m willing to put in time and effort to make sure I see as few as possible.

            You can zap all ads forever with a few minutes and a credit card, if you’re willing.

            • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 year ago

              That’s the thing with ads. They’re a thorn in my side. That Google puts there.

              If you were charging me to remove the thorns you put in my side, I’d be belligerent towards you. And I ain’t gonna give ya money.

              Is YouTube running at a loss, anyway? Or is Google just trying to squeeze more money outta its products? Maybe they should be content with the profits they got. Some quick searching says it generates somewhere in the realm of $29,000,000,000 in revenue annually. I imagine it’s likely they can afford to not be so damn greedy.

    • rebul@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I don’t mind paying for YouTube content. I do mind their data harvesting, however. Figured out that my life isn’t diminished at all without Youtube.