The greed of YouTube and their ads?

The greed of YouTube and their ads?

Author
Discussion

NaePasaran

Original Poster:

717 posts

64 months

Sunday 1st September
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Not a dig, I know the capitalist society we live in needs perpetual growth, and if I'm not paying anything then I am the product etc etc.

But can't help but notice the increased lengths and number of ads on YouTube.

Back in the day they were near ad-free, maybe with an inplace affiliate ad by the uploader and a banner and below the video.

Then the proper ads come in that were maybe 5 seconds long, then 10-15 seconds by the option to skip after 5 seconds, the 10-30 seconds with no option to skip. Then this morning I clicked on one and it was a 59 second advert either no option to skip.

Is this the uploaders monetising their content, to cover increased production costs and maximise profits? Or is it YouTube implementing this to cover data centers required for the vast amount of 4k/1080p content that's constantly uploaded every second?

It's no bad thing. Quite impatient so just closed it off and done something else but the number of ads and their length does seem to have massively increased in just 18-24 months.

slopes

40,145 posts

194 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
It's their way of maximising the amount of money they can make as their platform is slowly decreasing in usage in favour of TikTok/Instagram reel type things.
A couple of channels i've watched have noticed the traffic decreasing since the pandemic but the increase of traffic to TikTok and Instagram reels is nuts, one particular car cleaning company had a modest YouTube presence and when the pandemic hit, their brand director thought that was it and everything would go the pan.
He started doing TikTok and Instagram and their traffic has jumped exponentially and so they don't use YouTube anymore. Another forum i frequent has seen their membership drop dramatically, one because the original owners sold it to a company who wanted it purely to place ads on the platform but two because people can get almost the same information in a 4 minute burst, so why would they spend hours scrolling away when a cpouple of clicks and hye presto, same result.

It's the way things are going until the next 'big thing' comes along and usurps this trend.

colin79666

1,973 posts

120 months

Sunday 1st September
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YouTube Premium is the answer. I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube for 3 years.

Countdown

42,059 posts

203 months

Sunday 1st September
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I don't know if it's AdBlock Plus or Privacy badger but "something" on my PC definitely blocks Youtube ads.

slopes

40,145 posts

194 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
colin79666 said:
YouTube Premium is the answer. I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube for 3 years.
I refuse to pay to block adverts on YouTube, same as i refuse point blank to pay to be verified on Instagram. In YouTube's case, i'll put up with the odd advert now and then, i mostly use it for music anyway, Instagram i just use to post pics and videos from drone flying and i refuse to pay what they want just so i can have a little blue tick which proves i am not AI or a spambot.

I generate so little traffic it would be a waste of time, same with my YouTube channel, the bandwidth i take up is so minimal i stoped bothering posting videos a while back, it was a waste of my time ultimately.

Overhaul

250 posts

177 months

Sunday 1st September
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If you are watching on a desk top - MAC etc - click the video you want to watch, back click, then forward click to open the video. No adds throughout the entire video !

Ari

19,534 posts

222 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
slopes said:
It's their way of maximising the amount of money they can make as their platform is slowly decreasing in usage in favour of TikTok/Instagram reel type things.
A couple of channels i've watched have noticed the traffic decreasing since the pandemic but the increase of traffic to TikTok and Instagram reels is nuts, one particular car cleaning company had a modest YouTube presence and when the pandemic hit, their brand director thought that was it and everything would go the pan.
He started doing TikTok and Instagram and their traffic has jumped exponentially and so they don't use YouTube anymore. Another forum i frequent has seen their membership drop dramatically, one because the original owners sold it to a company who wanted it purely to place ads on the platform but two because people can get almost the same information in a 4 minute burst, so why would they spend hours scrolling away when a cpouple of clicks and hye presto, same result.

It's the way things are going until the next 'big thing' comes along and usurps this trend.
I don't think YouTube views have dropped since the pandemic (if indeed they have, you don't seem to have posted any evidence of this) because of TikTok etc, I think it's more likely to simply be less people sat on their arses at home with nothing to do! biggrin


Jamescrs

4,875 posts

72 months

Sunday 1st September
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colin79666 said:
YouTube Premium is the answer. I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube for 3 years.
I agree with this but i'm not sure i'd pay for it if I wasn't using Youtube music as well along with the wife and kids.

williamp

19,563 posts

280 months

Sunday 1st September
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is this because that woman is "quarterbacking this meeting" or somesuch?? They are very, very annoying, especially as they are at the start and throughout anything I watch now.

Mr Pointy

11,849 posts

166 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
Countdown said:
I don't know if it's AdBlock Plus or Privacy badger but "something" on my PC definitely blocks Youtube ads.
Same here - I haven't seen an ad since I installed ABP & Ublock Origin.

Truckosaurus

12,047 posts

291 months

Sunday 1st September
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I used to use an adblocker on Youtube but felt I should be paying something towards the semi-pro channels I mostly watching, so stumped up for Premium. You get some extra functionality as well.

The Gauge

3,240 posts

20 months

Sunday 1st September
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I just wish that you could organise the YouTubers you subscribe to into folders, such as Motoring, Cooking, Travel etc rather than just seeing one long list. Even Premium doesn't give you that.

steveo3002

10,664 posts

181 months

Sunday 1st September
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i just run an adblocker and dont see them , sometimes they catch up ask you to remove the blocker but then it updates and removes them again

must be painfull not running a blocker

Actual

1,038 posts

113 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
I watch a huge amount of YouTube and have Premium but as I understand it the amount of adverts suffered by non-premium viewers is off the scale so I don't see how the platform can continue far into the future.

Even the content creators complain and apologise about the amount of adverts although more and more do annoying product placements.

slopes

40,145 posts

194 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
Ari said:
slopes said:
It's their way of maximising the amount of money they can make as their platform is slowly decreasing in usage in favour of TikTok/Instagram reel type things.
A couple of channels i've watched have noticed the traffic decreasing since the pandemic but the increase of traffic to TikTok and Instagram reels is nuts, one particular car cleaning company had a modest YouTube presence and when the pandemic hit, their brand director thought that was it and everything would go the pan.
He started doing TikTok and Instagram and their traffic has jumped exponentially and so they don't use YouTube anymore. Another forum i frequent has seen their membership drop dramatically, one because the original owners sold it to a company who wanted it purely to place ads on the platform but two because people can get almost the same information in a 4 minute burst, so why would they spend hours scrolling away when a cpouple of clicks and hye presto, same result.

It's the way things are going until the next 'big thing' comes along and usurps this trend.
I don't think YouTube views have dropped since the pandemic (if indeed they have, you don't seem to have posted any evidence of this) because of TikTok etc, I think it's more likely to simply be less people sat on their arses at home with nothing to do! biggrin
Just going off what a couple of channels have said, they are getting less and less views but if they have an Instagram or TikTok account, traffic has signifcantly increased. Not my observations, just reporting what a couple of channels in particular have said.
One was caravans
One was drone content
Another was for Bonsai trees
Oh and i'm sure if you look in the Automotive Vlogger thread, several people have discussed how certain channels numbers have dropped dramatically.

smile

James-gbg1e

386 posts

87 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
Run a blocker and configure smart private DNS, advertising free internet.

MBBlat

1,840 posts

156 months

Sunday 1st September
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It’s the American MBA business model

1) Create a popular service, bring in just enough revenue to stay even
2) sell to large corporation.
3) Large corporation decides to up quarterly revenue, increases costs to user in this case increase number of adds
4) your change is unpopular with users, users start to leave
5) short term revenue drops, increase costs, ie put up longer unskippable adds.
6) more users leave, new rivals set up to take your old users that you have pissed off
…. Repeat a few more times until service dies.

No doubt the well built company directors will chip in and tell me that this is wrong and that prioritising short term revenue over long term sustainability is the correct thing to do.

Oakey

27,804 posts

223 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
slopes said:
I refuse to pay to block adverts on YouTube, same as i refuse point blank to pay to be verified on Instagram. In YouTube's case, i'll put up with the odd advert now and then, i mostly use it for music anyway, Instagram i just use to post pics and videos from drone flying and i refuse to pay what they want just so i can have a little blue tick which proves i am not AI or a spambot.

I generate so little traffic it would be a waste of time, same with my YouTube channel, the bandwidth i take up is so minimal i stoped bothering posting videos a while back, it was a waste of my time ultimately.
"Sign up to YouTube Premium to keep videos playing in the background"

"Are you still watching this? Yes / No?"

MOBB

3,812 posts

134 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
colin79666 said:
YouTube Premium is the answer. I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube for 3 years.
Yes worth every penny for me

thebraketester

14,710 posts

145 months

Sunday 1st September
quotequote all
MOBB said:
colin79666 said:
YouTube Premium is the answer. I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube for 3 years.
Yes worth every penny for me
And me. However you do still get the clowns that put ads in their videos usually for vpns or other crap that no one really needs.