There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

YouTube is Losing The War Against Adblockers

  • YouTube is intensifying efforts to combat adblockers, including blocking video playback and warning users of potential account suspension.
  • Increased ads on YouTube have driven many users to adblockers, hurting both YouTube’s ad revenue and content creators reliant on ad-based income.
  • Despite these measures, many users are leaving YouTube or finding workarounds, leading creators to seek alternative revenue streams off-platform.
gloriousspearfish ,

Once upon a time Google used few and non-intrusive ads. The ads were soo well-placed and relevant, that they almost seemed like a service to the user, rather than being forced upon you. Some of us even added exceptions for Google ads in our ad blockers, so we would not miss out.

I miss those days.

limerod ,

That was almost a decade ago or even before. I remember adockers recommending white listing search engines or recommending to disable non-instrusive ads to support websites.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know of any day where I unblocked ads and felt good cause they were targeted directly at me

Rentlar ,

There are some ads that I’m fine with, but they have to be clearly an ad, and related to the content on the site, not based on my previous interactions, nor using tricks to disguise ads as part of the content.

On documentation pages: sure just have a thing related to CS courses, on pirating and streaming sites advertise VPNs, on horny sites advertise horny stuff, and casinos and sports advertise gambling and sports betting. But DON’T make the ad look like a section in the documentation, like another download button, like another horny video on the site, like another casino game or segment of the sports analysis. If I want to explore the ad I will, stop trying to trick me else I will try to block and avoid you entirely! If I figure out that are you spending more effort trying to trick me the less interested I will be in the product you offer.

MangoPenguin ,
@MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Meanwhile these days every time I happen to use Youtube without an adblocker I get the same car insurance ads that I’ve gotten for the last 4 years.

SlopppyEngineer ,

Then they killed the competition and there was nobody left to stop them doing to you with ads what the farmer does with geese to make foie gras.

satanmat ,

I forgot where I heard this::: If there are fewer, more relevant ads, Google and YouTube should be able to make more money with fewer ads.

The advertisers though want more ads even though they are less affective. As it forces the cost per ad down.

It is totally backwards…. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

vext01 ,
@vext01@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

The ads are so obnoxious and frequent. It just kills it for me.

I know the reply I’m gonna get…

SomeGuy69 ,
@SomeGuy69@lemmy.world avatar

Then google got greedy and ruined it’s own ad service. Imagine google would’ve stopped at this early point. A single, non flashing banner ad would generate as much as 5 multiple second video ads do now. But ads got used more and more inflationary, to the point where we are now.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Eh, I dunno if I’d say they’re “losing”.

I’ve certainly noticed disruptions on every platform except GrayJay. LibreTube stopped working for several months for me.

Certainly these interruptions could be enough for some users to abandon them.

BleatingZombie ,

I agree with you, but you can also think about it as a one sided battle where youtube keeps shooting themselves in the foot

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

Not really. YouTube provides a lot of tools to make most of their services and content pretty accessible from third party clients. If Google wanted to prevent ad blockers and force you to watch ads, trust me they could. At this point I think some users that only know how to install third party software are going to start claiming they won and ruin a good thing for everyone. You don’t want ads? Then don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

youtube keeps shooting themselves in the foot

How are they doing that? Users who aren’t watching ads have absolutely zero value to YouTube, and only cause increased use of their computing resources. If they leave, YT has lost absolutely nothing, and gained a decrease in energy use. Most likely these people won’t leave YT altogether but just go back to watching ads or paying for premium, which is exactly the point.

Not saying I give a shit, that’s just reality.

usualsuspect191 ,

I’d argue they risk losing users who post links to their videos online. It’s likely the same group who tend to use ad blockers are also the ones more likely to link a video online, so YouTube would miss out on all the non-adblock users clicking links and watching the videos that way.

darkkite ,

absolutely zero value to YouTube this is not true. non-paying users will like, comment, share to others making the platform more popular. and if they’re ads were less intrusive they would actually be more likely to be shown.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

You are grossly overestimating the value of your likes and comments.

JamesFire ,

Maybe they are, but it’s not “absolutely zero” like you said.

romamix ,

NewPipe/PipePipe and Freetube were affected for half a day max, these guys are super fast with the updates.

Gsus4 ,

The other day I visited youtube without any add-ons and concluded I’d rather do anything else than use youtube under those conditions.

kinsnik ,

legit, if youtube ever beats ublock origin, i’ll just stop watching youtube

unexposedhazard , (edited )

Its an all out assault on half your senses without an adblocker. Literal torture.

seaQueue ,
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

The entire web is like that without an ad blocker these days.

Gsus4 ,

I miss those cheeky gif banners from the 2000s

fasterthancat ,

[With hindsight] The commercial use of the internet should never have been allowed.

Gsus4 ,

I want the internet to be a network of digital libraries…communication, public events and sharing space…personal pages…services…the commercial motive starts from there and eventually consumes the rest :/

fasterthancat ,

I reckon without the rule changes in 1993-94 allowing commercial use that the internet would have turned into a significantly more useful utility with higher quality innovation than the advert laden train wreck that we have now.

Gsus4 ,

Ok, apparently it wasn’t as gradual as I thought, there was a determining moment in 93-94 with Netscape and HTTPS that made secure transactions possible for e-commerce.

ltxrtquq ,

Do online multiplayer video games count as a commercial use? I kind of like those

webghost0101 ,

Yt-dlp download script + text file with fav channel urls + jellyfin.

No bullshit, saves bandwidth.

Also look into invidious.

chiisana ,
@chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net avatar

They were serving videos with ads spliced in, basically DAI in podcasting industry. I’m not sure how that experiment went, but if that’s how they’d serve the videos, downloaders will have ads embedded as well.

webghost0101 ,

Yt-dlp supports sponsorblock, i am not worried.

I also dont even need tools for this as my usual style of watching is with my fingers on the arrow keys to skip back and forth

chiisana ,
@chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net avatar

I actually don’t know if/how the ad block people worked around it or if YouTube pulled back. The problem with DAI on podcast and in stream ads is that the ads aren’t always 1:05~1:35, the ad could be longer or shorter, then the next ad won’t necessarily start at the same time, and most definitely won’t end at the same time. So sponsor block won’t know precisely where the ads are, thereby making it much harder for a crowd sourced solution to accurately skip embedded ads. Hopefully they figured out a way, but as mentioned earlier, I don’t know what happened to that experiment.

0x0 ,

Also look into invidious.

And peertube, some content creators also post there, e.g., The Linux Experiment.

pete_the_cat ,

I’ve had YouTube Premium since the days when it was called YouTube Red, so like a decade. I’ve grown used to not seeing any ads from Google and anytime I watch a video not using my account it’s torture.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

Same here. FreeTube for desktop and NewPipe are all you need though if you don’t want to pay and/or have access to music.

Wildly_Utilize ,

Tubular is newpipe + sponsorblock BTW

I use pipepipe but it’s less stable

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I haven’t tried that yet. I think Libretube also does SponsorBlock too & have seen it on F-Droid.

Wildly_Utilize ,

Ya I think you’re right.

I use pipepipe over tubular because it let’s you change the ugly red YouTube banner to black (enable eye protection)

towerful ,

As a recent YT premium-tryer, it’s amazing how many ads they put in that aren’t obviously adverts - comparing between non-premium and premium browsing.
Not sure I’ll keep YT premium beyond the free trial, until I find more decent content producers. Even then, it’s skipping those video’s paid promotion segments.
So it’s like paying for a streaming platform to not get ads… But still getting ads

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I agree… however, that is an issue with the content creators relying on using content promotions. I have noticed when skipping ahead in videos that it usually indicates in the progress bar where the promotion ends. If the content producers utilized other ways to contribute and I liked them enough, then I’d do that. YouTube now has a subscriber only feature that should help with this. There are also extensions that are supposed to block sponsors too. I don’t think YouTube has implemented any functions to make blocking sponsored ads more difficult, especially for paying users… who knows though.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

You could pay for YouTube Premium

Gsus4 , (edited )

Is that what they are trying to do? Push crap ads and try to kill adblock to get a little extra user share to pay for yet another subscription?

PS: let me add that I also watch TV and the balance between quality of content and ads and their placement is much better (yes, some countries are worse than others with this). I don’t know what they are doing in youtube ads, but it’s anti-human (not just the ads, but the design too: super slow loading, tricks you into clicking the wrong content). Like they don’t want you to “pay” by watching ads, they want to torture you until you subscribe, go away or get adblock.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t care if you block ads… but to act like Google owes you and that you deserve free content is called entitled.

Gsus4 , (edited )

Google certainly acts like it owes me nothing indeed, that’s why it will never be good enough to pay to watch.

BedSharkPal ,

I’m just glad someone is thinking of the shareholders

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I forgot… where can I get my free data center with petabytes of storage & 300TB/s fiber interconnects?

BedSharkPal ,

Wait, are we acting like YouTube isn’t profitable now? If I’m going to spend money on videos it’ll be a content creator owner platform like Nebula

towerful ,

I get what you are saying, but the balance is off.
YT premium costs (edit) more than a streaming service per month.
There are no industry leading movies or series released exclusively on YouTube.
YouTubes benefits of premium is “not being delivered ‘skip after 5 seconds’ live streams” as an ad that will play indefinitely (or at least for hours).
Also, streaming services provide much better series discovery. Ie, find a show you like and easily discover the start of that series, then binge watch the entire series in order.
YT premium is basically a “play next” queue, 1080p, and no ads.
It doesn’t (AFAIK) support creators any more. It’s literally just a fee to not-be-inconvenienced, and it’s not great at that

bulwark ,

It’s only a matter of time until the premium users get ads. Just like Netflix, and cable TV before that. You will inevitably wind up paying to be advertised to.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

Netflix has ads now? I thought that was only for their lower tier service? I had to cancel Netflix cause they haven’t came out with two more seasons of Stranger Things yet.

sunzu2 ,

yes for lower paid tiers.

Damage ,

Google makes enough money evading taxes already. Not gonna help them make more.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t care if you use ad blockers. I get annoyed when people publish articles like… “Google is losing the adblockers war” cause then advertisers are going to start pushing harder for Google to actually prevent adblockers entirely, which they could have done already. Thus far Google, despite issues, does quite a lot of good things… Android is the only open source OS out of Apple & Windows. Android lets you install third party app stores. Chrome (Chromium) is open source… etc.

These users writing this content don’t even develop the apps to block YouTube ads. If you’ve ever explored the APIs by YouTube, then you’d know that Google despite pushing ads for users without blockers, is still rather friendly to third party apps.

casmael ,

Fuck that though

narc0tic_bird ,

I’d pay for YouTube Premium Lite if it didn’t state “Note: Ads will still show on music content and outside of videos.” and if that’d make them stop harvesting all my data.

seaQueue ,
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

Pro tip, LLMs do an excellent job summarizing YouTube videos now. I’ve never liked YouTube content, the incentives for creators are perverse and discourage conveying accurate information simply in favor of drawing out every video to maximize ad opportunities. About 95% of the content I might have been interested in could have been better conveyed in a 1-2 page blog post and read in 2 minutes instead of stretched out into a 15 minute video. Having a robot summarize that content is so much less irritating.

Gsus4 ,

What do you use for that, fetch the transcript and just feed it to the LLM of your choice? Or are you talking of the actual LLM watching and summarizing?

seaQueue ,
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve always just used chatgpt for both tasks. I’ll ask my SO, she does more of this and she might have better tools to suggest.

NaoPb ,

Same.

I came across someone who uploaded a 90 minute video as an ad as well.

towerful ,

I remember watching some video, falling asleep for a few hours, then waking up to a livestream of an ad. One of those “skip after 5s” but it was a livestream, so it just kept playing. I couldn’t believe it!

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

It’s so bad that I 1) refuse to pay for premium so I don’t enable the behavior and 2) ended up sideloading an alt YouTube app on iOS that just doesn’t display the ads. YouTube hasn’t been able to block that one yet as it spoofs as the original YouTube app. Totally unsanctioned and a pain in the ass to keep the certificate alive but worth it. YouTube is actually enjoyable again. All that because the ads interruptions were constant. If it was every 15 min or so I wouldn’t care, but every 5!? Get the hell out of here!

chakan2 ,
@chakan2@lemmy.world avatar

Imagine being on the YouTube ad team…that has to be the most depressing team in tech history. Your whole existence revolves around peddling ads before people can watch the ads they want.

bobs_monkey ,

Even better, you work for one of the wealthiest corporations in the world with virtually unlimited resources at your disposal, and you still get your asses handed to you by a handful of people with laptops.

paraphrand ,

If they didn’t have to support the web, and various legacy platforms, the could lock it all down with drm more easily.

Quill7513 ,

Hence Google’s proposal to DRM the web

limerod ,

Your whole existence revolves around peddling ads before people can watch the ads they want.

Ah, what. Who wants or likes to watch ads at all?

conciselyverbose ,

People watch an ad for the privilege of watching a movie/show/game trailer all the time.

ThePantser ,
@ThePantser@lemmy.world avatar

I have no problem watching a ad for a video but when I have to watch an ad just to see if I am interested in watching the video is where I draw the line. Forced ads before the video starts is the worst. Give me a min or two before forcing an ad. If I am looking for help for a particular issue I don’t want to watch ads after ad while trying to gauge the video.

InternetUser2012 ,

I get what you’re saying but I’ve reached a point in my life where I really don’t give a shit and there is absolutely no way I’m watching ads. I’m also not paying google for anything they offer.

chakan2 ,
@chakan2@lemmy.world avatar

Yea…I’m old enough to remember when that was the content that paid for the platform. Putting an ad on top of that is fucking soulless vampic greed.

seaQueue ,
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

Welcome to the new Google. It’s rent seeking all the way down.

pete_the_cat ,

A lot of creators have just turned into corporate shills. I stopped watching ETA Prime’s channel about tech reviews because it was becoming pretty clear that mostly everything he got was paid for by the company. Also, most creators are putting their own ads into their content.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I know right… Why should content creators be able to make money from content. Am I right?

webghost0101 ,

The same reasons as open source software devs.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

Some content creators but not most of them. A lot of open source software advertises too.

knightly ,
@knightly@pawb.social avatar

You’re joking, but you’re right.

Once the content has been created, the near-zero marginal cost of online distribution makes the concept of charging for copies wholly untenable.

The furry community figured this out years ago, our creators work on commission or paid subscription through Patreon or one of its ilk. They (mostly) don’t care where you freely share their work because they already got paid.

chonglibloodsport ,

The knives are out for Patreon. Apple is looking to carve a big chunk out of that revenue. Google and Amazon (owner of Twitch) will not be far behind. Believe me, Google and Twitch are very unhappy that creators skip the platform monetization methods and just tell viewers to go to Patreon to bypass the heavy commissions.

essteeyou ,

Great time for Patreon to expand more into content delivery.

db0 ,
@db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Patreon is jacked to the tits with vc money and enshittifying at a breakneck speeds. Done expect goods innovations from it in the future

knightly ,
@knightly@pawb.social avatar

Patreon deserves to die, their cut of the subscription income is extortionate for what amounts to a very limited web hosting platform.

Open-source alternatives like Mirlo or Cloud Patron will take its place, it’s only a matter of time.

Cephalotrocity ,

Welcome to Youtube. It’s ads all the way down. Unless:

Firefox browser, Ublock Origin extension, Sponsorblock extension

Save 40% of your viewing time for actual content and send tips through creator’s Paypal or whatever.

seaQueue ,
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

YouTube is just on demand TV with extra steps these days. I’ve stopped watching videos, I have an LLM transcribe and summarize for me now. 99% of the content of a 10-15 minute video can be summarized into 1 or 2 pages and read in under 2 minutes.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

I have an LLM transcribe and summarize for me now.

Only a matter of time before LLMs start injecting their own ads into these responses.

seaQueue , (edited )
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

By that point I’m pretty sure we’ll have an effective compact model that can run locally and transcribe downloaded videos on reasonable hardware. Or you can just sic a paid model like chatgpt on the task. The corporate Internet is entirely focused on subscription service models now, unless you run the model yourself on local hardware you’re going to end up paying someone somewhere a service fee.

Edit: y’all need to learn about minified models designed to run on edge hardware, they’re a thing and often work shockingly well.

pennomi ,

Nah, local LLMs are easily in the range of transcribe/summarize. I bet you could do that nicely with llama 8B without even needing a gpu.

cheese_greater ,

Cant wait to have these

Gigasser ,

You already can I think? Ollama is something you can install, and then you can set up a webui like sillytavern for roleplays, or some other more fitting ui for whatever you want. Also, Linux is great for projects like these, on windows it’s fucking a pain to set up, Linux it’s easy.

Wildly_Utilize ,

Local and open source

Shdwdrgn ,

I hope nobody lets them know that Firefox on Linux has never shown ads for any of their content.

Lost_My_Mind ,

Don’t worry. Linux is only 4% of the total computer market. They aren’t bothered with you because Linux isn’t worth it.

Shdwdrgn ,

That’s fine, we’re happy to keep the better choice to ourselves. 😆

pete_the_cat ,

SmartTube for Android TV is a must as well

chonglibloodsport ,

I don’t follow those creators!

The best part of YouTube is the small creators who are just making videos as a hobby. Once they get so big they start shilling products they wouldn’t use themselves I drop them like a hot potato. For the most part that doesn’t happen though because I prefer niche topics and creators that don’t have “sellout” personalities.

rand_alpha19 ,
  • Reviews
  • Trailers
  • Reactions
  • Travel vlogs
  • Beginner tutorials

To some extent, these types of videos advertise or promote a product, service, or experience.

bruhbeans ,

I’ve clicked in to see a movie trailer, which is basically an ad, and had to watch an ad before I could watch the ad

vvv ,

and it’s potentially an existential threat.

Rentlar ,

At least you can tell your boss “I’m working on it!”, sit on your ass, and every 6 months add one more little UI or formula change which “finally stops adblockers” but is defeated within 3 days.

Damage ,

Yeah I don’t believe they really put their hearts in it. If they truly wanted to force you into watching ads, they’d manage. Their team is just not that interested.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

So tell the content creators you like that you don’t like YouTube. While YouTube Premium is the same price as like two coffees a month… Maybe your content creator will help you if you can’t afford it.

claudiop ,

Well, to begin with, both the watcher and the creator are clients of the platform. Both sides feel bound to it, even if both dislike it.

Then, YouTube premium is literally 20 machine coffees a month in my first world country. 15 if they’re done by someone. You seem to be speaking “privileged minority”.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I’m sorry… I didn’t realize the reason that there are so many Starbucks in America, like literally caddy corner from one another is because their customer base is the “privileged minority.” I’ll have to remember that line.

In all seriousness, you could argue that ads prey on poor vulnerable people unable to afford YouTube Premium that just want to use it to learn, and that would be a semi-coherent argument.

GissaMittJobb ,

I’m sure they make enough money to not care. Being in the part of the company that brings in the dough is generally a pretty good position to be in as well.

kayos ,

It’s the only consumer product they haven’t canceled.

cabron_offsets ,

What’s YouTube?

gravitas_deficiency ,

https://media2.giphy.com/media/J8FZIm9VoBU6Q/giphy.gif

nondescripthandle ,

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/832b221b-26a7-4b7b-8918-af71b6aaa89c.webp

Kongar ,

I’ll never understand the entitlement of these companies when it comes to ads. You send the content freely to my computer along with BS ads. It’s my computer. I’ll display what I want using programs I want.

If you want me to pay for that content with $ or by watching ads - then put up a hard paywall and stop sending the content for free. You can’t get uppity and complain about ad blockers - it doesn’t make any sense…

The real problem is your content sucks and nobody is willing to pay for it. And that’s your problem - not mine.

Here’s some free apples. There’s a newspaper ad stuffed in there as well. Oh you ate the apples without reading the newspaper? Foul ball! /facepalm

Edit: never mind the fact that many ads have been served that are downright malicious code…

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

“Your content sucks… And I can’t stop watching it. I also got herpes by watching too much brain rot”

Toribor ,
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

I was paying for Google music until they took it away from me and told me it was Youtube Premium and then raised the price twice.

Not exactly what I’d call a great value proposition.

Vlyn ,

That’s a weird way to look at it, obviously you’re watching the content.

I’d rather see it like this:

  • Free tier with ads
  • Subscription without ads (and better quality)

You are currently on the free tier. Yes, you can block ads (just like you can pirate movies), but that’s not the deal you were offered. I’m using an ad blocker myself, but I can understand the corporate side too.

They absolutely could add a hard paywall, but why should they if there are plenty of users who want to watch for free by paying with ads?

Kongar ,

No, I’m on the “you’re freely posting content to the internet - some of which I want to consume(videos), others not so much (ads)” plan. I never asked them to post anything, never entered a contract, etc.

If they lock the content up, and stop freely posting it, then fine, I’ll stop consuming and go elsewhere. If I can’t live without the content, then I can decide to pay up. It’s their content - they can do whatever they want with it. But they can’t get mad at ad blockers if they put their stuff out there for free.

Vlyn ,

Totally fine by me! But by your logic you can’t get mad at them if they block you from watching due to using an ad blocker. Which brings us back to square one?

Kongar ,

Agree 100%. IF they figure it out - which they won’t for more than a day or two. They know the only real solution is to lock their content up and protect it, but they don’t, and then they get bent out of shape. The companies get weird about it - not the users.

Vlyn ,

I still hold the opinion that they could absolutely block you out. I use uBlock Origin and there was actually a time where I got blocked/warnings every day. Even with upgrading my plugin / refreshing all block lists.

At some point I finally gave in and grabbed YouTube Premium, not because of the ads (I’d rather stop watching than watch with ads), but because I needed their music service (Used Amazon Music before, the app sucked. Music quality was the highest out there though. Also cancelled Prime for a double whammy).

For example the moment an ad gets triggered they could just refuse to send you video data. And if the ad is an unskipable 15 seconds, block playback for 15 seconds. Done. Even if you block this, you get 15 seconds of nothing and will soon be pissed off enough to either start watching ads, buy Premium or leave (no longer costing them bandwidth).

Kongar ,

You may be right, but I can’t imagine how they’d actually pull it off. The internet as a medium just doesn’t work that way - there’s always going to be a flag or a call for me to go pull ad data from somewhere else, and someone somewhere will write code that ignores that command.

Great for them if they figure it out, but the medium doesn’t work in their favor. They want the frog to be an elephant, and when it proves to be a poor elephant they cry to the govt. to fix it with laws and dmca takedowns and whatnot. That’s just a waste of taxpayer money, and annoys people on the medium.

Vlyn ,

Just the way I described, I’m a software developer, it would be easy as hell.

Your browser requests the video, YouTube decides you have to watch an ad. The ad has 15 seconds unskipable. So the easiest thing they could do is not send you video data for 14 seconds (add a spare second for buffering to not piss off users who do watch ads).

Doesn’t matter if you call some endpoint, load the ad data, whatever. You’re not receiving any video for a while, which would piss people off enough to leave.

Kongar ,

But you’re describing something like a hard paywall. I have to do a thing BEFORE they publish the video. Fair game. Weird that they don’t do that, but then bitch about me using an ad blocker.

I think we’ve reached the point of “violently agreeing”. :)

Good chat.

I think if companies put effort into reasonable amounts of ads, and tried hard at keeping the malware in check - people would be more willing to let the ads through and let them make money. If they make money, I get content - win win.

JovialMicrobial ,

They make more money via ads than they ever will with a hard pay wall. The innumerable advertisers paying google/youtube will always pay more than individuals paying for a subscription for no ads.

That’s why people who paid for no ads will eventually end up with ads again, despite paying. They don’t care if we pay or not. They want that sweet sweet ad revenue.

The sad fact of the matter is that we live in an ad based economy. Advertising is more profitable than selling an actual product. Having a platform to sell infinite ad space is a money making machine, plus people making free content for them to lure in more people to watch said ads. It’s super fucked up on youtubes part.

YouTube now exists as a billboard first, content second or third.

conciselyverbose ,

They definitely couldn’t add a hard paywall. It would collapse the system overnight.

Vlyn ,

Collapse what exactly? It would actually reduce strain on their servers and provide a better experience for paying users. Obviously they won’t do it because there’s a ton of users who watch ads (think of the average guy who plays YouTube on their phone or TV, with zero adblocking).

conciselyverbose ,

Just the revenue of paid subscribers will not pay the bills of any content creator that actually has employees or spends money creating content.

They won’t do it because all of their content would have no alternative but to disappear.

Vlyn ,

It would be a huge gamble, but it could pay off. Seriously, how many people are watching YouTube every day? Hours of their favorite content creators.

Imagine a rug pull, YouTube is now a pay only service. No ads, but everyone has to pay $5 a month to access. I’d bet with you that a surprising amount of people would just pay that to continue using it.

How many? Nobody knows, but it would certainly be 30% or higher. Now imagine 30% of users paying just $5 a month how much money that would be.

It can be done, YouTube just doesn’t do it right now as they still earn plenty with ads. If suddenly everyone started to use an ad blocker then things would change very quickly.

conciselyverbose ,

Nobody knows, but it would certainly be 30% or higher.

This is an insane pipe dream.

Vlyn ,

You underestimate how addicted people are to YouTube. There is no alternative to it.

Twitch is streaming focused, the vods absolutely suck. Kick? Same.

What else is there? TikTok? Instagram? Neither of which provide long high quality videos.

After all we are talking about YouTube literally blocking everyone and putting up a banner: $5 a month or you’re out of luck. If someone already happily pays $18 a month for Netflix, what is 5 bucks?

conciselyverbose ,

30% conversion rate of people already not paying to paid subscriptions is astronomical.

Expecting 10% would be delusionally optimistic.

Vlyn ,

Amazon has around 310 million active users. Amazon has 230 million Prime subscribers, even though it costs up to $15 a month. Yes, those include cheaper student subscriptions of course, but still.

Of course 30% is optimistic, but the average people I know happily watch those fucking ads. And don’t even complain about unskipable double ads. They don’t like them, they’re still too lazy to install an ad blocker as long as they get their content. Each one of them would absolutely shell out 5 bucks to continue watching (it’s less than a single beer when you go out).

conciselyverbose ,

The comparison would be Amazon just removing non-prime purchases. It’s not possible they’d convert 8 million of those 80, let alone 24mil. The people who aren’t members have already decided Prime isn’t worth buying.

30% isn’t optimistic. It’s impossible. 10% is “optimistic”. They’d be more likely to net a drop in subscriptions when some creators announced that they were going to be forced to stop making content than they would to somehow convert 30% of people who aren’t willing to pay for YouTube.

yessikg ,
@yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Amazon includes a bunch of services with that price, I don’t see Google matching that

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

Sounds like users are trying to end up in the find out phase.

YouTube… “We provide these APIs and make our apps and privacy policies more accessible than most, but we still can’t give everything away for free.”

Users… “Haha scum of the earth we think we’re beating you and that you have no way to stop us from circumventing your ads without paying.”

billiam0202 ,

My dude, white knighting a company that had almost $60 billion in profit in 2022 and $73 billion profit in 2023 isn’t a good look.

Source.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

My dude… There are 100s of legitimate things about Google to complain about, but you pick the weakest argument and then say I’m white knighting them. YouTube doesn’t owe you cause they made profit… you’ve been able to still bypass their ads for this long, and so now users are complaining that they were able to circumvent something easier in the past?

billiam0202 ,

There are 100s of legitimate things about Google to complain about

But you’re not. You’ve made several comments on this post criticizing the people who 1. want control over their own devices and 2. are sick of ads being forced into every aspect of their lives.

you pick the weakest argument

And I happen to think that a company throwing such an entitled fit over money, when they are making an immoral amount of profit that is increasing YoY, is super relevant when discussing the profitability of one of their services.

YouTube doesn’t owe you cause they made profit

Pretty sure I didn’t say they did.

you’ve been able to still bypass their ads for this long, and so now users are complaining that they were able to circumvent something easier in the past?

People always complain when their convenience is removed from them. Welcome to the human condition.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

But you’re not. You’ve made several comments on this post criticizing the people who 1. want control over their own devices and 2. are sick of ads being forced into every aspect of their lives.

They have control over their devices. You’re not making sense and can’t even articulate how they don’t have control. If they want even more control, they can install GrapheneOS or a plethora of third party ROMs that removes all Google services. Apple users can’t even do that. No one is making them use YouTube either. Google allows third party apps that blocks ads. It isn’t like a… “Ha, Google you’re idiots we are smarter than you cause you are too stupid to block ads.” Seriously, what kind of dumb person takes this attitude?

And I happen to think that a company throwing such an entitled fit over money, when they are making an immoral amount of profit that is increasing YoY, is super relevant when discussing the profitability of one of their services.

Dumb users are the ones throwing an entitled fit. Why is making profit immoral? If you want to say, “I’m anti-capitalist and don’t think the world should be about money…” then just say that. It is a much stronger argument and one that should be discussed more, but singling out Google is dumb. In terms of ethics, they are still way better than most companies, including Apple & Microsoft… In what realitydoes it make sense to attack the more ethical companies before going after the least ethical?

YouTube doesn’t owe you cause they made profit

Read your previous comment.

People always complain when their convenience is removed from them. Welcome to the human condition.

Not always. If I go to a coffee shop and they give me a free one out of convenience… I don’t go back and demand they keep giving them to me for free cause they did it once.

LainTrain ,

Please rewrite this to make sense and we’ll get back to you in 3-5 working days.

MonkderVierte ,

Meh, paywalling some videos behind Google+ (or whatever the current iteration is) would’ve been the honest option. But they chose ads and tracking for everything (makes more money), i can understand why people circumvent them.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

I can understand why people circumvent them too. I can’t understand why they’d claim… “Hey Google, you suck at blocking ads. You can’t stop us from doing it.”

Seriously, fuck people that do this. Google knows people use third party apps that block ads. They might as well say… we’re not happy not having ads. We want Google to block it entirely so we can be even more pissed off.

LainTrain ,

My brother in Christ you really think we’re using APIs?

Please consult the image:

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/416bf304-cc66-471e-b049-e39beb08e3eb.webp

kokesh ,
@kokesh@lemmy.world avatar

I’m getting Playback failed from time to time on reVanced. Maybe after 5mins of every 3rd video. I just go to my watch history, open the video again and it continues. Mildly annoying, but good trade-off for not having ads.

Zarxrax ,

I have not encountered any issues in revanced. Maybe check and make sure it’s updated?

kokesh ,
@kokesh@lemmy.world avatar

Updated yesterday. Maybe it is something connected with me running Adguard Home as my private DNS.

samus12345 ,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

Just got a one-minute unskippable ad for the first time yesterday (no way to use adbockers on a PS5). I’d rather not watch at all.

yesman ,

MMW: Google plans to make Chrome a locked down browser for a proprietary web. But this is only the intermediate step before all web services will be accessed via an app. The commercial web and the public web will hard fork and the kids will never know what a “browser” is.

someguy3 ,

And Sponsorblock. Can’t imagine going back.

bstix ,

The ads have reached a breaking point.

If I can’t block them, I’m just not watching the YouTube. I’ll never pay.

It used to be funny to link a relevant YouTube clip, but it’s not funny if you have to sit through half a minute of ads just to see something silly.

It’s also not really a long time streaming service like TV channels or netflix etc., because the homemade content sucks in comparison to an actual documentary that I can also watch without ads on other services.

It’s like Google completely misunderstood the point of the service they initially made. Also following a decade of users attempting to “monitize” their fucking crap, you can be sure that there’s nothing worth watching on YouTube that couldn’t have been better presented in a gif or in text.

Then the player is also fucking up lately. Usually if I go there, I’ll check the written description while the ads play, just to see if the content is worth the wait, but nooo… you can’t even do that anymore, because the app will start reloading between the multiple ads and the screen scrolls around and minimizes the description and comments. They’re literally hiding any information on the clip except the title until you’ve watched the ads.

It’s fucking garbage. Enshittified to death.

Repeating: Google, if you’re listening: I’ll never pay for YouTube, no matter how intrusive you make the ads. Enshittification is not encouraging me to pay.

ThePantser ,
@ThePantser@lemmy.world avatar

I already pay tons yearly for extra storage. YouTube without ads should be included. Also I was a paying customer for ad free back when Google Music was alive. They killed the best service for the shitty YouTube Music. Bring back Google Music and I will subscribe again.

bulwark ,

Same boat dude. That’s how I got YouTube premium. I uploaded like 500 GB of music for Google Music to host it and I could stream my own collection. Now I use Navidrome and my own server.

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