Don't we just hear about how YouTube is hurting their content creators nearly every day? It seems like ever since the advertisement fiasco, they just haven't been their old selves. But what exactly was Youtube's "old self"? Was it for creative freedom and control for the content creator? Was it an alternative form of television?
Well, those are well behind us because YouTube has been in the past few years been conducting business as usual. They look like a company only concerned with their bottom line, but merely sprinkling a few tears here and there for the content creators. Why is this post titled with consumers losing? Read on and hopefully I will demonstrate exactly what I mean...
Content War
It seems that YouTube is flagging content, nothing new. But now they are now blocking Patreon and other forms of alternative funding from being posted as links at the end of videos and in the descriptions*. Why would they do this? Short answer: They know the content creators are not accepting advertisements on their videos because YouTube is either blocking their revenue from "offensive content" or they are just plain out paying them too little to continue to produce their videos.
While it's understandable that YouTube is a for-profit corporation owned by Alphabet / Google, they seem to be saying that funding is back, but have substantially cut the revenue received per video now. More on this later.
Streaming and gaming
So, how do you now post up links to those outside funders? You MUST join youtube's partner program, and you are limited the amount of times you can actually post links if you have more than 10,000 subscribers.
How does this relate to gaming? Well, it looks like the move against in stream links and links in videos would work against their second largest sector, gaming. How can gamers that may post daily content post links to their patreon if they are limited? Should they just forget about posting their videos, or should they post videos and hope that their subscribers find the link to a video that has their patreon?
Companies Winning
First and foremost, there are only two conclusions that can be drawn from lower revenue gained per video across the board, and both involve the companies winning. At the end of the day, money talks (for them).
1 - YouTube could potentially be charging advertisers less money per video in order to keep them on the platform, which makes sense. They don't want to lose the billions in revenue to Hulu or Netflix, BUT, when youtube themselves has stated that their money has come back and they aren't paying the same it seems like scenario number two is more likely...
2 - YouTube is more than likely pocketing the difference in money. If what they say is true, then they have unleashed an algorithm in order to find out which videos should be funded or not, and it would stand to reason that they have a way to determine how much money the content creator should receive as well. But note, this is my own personal speculation.
Conclusion
In the end, it would seem consumers are just as hurt as the content creators. Why? Because they aren't able to enjoy the same diverse content they have been in the past, but instead they'll receive a Disney-fied experience, where everything is censored for the sake of money. Maybe it's time content creators join Dtube...
link to source: HERE
Twitch image: HERE
Let me know whether you agree or disagree with this. Like, comment, follow for me! I'd love to hear your thoughts :)