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Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

news.ycombinator.com

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Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

#1

Post by Gemdation »

Technologically speaking, what things would break? Right now, I think of two services that would be impacted: ∙ Google TV/YouTube Movies & TV libraries ∙ YouTube Music's catalog

Sorry for not exactly understanding how both work, this is just more of what I asked in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41946885

Re: Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

#2

Post by trebligdivad »

a split setup could still allow login to youtube with a google ID; just like you can login to some sites using google/facebook/etc - so that might stop that breaking.

(I did notice today that Google video search was dominated by Tiktok results rather than youtube for the first time)

Re: Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

#5

Post by jdiff »

someotherperson wrote: post #3

Google SSO, for some reason it redirects through YouTube

I believe it bounces through accounts.youtube.com just to establish cookies on that domain. Everything else is under google.com, so the rest of the services are already good to go without a bounce.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

#6

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

loftsy wrote: post #4

I've always assumed that Google ads subsidises everything else at Google. So my concern with a split would be YouTube increasing price or less investment in the service.

I'd pay a modest fee for a non-tracking, ad-free, non-enshittified YouTube though. Compete for my money!

Re: Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

#7

Post by Y_Y »

loftsy wrote: post #4

I've always assumed that Google ads subsidises everything else at Google. So my concern with a split would be YouTube increasing price or less investment in the service.

And what would be the reason for this subsidy? Do they think YouTube is going to keep growing and it's worth waiting for them to become somehow more popular? Would it be catastrophic for Alphabet if other large players entered YouTube's market?

And why would losing a subsidy mean increasing prices? As far as I can tell consumers think YouTube's offerings are overpriced as is and they could probably increase profit by lowering them, especially if it's not their parent's add subsidiary they'd be cannibalising.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

#8

Post by barumrho »

loftsy wrote: post #4

I've always assumed that Google ads subsidises everything else at Google. So my concern with a split would be YouTube increasing price or less investment in the service.

YouTube ads generated almost $9B last quarter. I think that should be a viable business on its own?

Re: Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split?

#9

Post by xd1936 »

trebligdivad wrote: post #2

a split setup could still allow login to youtube with a google ID; just like you can login to some sites using google/facebook/etc - so that might stop that breaking. (I did notice today that Google video search was dominated by Tiktok results rather than youtube for the first time)

Which is how YouTube worked when Google bought it. I had to live through the nightmare of consolidating separate Google accounts and YouTube accounts with the same email address. Same with Blogger. It's not hard to imagine YouTube just being another separate oAuth'd account.
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