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Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

watchnebula.com

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Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#31

Post by manigandham »

trazire wrote: post #21
dymk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet there are still swaths of HN commenters claiming that people would surely support paid, ad-free alternatives to YT, if only they existed. Well, this is try two. Think people will still try to claim it’s a viable model over ads after this one?

It is a viable method, you just won't get many customers. For a smaller userbase, it is entirely feasible and profitable to do stuff like this based on subscriptions. Ad revenue can be higher, but is volatile and harder to implement. Personally, I feel like this is delving too close to other SVOD services. While a potential four figure CPM is alluring, I don't think we'll truly begin to see it.

How is a smaller user base more viable? You can look at Patreon to see just how few accounts make anywhere near a fulltime salary, let alone enough to pay for top tier video production. This model depends on scale.

Also how are ads "harder to implement"?

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#32

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

rfwhyte wrote: post #20

Seems like more and more "content creators" are getting into the platforms business, and I genuinely don't think many, if any of them are going to succeed. If Legendary Pictures, with their Chinese government money and big acquisitions of Nerdist and Geek and Sundry couldn't make their subscription site work, what makes these guys think they'll be any different? As a consumer of content, I don't want dozens of differ…

>I genuinely don't think many, if any of them are going to succeed

Yea, of course. All it takes is one though.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#33

Post by mochomocha »

jasode wrote: post #14

>No algorithm. A personal observation... On that Nebula site, I see creators like CGP Grey, Wendover Productions, Real Engineering, etc. I learned about their existence from Youtube's algorithmic suggestions . Probably 99% of any channel I watch regularly on Youtube came from algorithms instead of url referrals of HN or reddit. Yes, algorithms have a dark side such as the ElsaGate situation. All I can say is that the…

So essentially Nebula offering is a human-curated selection of algorithmically-driven popular content on Youtube :)

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#34

Post by dylan604 »

dymk wrote: post #6
robot wrote: post #3

https://medium.com/vidme/goodbye-for-now-120b40becafa

And yet there are still swaths of HN commenters claiming that people would surely support paid, ad-free alternatives to YT, if only they existed. Well, this is try two. Think people will still try to claim it’s a viable model over ads after this one?

Since the beginning of television, there have been commercials and sponsored television programming. NPR/PBS has made the user supported thing work along side the sponsored programming. The audience is willing to put up with ads in exchange of viewing free content. However, those commercials never had the ability of doing me or my viewing platform any harm. Apart from malicious ad networks, my biggest complaint over the ads is there entirely total lack of concern for placement. Content created for commercial television has breaks where ads occur. YT and other platforms just randomly place an ad based on some formula for number of ads per total run time.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#36

Post by dylan604 »

themagician wrote: post #26

This is so funny to me. The vast majority of creators really don't understand their "role", so to speak, in the YouTube ecosystem. The ego, I think, consumes them. Most content on YouTube—most views, most videos, most trending content—is just slightly better than nothing at all. The bar is both surprisingly low and high at the same time. Most people will not pay for most of the content that gets upload to YouTube in…

By the very name YouTube was about individuals creating content, and not a select few creators. YouTube is a successful example of the old saying "content is king". People just wanted to be entertained, and cared little for the quality or lack thereof (whether in the content or the encoding). Even Vimeo hasn't quite the traction that YouTube has even with it's focus on encoding quality.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#37

Post by scarejunba »

dymk wrote: post #6
robot wrote: post #3

https://medium.com/vidme/goodbye-for-now-120b40becafa

And yet there are still swaths of HN commenters claiming that people would surely support paid, ad-free alternatives to YT, if only they existed. Well, this is try two. Think people will still try to claim it’s a viable model over ads after this one?

Well, obviously someone will find some actually unrelated reason for why this will fail. Let me try one: the thumbnails don't autoplay when I hover. That's why this failed. There's going to be a God of the Gaps thing going on here.

Oh oh, how about "this doesn't accept crypto. it's doomed"

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#38

Post by runevault »

smaddock wrote: post #29
cartman82 wrote: post #15

> No algorithm They are conflating what they care about vs. what the audience cares about.

This seems be directed at creators interested in their platform, which would be their audience at this stage. The "algorithm" on YouTube can decide whether or not a video will be discovered. Guaranteeing that subscribers will see their recent content could be a good selling point.

The trick is, you want to not screw with viewers you already have while still having discoverability tools for the rest. Theoretically this would be like what the sub page SHOULD be plus the home page that recommends stuff based on your viewing habits. Gimme both well segregated and I'm interested.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#39

Post by CobrastanJorji »

themagician wrote: post #26

This is so funny to me. The vast majority of creators really don't understand their "role", so to speak, in the YouTube ecosystem. The ego, I think, consumes them. Most content on YouTube—most views, most videos, most trending content—is just slightly better than nothing at all. The bar is both surprisingly low and high at the same time. Most people will not pay for most of the content that gets upload to YouTube in…

> If you've got valuable content you can host it somewhere else and people will watch.

I'm not sure I agree. Discovery is a big deal. There are many lifetimes of content out there that I want to watch, and some of it exists in places I've never heard of. Content that's already famous will be fine, but quality content alone is not enough to attract viewers, in the same way that a quality business that nobody knows about goes out of business.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#40

Post by p1necone »

smaddock wrote: post #29
cartman82 wrote: post #15

> No algorithm They are conflating what they care about vs. what the audience cares about.

This seems be directed at creators interested in their platform, which would be their audience at this stage. The "algorithm" on YouTube can decide whether or not a video will be discovered. Guaranteeing that subscribers will see their recent content could be a good selling point.

Based on what creators I watch on youtube frequently complain about the problem with youtube is less the recommendation algorithm and more the constant changing of rules around how the UX works, with little/no documentation. There's also the seemingly arbitrary demonetization of videos with little to no recourse from creators.

An example: you used to "subscribe" to a youtuber to get notifications about new videos, but then notifications frequently don't happen, then they added the little bell toggle which supposedly controls whether you get notifications or not, but then notifications still don't seem to happen all the time.

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