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It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

economist.com

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Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#191

Post by JohnFen »

pier25 wrote: post #54
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cue uBlock origin - I don’t recall the last time I watched an injected ad on YouTube. Of course most content these days is peddling some product, or has a quick word from sponsors - but at least I don’t have to put up with unrelated ads in the middle of a stream.

And so the creators don't get paid when you watch their content. I pay for YouTube Premium. Creators get paid and I don't watch ads. We have a family plan so this applies to the whole family. We spend way more time watching YouTube than Netflix but pay for both.

> And so the creators don't get paid when you watch their content.

Let's be honest here -- creators aren't really getting paid any meaningful amount of money from those ads anymore. Those days are long gone. That's why all YouTubers who care about revenue do their own ads as part of their own content, and/or use things like Patreon.

There's only one reason why YouTubers even bother to allow YouTube to "monetize" them -- if they don't, YouTube won't recommend them to other viewers.

I also pay for Premium, though.

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#192

Post by msabalau »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #137
psychlops wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Globalization is at odds with national level anti-trust. The past has shown that international companies supported by their governments would eat away at the smaller US companies.

I think this is the big reason that the US hasn't taken action against these companies. They view them as strategic, and want to keep a very friendly relationship.

In this case, treating the "US" as if "they" have a consistent, considered view that drives all their actions seems a little odd and vaguely conspiratorial. After all, it has been well reported that US politicians on both sides of the aisle are looking to put investigative scrutiny on big tech in the year ahead. And US regulators were broadly underutilizing antitrust tools across the board in the past, not just for big tech. That also seems to be changing.

Sure, the US pursues strategies related industrial policy and national security. The CHIPS act or the Inflation Reduction Act are examples.

But you don't need a "big reason" why to explain why US companies like these tech firms have been underregulated. It isn't isn't some mystery, it is just (unfortunately) normal. If US firms are grossly underregulated and under-punished for simple stuff like wage theft, you don't need to invoke strategy to explain why big tech has gotten away with anticompetitive stuff in the past.

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#193

Post by [deleted] »

echelon wrote: post #173
EForEndeavour wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean "in a good way"? How do you control whether someone using your video workflow automation uses it for good (whatever that is) or not?

How does Adobe assure this? Or any tool maker? Email has problems, yet the good and productive uses vastly outweigh the bad actors. The vast majority of systems humans use have benefit, otherwise they would be unwound by governments (eg. crypto). People want to be creative more than they want to be destructive. The destroyers will be moderated, just as they are in every system. I want a world where every kid can make…

[deleted]

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#194

Post by JohnFen »

wintermutestwin wrote: post #119
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cue uBlock origin - I don’t recall the last time I watched an injected ad on YouTube. Of course most content these days is peddling some product, or has a quick word from sponsors - but at least I don’t have to put up with unrelated ads in the middle of a stream.

Cue the people implying that blocking YT's ads is a form of theft. I'd gladly pay for ad-free YT, mostly to send the message that I will never ever go back to watching ads. The problem is that google is already stealing my data. Where is the stalker-free option? Of course, I'd never trust google anyway...

> I'd gladly pay for ad-free YT

Then why don't you? That's been an option for years.

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#195

Post by JohnFen »

goku12 wrote: post #65
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cue uBlock origin - I don’t recall the last time I watched an injected ad on YouTube. Of course most content these days is peddling some product, or has a quick word from sponsors - but at least I don’t have to put up with unrelated ads in the middle of a stream.

It could be argued that the worst thing that happened to ads are targeted ads. The targeting part manages to insert irrelevant ads at the most inappropriate times, even after invading users' activity across the web. Even simple non-tracking ads like a word from the sponsor are sometimes relevant and manages to avoid invasive breaks.

Ignoring the issue that targeted advertising requires surveillance, my biggest problem with it is that it removes the only useful thing about ads:

You used to be able to tell pretty quickly what demographic any given content was made for by noticing what ads were running with it. Targeted advertising removes that signal.

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#196

Post by Aperocky »

nindalf wrote: post #115

I respect the Economist’s business columnist (Schumpeter) and tech columnist (Babbage) but this seems to be a case of Schumpeter writing about tech. Leaving aside HN loving the idea of Big Tech being weakened by becoming Relatively Small Tech, I don’t see how this is in Alphabet’s or YouTube’s interest. The article assumes that such a divorce would be simple and it would allow YouTube to focus on taking on TikTok. It…

> I wish I could invest in YouTube without investing in the rest of it

That's assuming YouTube needs any investment.

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#198

Post by JohnFen »

rchaud wrote: post #167
dageshi wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think more fundamentally, youtube is far less vulnerable to the chatgpt garbagisation of the web. SEO crap is already bad, it will likely get much worse. Youtube has actual good content from creators whose opinions I trust. Google would be moronic to give that up, they've spent long enough building it.

YouTube was the home of AI-generated cartoon videos for kids. Remember the whole uproar about "Elsagate"? That was more than 5 years ago! When you say "SEO crap", you mean text search. But the world is much bigger than text search today, lots of people use YT as a search engine. Because of that, the "Front Page" of Youtube looks like dumpster fire of the worst clickbait you can imagine.

I don't mean to put words in his mouth, but when he said "SEO crap", I think he meant "scummy marketing crap", not SEO specifically.

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#199

Post by JohnFen »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #160
dageshi wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think more fundamentally, youtube is far less vulnerable to the chatgpt garbagisation of the web. SEO crap is already bad, it will likely get much worse. Youtube has actual good content from creators whose opinions I trust. Google would be moronic to give that up, they've spent long enough building it.

Ah, I've been seeing more and more videos that were clearly tossed together by some algorithm using a synthetic voice. The text may even be largely written by an AI and then proofed by a human. They use the same clips again and again, almost in rotation. I think they're slowly going to drown out the good producers.

Those synthetic voices drive me insane. Nothing makes me stop watching a video faster.

Re: It’s time for Alphabet to spin off YouTube?

#200

Post by 91bananas »

echelon wrote: post #173
EForEndeavour wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean "in a good way"? How do you control whether someone using your video workflow automation uses it for good (whatever that is) or not?

How does Adobe assure this? Or any tool maker? Email has problems, yet the good and productive uses vastly outweigh the bad actors. The vast majority of systems humans use have benefit, otherwise they would be unwound by governments (eg. crypto). People want to be creative more than they want to be destructive. The destroyers will be moderated, just as they are in every system. I want a world where every kid can make…

Most of the rest of us don't.
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