Live data from Hacker News

NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

newpipe.net

41–50 of 407 posts

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#42
I can't find a source which has all the financial figures for YouTube, but YouTube had a gross revenue of 29 bn USD in 2022. Alphabet had 55 bn USD in net income in 2022 of which how much was YouTube's share in the net income is unknown (or at least I couldn't find it).

Let's use some assumptions to get to a number.

1. Let's assume that out of the 29 bn USD revenue that YouTube brings in 55% is shared with creators. Thus we are left with 13 bn USD.

2. We know that YouTube's share in the overall revenue of Alphabet was 10.5%. Let's assume that all of Alphabet's properties were proportionately profitable (highly incorrect assumption). If the properties were proportionately profitable, YouTube's would have bought in a net income of 5.75 bn.

3. In the past it has been reported that YouTube has been breakeven from a profitability perspective.

This means that YouTube's net profit is in the range of 0 to 5bn USD. This is at best a gross profit margin of 17% which is not good for an internet services company.

I strongly believe technology like NewPipe should exist and companies shouldn't push for more DRM. But end users should not misuse open technologies so much so that companies end up with no other option but E2E encryption for video.

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#44
post #17

If the war on ablockers continues things may escalate, and the next step will soon mean deploying stronger DRM, in the same way that was tried in the fight against piracy. There's a real parallel between the two. Streaming killed piracy for a while because the service was easy and convenient, with everything in one place. Then, streaming added more and more ads all while it became more fragmented. Now if you pay for…

What is it with the disdain for paying for services people use? People often don't feel like paying for it even if they use YouTube more than other streaming services combined. Maybe the issue is that people got so used to a decade of unlimited high-quality videos for absolutely free?

I don't mind paying for services.

I mind paying to get the privilege my data exploited.

I mind paying to a company that use its infinite bags of money to outspend any competition unfairly.

I mind paying after getting blackmailed to accept a new deal when they made sure they left no other choice in the market.

I mind paying for a service that is optimized for "engagement" instead of my own well-being.

I mind paying to a company that doesn't know the time to stop growing and wants to crawl into every aspect of my life.

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#45

Also, checkout NewPipe with built in SponsorBlock functionality: https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe

Honestly, I do not understand why one should use this. I have recently seen some high quality YT videos, each of a length of 30-60 minutes. In those videos where some sponsors mentioned which took only one or two minutes. Seems perfectly OK for me to support the creators. I guess if many people block sponsor content, this kind of vids will die.

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#46
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it with the disdain for paying for services people use? People often don't feel like paying for it even if they use YouTube more than other streaming services combined. Maybe the issue is that people got so used to a decade of unlimited high-quality videos for absolutely free?

I don’t mind paying. I do mind paying $15 and then see still ads (Thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring this comment). Plus the algorithm keeps getting worse and worse. I’d prefer to pay like $5. I don’t need YouTube music.

Sponsorblock is 95%+ effective against these

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#47
post #17

If the war on ablockers continues things may escalate, and the next step will soon mean deploying stronger DRM, in the same way that was tried in the fight against piracy. There's a real parallel between the two. Streaming killed piracy for a while because the service was easy and convenient, with everything in one place. Then, streaming added more and more ads all while it became more fragmented. Now if you pay for…

What is it with the disdain for paying for services people use? People often don't feel like paying for it even if they use YouTube more than other streaming services combined. Maybe the issue is that people got so used to a decade of unlimited high-quality videos for absolutely free?

Google has dumped so many gallons of urine into my cheerios over the years that I will never, ever pay them for a consumer service. They have spent literally decades now being absolute assholes to consumers. If they charged for Youtube from day 1 then maybe. But at this point the reputational harm is permanent.

I do pay for Patreon and Nebula. But Google will never get a cent from me.

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#48
post #17

If the war on ablockers continues things may escalate, and the next step will soon mean deploying stronger DRM, in the same way that was tried in the fight against piracy. There's a real parallel between the two. Streaming killed piracy for a while because the service was easy and convenient, with everything in one place. Then, streaming added more and more ads all while it became more fragmented. Now if you pay for…

What is it with the disdain for paying for services people use? People often don't feel like paying for it even if they use YouTube more than other streaming services combined. Maybe the issue is that people got so used to a decade of unlimited high-quality videos for absolutely free?

The person you are replying to answered in their comment: even the paid service has ads, and a lot of the premium content has been moved off of the platform.

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#49

NewPipe is the best. Dunno how people watch YouTube without it. You can also subscribe to channels from it without a YouTube account.

Agree, but unfortunately I still can't use it to stream to my Chromecast so I need to go to the YouTube app when I want to play stuff on TV

Re: NewPipe – Lightweight YouTube experience for Android

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it with the disdain for paying for services people use? People often don't feel like paying for it even if they use YouTube more than other streaming services combined. Maybe the issue is that people got so used to a decade of unlimited high-quality videos for absolutely free?

It's not disdain for paying. Netflix proved that. It's disdain for getting nickel and dimed and fleeced and losing access without warning.

Well, and there's a difference in usage. When I use Netflix, I'm usually either at my desktop computer or sitting on my couch, selecting a movie for myself to watch. It feels like a good old traditional media experience.

YouTube pops up everywhere, on every system I use. Sometimes I'm sitting down to watch something longer, even a movie, but often it's just links from friends or coworkers, or from news articles on Reddit or Hacker News. Sometimes it's lessons, sometimes it's breaking news, sometimes it's 5-second meme videos. I use it at work and at home. I might be on my wife's iPad, or my work phone, or some library computer.

I'm not viewing all those videos on my personal devices logged in using my own personal account. I don't feel comfortable logging in with my personal account everywhere.

And there's something especially annoying about constantly seeing ads on a service I'm paying for.

On top of that, logging in everywhere lets Google track everything I view--every random Reddit click--and Google's the single biggest data collector & exploiter I know. I'm paying them to let them track me.

All told, paying for YouTube feels kinda icky in a way that paying for Netflix does not. I do pay for YouTube Premium, but I still prefer to watch videos without logging in, (ed:) with an adblocker.

Post reply on HN