YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#181

Post by tombert » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

imiric wrote: post #174

tombert wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have a very strong, borderline-irrational distaste for ads. I hate advertising, I hate having to watch advertisements, I will go out of my way considerably to avoid ads. I have over 400 blu-rays specifically because I wanted to guarantee that I don't have to risk seeing ads in my media. I liked YouTube Premium because it was an ethical way to avoid ads on YouTube; there's alw…

> I liked YouTube Premium because it was an ethical way to avoid ads on YouTube Why would you behave ethically towards a company that is anything but? The slight remorse I feel by not using official YT frontends is towards creators I enjoy watching, who I try to support via other means, if possible. But then again, any creator or business who chooses advertising as their only business model doesn't deserve my support…

> The slight remorse I feel by not using official YT frontends is towards creators I enjoy watching

That's what I felt bad about. I didn't care if I was depriving Google of money, but I was watching a lot of videos of relatively small channels, and I was watching them with ad block, and I wasn't compensating them otherwise. In a bit of fairness (though not much) I was not making much money at the time.

I agree that advertising is bad for humanity. I hate ads. I don't like the idea that a corporation is weaponizing my psychology to sell me crap I don't need. For the most part I would rather pay for things, but of course I make a lot more money now than I did back in 2015.

I've said it before, but I think it bears repeating: people will pay for things if those things don't suck. I think it speaks to the shittiness of the platforms that people will only use stuff like Facebook and YouTube if they're "free".

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#182

Post by toomanyrichies » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:03 PM UTC

rambambram wrote: post #42

Youtube must know better than me what to recommend me out of all the videos... still, I get presented the same shite again and again. To be fair: not everything is shite and Youtube is my favorite social media (especially for discovering new music), but I noticed a big drop in quality videos from one day to the other a couple of years ago. Just opening up Youtube one day and seeing all kinds of thumbnails with people…

> all kinds of thumbnails with people with their mouth open, very 'colory' thumbnails (more childlike)

What is with the thumbnails?!? I mean, I know what's with them- content makers have found a technique that works, and are beating that dead horse until it stops coughing up money. [1]

I guess my question is- what is with the median Youtube viewer? Are they just completely governed by their id? Does it not register that they're falling for the same bait every single time? That would bother me, but if people realize they're being manipulated and are fine with it, I guess that makes me the old man yelling at clouds. Oh well, I've been called worse.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVGpvzcHko

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#183

Post by saltyoldman » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:12 PM UTC

40+ers Who here thought Google was nuts in 2006 for buying them?

(raises hand)

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#184

Post by greenchair » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:19 PM UTC

Gagarin1917 wrote: post #96

kotaKat wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You click the button to hide the card of Shorts on the home page and it just says We'll show you fewer Shorts on Home Not "no more", but "fewer". Which means you don't get a choice, YouTube will still shove them down your throat.

That’s not shoving them down anyone’s throats. If you don’t want to watch a short, don’t click on it. Just like if you don’t want to watch a video about a certain topic, you don’t click on it. Seeing that they exist is in no way an inconvenience or annoyance. You’re supposed to just watch what you want.

Sure it is Sundar. When I go to youtube i see a few videos in the top half. The bottom half of screen is a row of Shorts that I don't want and have to scroll past. In a normal world there'd be a profile setting that lets you opt-out of Shorts being shown. In a normal world there wouldn't be a fake 'show fewer shorts' button that does absolutely nothing.

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#185

Post by Fnoord » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:23 PM UTC

imiric wrote: post #174

tombert wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have a very strong, borderline-irrational distaste for ads. I hate advertising, I hate having to watch advertisements, I will go out of my way considerably to avoid ads. I have over 400 blu-rays specifically because I wanted to guarantee that I don't have to risk seeing ads in my media. I liked YouTube Premium because it was an ethical way to avoid ads on YouTube; there's alw…

> I liked YouTube Premium because it was an ethical way to avoid ads on YouTube Why would you behave ethically towards a company that is anything but? The slight remorse I feel by not using official YT frontends is towards creators I enjoy watching, who I try to support via other means, if possible. But then again, any creator or business who chooses advertising as their only business model doesn't deserve my support…

What I was doing, was use YouTube Premium registered via a VPN. I was paying equivalent to 2 EUR in Indian Rupees. And I did not feel bad about it because the main users were my kids on our TV. Now my kid uses SmartTube on TV, and YouTube ReVanced on a smartphone (with NewPipe as backup, sometimes or the other is broken). So they lost money.

I do believe the better solution is to go to DIY channel, but yeah. I got Amazon Prime, which gives me free shipping on Amazon. Add on top of that, I can freely support one Twitch stream. So I am going with Critical Role. They also sell their own platform, but it is more expensive than Bezos' deal. It is hard to compete with big tech...

I got a hunch feeling my IPv4 is shitlisted here and there though, but it could also be Linux + Firefox + plethora of extensions. I'll get a new IPv4 soon, so a good time to also clear all my cookies and part with some extensions.

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#186

Post by carlosjobim » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:24 PM UTC

bdangubic wrote: post #180

carlosjobim wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is of no relevance to the customer/consumer. All of these companies are competing for customers of video entertainment.

of course it is relevant, more relevant than just about anything else. if you are a parent or have GenA family members you know it is youtube and nothing else precisely because of user-uploaded content. tt, insta etc are severely lagging behind and are not competitors to youtube in this regard.

> They just raised premium prices again making it one of my most expensive entertainment subscriptions.

The above is from the comment I replied to. Netflix, Prime, Disney, cable TV, satellite TV, etc are without any kind of doubt competitors to YouTube within video entertainment.

Just because companies have different ways of doing business doesn't mean they're not competitors.

If your kids won't eat any fast food except McDonalds, it doesn't mean that there are no fast food competitors. The same for video entertainment.

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#187

Post by brikym » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:28 PM UTC

Quarrelsome wrote: post #79

rambambram wrote: post #42

Youtube must know better than me what to recommend me out of all the videos... still, I get presented the same shite again and again. To be fair: not everything is shite and Youtube is my favorite social media (especially for discovering new music), but I noticed a big drop in quality videos from one day to the other a couple of years ago. Just opening up Youtube one day and seeing all kinds of thumbnails with people…

Agreed. It painfully overfits based on what I've watched. I've watched thousands of videos and it still doesn't understand me at all because it appears to treat every action as equal. As an example, I like watching the Starcraft II streamer uThermal but I'm not really interested in other Starcraft II content creators because uThermal scratches that itch. However YouTube will keep showing me Starcraft II content creat…

I find it painfully overfits time of day. I get the same investment themed videos late at night on autoplay.

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#188

Post by patmorgan23 » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:28 PM UTC

osigurdson wrote: post #76

rickcarlino wrote: post #28

My biggest concern about Youtube is that they do not truly have a competitor. They just raised premium prices again making it one of my most expensive entertainment subscriptions.

The barrier to entry seems pretty low, technically at least. Maybe someone will create something with a different twist that will catch on. TikTok was able to carve out a niche after all.

Hosting cost and the network effects are the barriers

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#189

Post by brikym » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:32 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #73

rambambram wrote: post #42

Youtube must know better than me what to recommend me out of all the videos... still, I get presented the same shite again and again. To be fair: not everything is shite and Youtube is my favorite social media (especially for discovering new music), but I noticed a big drop in quality videos from one day to the other a couple of years ago. Just opening up Youtube one day and seeing all kinds of thumbnails with people…

> If anybody knows some good DIY or woodworking channels, let me know! A woodworker and former RIM engineer -- if you don't already know his channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Matthiaswandel

They're hard to find! Typically you get either:

- Some screwing into end grain. Looks good on camera but it's complete junk.

- A 'hobbyist' with a commercial workshop worth tens of thousands of dollars making it look easy.

Re: YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney

#190

Post by saalweachter » Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 10:36 PM UTC

saltyoldman wrote: post #183

40+ers Who here thought Google was nuts in 2006 for buying them? (raises hand)

I was working at a crawling-based business around that time, and we thought it was because bandwidth contracts at that scale were symmetric, so the idea was that Google could serve video for ~free because they were crawling the whole Internet constantly and serving extremely light weight pages of ten blue links.