YouTube is a great thing… BUT! Downsides are looming…
First History
YouTube was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees. It was sold to Google in November 2006 for $1.65 Billion. That was a quick.
What’s So Great About YouTube
What great about YouTube is that is houses millions of millions of hours of video. You can learn how to do just about anything by watching these videos. How to repair things. How to create things. How to learn things. How to cook things. Endless helpful data. Even how to clean a clothes dryer.
With all the videos available, what are the negatives?
Downhill From Here?
Aside from controversial content, and copyright controversies, YouTube seems unwavering in squeezing more and more revenue from the content creators, and its viewers. This is leading to unhappy uploaders and viewers. Shifting requirements regarding monetization of video channels, unexpected video takedowns, and the explosion of advertising all seem destined to dilute and degrade YouTube’s brand equity. These actions are the equivalent of a restaurant starting to charge an additional fee for each and every condiment and refill. What happened when a hamburger joint did that (was described perfectly on a website no longer available): the short answer is that it quickly went out of business.
Sticky or Stuck?
While YouTube is “sticky,” in that it has the highest rate of viewers and the most video content, the resentment over its tactics boils over periodically. So content creators start to migrate to other platforms. Or more likely, continue to use YouTube but also branch out to other platforms. One such platform is Patreon. By using multiple platforms, it diversifies content creators’ income and options. The bottom line is that it makes content creators less dependent on YouTube.
I don’t see YouTube going bust anytime soon. But I am concerned that much of YouTube’s helpful content will somehow later be less accessible. After all, YouTube and its parent Google house billions of hours of content some or much of which generate little or no income for YouTube. So it is conceivable that someday YouTube may decide to downgrade availability of much of it.
The availability of an enormous volume of information helpful to one’s life is now in the hands of a profit-making organization with goals of its own, much like Google itself. I would have thought that as long as YouTube and Google are profitable, they would have a better attitude towards their viewers and creators. But I suppose the relentless drive to increase profits, even when it degrades customers’ experience and its own brand is, sadly, inevitable.
What is your opinion of YouTube these days? Are you a YouTube content creator? Comment here.
“A map of the Empire of Japan, made by Dr. Kaempfer [with maps of Kamchatka, Northern coast of Japan, as well as some statistical data, the mariner’s compass, rosaries and images of three Gods added by J.C. Scheuchzer]” by Engelbert Kaempfer and John Gaspar Scheuchzer was published in London in 1772. Courtesy New York Public Library.
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