PewdiePie, #1 most subcribed youtube channel, alleges youtube is "killing his channel". Says he will delete his channel at 50 million subscribers

[DevilishBooster]

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Largest channel is not necessarily the most profitable one. Not even in raw profits necessarily.

 

This goes back to which algorithm you're using: previously it was how much time you spend watching the video (this is how pewdiepie got big: lots of relatively long videos). So in hours watched he is the undisputed king, by far.

 

However unless pewdiepie manually does midrolls for more ads constantly it's still basically 1 ad served at the beginning of the video.

 

Compare that to click bait: a ton more videos that are quite short and trick the user into watching an add and if they keep watching, they keep getting served adds.

 

In hours watched a clickbait channel will get a tiny fraction of Pie's numbers, but in total revenue they might be kicking his ass cause there's just far more clicks.

 

By changing the priority to "engagement" youtube encourage the click bait: practical joke channels, quick shock videos, etc. Channels that are good at making you watch lots of 1 or 2 minutes videos (to give you an older example: Early Epic Meal Time).

 

In that sense even if piewdiepie gets you more loyal viewers, clickbait channels get you more money overall. Sadly they want to go back to the "viral video" times and click bait. I think this is a mistake since it creates a volatile, worthless viewer base that can be easily taken from you by rivals but well youtube are free to try it again and fail.

All right, but still, why actively go after Pew?

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

All right, but still, why actively go after Pew?

They aren't: that's just his paranoia. That's why I said earlier than while his diagnosis is accurate his reasoning is flawed.

 

The only thing I can think of is the infamous lack of empathy from youtube with their content creators: even if you're a superstar like Pie or a minor yet prominent and up and coming youtube star (MKBHD comes to mind) youtube it's still just notoriously shitty in giving no explanations, not sharing information, etc. I feel that his is akin to leaving a bad yelp review: He probably already tried both official and unofficial channels and got no answer and now it's trying to throw some fucking egg on their faces publicly to get em to answer.

 

Which they won't anyway, not even if he deletes his channel (that's just a bluff anyways he'll recover his active userbase instantly)

 

[Okjoek]

I don't watch his videos, but if his videos are loved by the millions he shouldn't have to worry because those millions will follow him whatever platform he chooses aslong as it's free in the same sense as YT.

[Kulegamez]

Yea I'm still confused. He sounds like deleting his channel is supposed to shame youtube because youtube just lost their biggest creator but then he is creating a new channel. What does he really accomplish?

[Misanthrope]

4 minutes ago, Kulegamez said:

Yea I'm still confused. He sounds like deleting his channel is supposed to shame youtube because youtube just lost their biggest creator but then he is creating a new channel. What does he really accomplish?

Kill the revenue from the channel. He's a fucking millionare he couldn't really care about making money and he is correctly assuming his revenue being utterly and suddenly cut would impact youtube a lot more than him not being able to afford another Lamborgini.

[revl8er]

Sounds like he just wants his haters to subscribe to him so he will delete his channel.  I personally haven't seen a video by him, only know him by name.  Doesn't matter to me one way or another what he does.  

[Anker_by]

The best options he needs to move for Twitch, and problem fixed. lol

[revl8er]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

Kill the revenue from the channel. He's a fucking millionare he couldn't really care about making money and he is correctly assuming his revenue being utterly and suddenly cut would impact youtube a lot more than him not being able to afford another Lamborgini.

Youtube has enough channels that even losing their biggest channel wouldn't really affect them much.  Now if you started deleting thousands of them then YouTube would notice.  

[Misanthrope]

2 minutes ago, revl8er said:

Youtube has enough channels that even losing their biggest channel wouldn't really affect them much.  Now if you started deleting thousands of them then YouTube would notice.  

Moneywise? You're right it won't affect them much. But we established that It would affect Pewdiepie even less (seeing how he is one guy and pretty rich at this point).

 

Having a potential user base of 50 million people pissed the fuck off at youtube and one of the most popular youtubers on the platform basically sticking the middle finger to them however, that would be a PR nightmare for them. Not a monetary one granted but still quite significant.

[Prysin]

6 minutes ago, revl8er said:

Youtube has enough channels that even losing their biggest channel wouldn't really affect them much.  Now if you started deleting thousands of them then YouTube would notice.  

oh, but you may be wrong there. If the biggest, most recognized and most famous youtuber leaves, because, youtube has failed him as a platform provider. Then that sends a shock message to everyone else. Youtube, doesnt care. They are arrogant. This alone is enough to trigger a slow snowballing effect of creators looking for better platforms.

 

PewdiePie leaving youtube would be akin to Johnny Depp not featuring as Jack Sparrow in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Would the movie sell? Yes, but the franchise would start to lose followers and fast.

[revl8er]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

Moneywise? You're right it won't affect them much. But we established that It would affect Pewdiepie even less (seeing how he is one guy and pretty rich at this point).

 

Having a potential user base of 50 million people pissed the fuck off at youtube and one of the most popular youtubers on the platform basically sticking the middle finger to them however, that would be a PR nightmare for them. Not a monetary one granted but still quite significant.

Potential 50m is the key though.  You might have 1 million of those actually mad, but then who are they going to go to for their videos.  YouTube is the biggest streaming site out there and the most popular.  They can go to twitch, but that only handles a small part.  A better move by him would be to get with a lot of other YouTube channel owners and have them all block their accounts.  It would achieve more IMO.  

[revl8er]

3 minutes ago, Prysin said:

oh, but you may be wrong there. If the biggest, most recognized and most famous youtuber leaves, because, youtube has failed him as a platform provider. Then that sends a shock message to everyone else. Youtube, doesnt care. They are arrogant. This alone is enough to trigger a slow snowballing effect of creators looking for better platforms.

 

PewdiePie leaving youtube would be akin to Johnny Depp not featuring as Jack Sparrow in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Would the movie sell? Yes, but the franchise would start to lose followers and fast.

That's one hell of an analogy there.  Hopefully it will send a shock message, but as I posted before it would have more of an effect if he staged it with multiple channels.  I don't think anyone will really bat an eye if one person leaves, even if it is the biggest subscribed, however I might be wrong.  We shall see what happens.  

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, revl8er said:

Potential 50m is the key though.  You might have 1 million of those actually mad, but then who are they going to go to for their videos.  YouTube is the biggest streaming site out there and the most popular.  They can go to twitch, but that only handles a small part.  A better move by him would be to get with a lot of other YouTube channel owners and have them all block their accounts.  It would achieve more IMO.  

There's already fairly big channels (H3N3, Boogie2988, etc.) behind him and while not an outright "delete my channel" they're already making enough noise as it is.

 

You're right that youtube is basically immune to even most content creators walking away due to sheer size, at least on the short term. However I believe that this radio silence and overall change will cost them many of the more loyal viewers and that can create lots of problems of their own (you don't want to rely on just casual users unless you want to have an easily burstable bubble like Nintendo had with the Wii and more recently with Pokemon go)

[Centurius]

9 hours ago, Mooshi said:

I'm pretty ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ tbh.  Pewds is a nice guy outside his online persona which is grading on the ears honestly. Google is doing some suspect stuff with Youtube, at the same time this we're talking about a dude that made millions doing high pitched screeching. He should consider himself grateful as hell he even got to where he is given his lack of actual content.

You need to look at this beyond Pewdiepie, if it's happening to him it's happening to other channels too. Quite possibly ones with quality continent just struggling to make the basics.

[RocketFarmer]

As a YouTube consumer, I don't care for their suggestions or their over-extended algorithm.  Fine to say here are a few suggested videos based on your recent viewing, but when that dominates the content from channels I subscribe to that's bad.  Actually, I'd call it garbage.

[Fetzie]

3 hours ago, goodtofufriday said:

I have noticed that on my YT home page there is just a SLEW of channels and videos I could not care less about. Im constantly clicking X on where it says im not interested. Its to the point where I dont see most of my subscribed channels on the home page anymore. Literally just a handful. So now I have to go into my subscriptions list.

 

When did it become like this?

I only look at the subscriptions and history tabs.

[Misanthrope]

7 minutes ago, RocketFarmer said:

As a YouTube consumer, I don't care for their suggestions or their over-extended algorithm.  Fine to say here are a few suggested videos based on your recent viewing, but when that dominates the content from channels I subscribe to that's bad.  Actually, I'd call it garbage.

I honestly have gotten many good recomendations through the suggestions. It takes me to interesting places for example:

 

1) I watch Skyrim videos about mods and such

2) Youtube recommends a "Skyrim" video from a guy talking about how feasible Skyrim swords would be in real life. Ended up liking his channel quite a bit (Skallagrim) so I suscribed even though his channel is mostly about medieval weapons and european martial arts.

3) Since I watch some of those medieval weapon testing video it recommends a video of a german guy testing a machete launching device and I end up subscribing to that channel as well (Slingshot Channel) which is mostly about slingshots and rubber based contraptions.

 

Both of this channels I would have probably not looked for on my own and they were suggested through just youtube algorithm.

 

Another channel I ended up liking and following through a suggestion cause of my searches for PC cases: LinusTechTips.

[RocketFarmer]

So has YouTube become too large to provide adequate customer service (or just their product in general), not just for content providers but also consumers, or is this all trending toward click-bait, ad-heavy, profit-making?  Probably a little of both, no?

[Mira Yurizaki]

Maybe it's time for someone to develop a media streaming toolkit so people who are sick of YouTube, DailyMotion or any other service giving them the shaft can start their own streaming service.

 

Then again I'm sure all the big content producers will shut it down or buy it for a gross amount of money to shut it down.

[RocketFarmer]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

I honestly have gotten many good recommendations through the suggestions. It takes me to interesting places for example...

I don't mind suggestions, in fact I do take time to look at some.  I take issue, however, with their algorithm dominating the home page with suggestions.  And that algorithm needs some refinement to filter out some pretty nasty content.  Or they need to allow users to set up their home pages with options that are a little more tailorable.  [Note: Maybe they have it and I just haven't set it up, but I haven't seen it yet.]

 

I typically watch YouTube on my television, and share it with the rest of my family.  So not being served up with a boat load of suggestions would be nice.  That's both for me, because I don't really want to watch PewdiePie (daughter does, or used to), and I don't care to have porn or some nasty video show up when I have guests over or my children watching.

[Alaa]

You cant kill what's dead, therefor deleting his channel is a win because YouTube wont be able to kill it. If somebody wants to kill me I'd tell him you cant kill what's dead bitch and suicide.

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, RocketFarmer said:

I don't mind suggestions, in fact I do take time to look at some.  I take issue, however, with their algorithm dominating the home page with suggestions.  And that algorithm needs some refinement to filter out some pretty nasty content.  Or they need to allow users to set up their home pages with options that are a little more tailorable.  [Note: Maybe they have it and I just haven't set it up, but I haven't seen it yet.]

 

I typically watch YouTube on my television, and share it with the rest of my family.  So not being served up with a boat load of suggestions would be nice.  That's both for me, because I don't really want to watch PewdiePie (daughter does, or used to), and I don't care to have porn or some nasty video show up when I have guests over or my children watching.

I still watch mostly on my PC so when I don't want suggestions I just switch to the subscription feed. I have not run into channels I like disappearing from my subscriptions but that's just because I don't keep that many so usually I only get 20 to 30 new videos per day tops

[Prysin]

13 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I honestly have gotten many good recomendations through the suggestions. It takes me to interesting places for example:

 

1) I watch Skyrim videos about mods and such

2) Youtube recommends a "Skyrim" video from a guy talking about how feasible Skyrim swords would be in real life. Ended up liking his channel quite a bit (Skallagrim) so I suscribed even though his channel is mostly about medieval weapons and european martial arts.

3) Since I watch some of those medieval weapon testing video it recommends a video of a german guy testing a machete launching device and I end up subscribing to that channel as well (Slingshot Channel) which is mostly about slingshots and rubber based contraptions.

 

Both of this channels I would have probably not looked for on my own and they were suggested through just youtube algorithm.

 

Another channel I ended up liking and following through a suggestion cause of my searches for PC cases: LinusTechTips.

true, the reccomended tab is great. BUt it is also ruining youtubers.

Take my feed for example.

I NEVER get any notification when The Slow-Mo Guys or ColinFurze releases a new video. Not even a "1" next to their name in the subscription list. I have to manually check their channels weekly to see if they update, because youtube doesnt give me any notification of it. This has been going on since before summer (prob a bug).

 

I no longer get videos related to what i subscribe to (same genre), i just get shitloads of top-10 lists, despite not whatching more then maybe 1-2 such videos a week. Then there is the titties and clickbait. Gets lots of that despite not being that interested (i think the titties comes from the fact that i sub to Mainstage which is a EDM radio/streaming channel, which mostly feature scantily clad women).

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, Prysin said:

true, the reccomended tab is great. BUt it is also ruining youtubers.

Take my feed for example.

I NEVER get any notification when The Slow-Mo Guys or ColinFurze releases a new video. Not even a "1" next to their name in the subscription list. I have to manually check their channels weekly to see if they update, because youtube doesnt give me any notification of it. This has been going on since before summer (prob a bug).

 

I no longer get videos related to what i subscribe to (same genre), i just get shitloads of top-10 lists, despite not whatching more then maybe 1-2 such videos a week. Then there is the titties and clickbait. Gets lots of that despite not being that interested (i think the titties comes from the fact that i sub to Mainstage which is a EDM radio/streaming channel, which mostly feature scantily clad women).

Many decribe what you see yes. I honestly come to believe I manually tame my subscription feed so to speak by only watching and never missing my most active and important subscribed channels. But that's because it's still manageable cause I usually unsub many channels I start watching sporadically and such.

 

I believe youtube could, if they wanted to, provide better subscription functionality: the expectation shouldn't be a power user like me with very clear and limited subs to tame their system into submission.