YouTube: 1 Billion Viewers, No Profit

swifty7 · February 27, 2015

Google Image it...

Answer: Sasha Grey

thanks!

I thought it was her..LOL!! but wasn't sure.

do you know from what that clip of her making faces is from?

WobblyMusicStand · February 27, 2015

What this effectively means is that the product isn't YouTube, Google Mail, Android or Google Maps, the real product is us.

Generally speaking: if you aren't paying for an online service, you are the product.

weez · February 27, 2015

anyone that believes youtube doesn't make a profit is very naive.

LarryBC · March 2, 2015

They really should be forcing content creators to route their sponsorship deals through Google. If you're making a career off of youtube videos, you shouldn't be allowed to set up sponsorships where Youtube gets a 0% cut of the revenue. You are really just ripping off the platform that is making your career possible if you're doing that. Give Google a cut, it's just fair.

Silent_Xaxal · March 2, 2015

I know it hits Linus harder than others but precisely because he deals in tech and techies: Most people actually do not use adblock. Hell there's still a large portion of users who just use internet explorer. Most phone owners (including myself until yesterday when a Facebook article someone shared literally forced me to close the fucking app otherwise it wouldn't stop forcing me to purchase an app) don't adblock at all.

At the end of the day Google's reach is so massive even with ad blocking, they can still sell their adds to merchants for unmatcheable numbers in terms of reach.

To Google's credit, though, they do make quality stuff. I've had far fewer issues using their stuff compared to yahoo mail or firefox for quite some time already.

Silent_Xaxal · March 2, 2015

anyone that believes youtube doesn't make a profit is very naive.

The profit is in usability, not so much flat cash.

dalekphalm · March 2, 2015

They really should be forcing content creators to route their sponsorship deals through Google. If you're making a career off of youtube videos, you shouldn't be allowed to set up sponsorships where Youtube gets a 0% cut of the revenue. You are really just ripping off the platform that is making your career possible if you're doing that. Give Google a cut, it's just fair.

Interesting point of view, but many "YouTubers" use various platforms.

Take Linus or TotalBiscuit. Many of their videos start out on Twitch.TV being live streamed first, and then the archive is being uploaded to YouTube.

Does that mean everyone deserves a cut? Does Twitch need part of that "sponsor cash" pie too? I don't think so. How Linus, et al, decide to fund themselves to supplement ad revenue is entirely their own business, in my opinion.

YouTube offers a service. That service is literally the same whether Linus has a sponsor or not. Why should YT get extra money because Linus goes out of his way to earn extra money? Has YT offered him any extra benefits?

Sponsors are not some way for YouTubers to "circumvent" YT earning ad revenue. If the ad revenue paid enough to creators, then they wouldn't need sponsors.

This is my opinion, anyway. It just feels like a selfish cash grab with no merit.

@LinusTech, what do you and your team think about this?