mycorrhiza comments on YouTube intensifies fight against ad blockers showing pop-ups, and users are frustrated

[–] mycorrhiza@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (7 children)

Ads are a way for everyone to contribute a super small amount to keep the thing you’re on, online.

In 2022 Google grossed around $280 billion, and only around 10% of that from Youtube. Before tax they profited around $73 billion, and after tax around $60 billion. They’re doing fine selling ads.

And we paid all of that $280 billion, even those of us with adblockers, because companies charge us more to cover their marketing costs. I pay for google every time I pull out my credit card.

I don’t feel like watching ads to convince even more companies to pay google to advertise to me and buy my data. They’re all making enough money already, and every year they spend less of it on wages or tax for society to function. Their money goes to stock buybacks, payouts to their major shareholders, executive bonuses, and think tanks to push policies and social trends that hurt all of us.

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[–] RealFknNito@lemmy.world -1 points 3 years ago (6 children)

They profited $73 billion

Revenue is not profit. Profit is what you have after expenses. So let's do a quick logic exercise. $13 billion after taxes, minus bandwidth costs worldwide, minus hundreds of server centers worldwide, minus tens of thousands of TB storage per server, minus redundant storage just in case a server blows, minus what they pay creators, minus what they pay employees.

Boy howdy, not so sure about this one. Especially when we know in 2015 they lost 470 million from operating the platform. They took losses from keeping Youtube alive. Hmmm. Seems like a narrow fuckin margin if that's possible. Haven't heard of Netflix losing money from a year of keeping their platform up.

"I don't feel like watching ads" so buy premium. "I pay for google every time I pull out my credit card" that.. what? "They're making enough money" 470 million in losses. "They own the entire fucking planet" They aren't even one of the five companies that own everything. You're thinking Blackrock. "Every year they pay lower wages" That's every corporation. Yes, eat the rich. This is not eating the rich. We do not get higher wages from you using adblocker.

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[–] mycorrhiza@lemmy.ml 1 point 3 years ago

I gave you both revenue and profit. Their revenue was $280 billion, not $73 billion. $73 billion was their profit before tax, and $60 billion was profit after tax. $13 billion, the difference, was their income tax.

they took $470 million in losses

According to the Credit Suisse report, which also massively contradicted Google’s own earnings reports, lowballing YouTube’s revenue by a factor of ten iirc.

that…what?

Advertising costs money. To cover that cost, companies charge us more for their goods and services. I don’t know what is baffling to you about this.

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[–] mycorrhiza@lemmy.ml 1 point 3 years ago* (4 children)

Also, when I said “they own the entire fucking planet” in my original unedited comment — which I edited for tone before I saw your near-immediate response — I was referring both google and the companies that advertise through google, which is why I said “they all make enough money already.” All is plural. Google sells enough ads, and their client companies buy enough ads.

Also, Blackrock is an asset management company that handles other people’s money. Google earns 16 times more revenue than them.

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[–] RealFknNito@lemmy.world -2 points 3 years ago (3 children)

I gave you both revenue and profit.

Of Google, not YouTube. I said YouTube took losses and actually costs Google money, which it does. Yes, YouTube is part of Google just as Google is part of Alphabet but what I'm explaining is that YouTube, isolated on its own, does not make money. Hence the ads, premium subscription, etc.

Advertising costs money.

Y.. Yes. So does shipping the product to retail stores and depending on the product, the continued research into said product or the manufacturing of it. All expenses are calculated and a price is set above that to create a margin but what I don't understand is your point. The only difference is that as a creator on YouTube, you get a cut of that advertisement budget from companies you might not personally buy from and put it towards products you do. What baffles me is that I'm having to break down economic concepts that I assumed were pretty transparent.

Google sells enough ads

Not gonna lie, I've missed the advertisements of Google since I was pretty sure everyone was aware of them. They're synonymous with searching something on the internet. They kinda won on the advertisement front, like band-aid and kleenex. They make their money on pushing ads but if everyone blocks ads, they don't get paid. Hence why they made it harder to do on Chrome and why they're cracking down on it on YouTube. Their entire business model (or large majority of it) is ads. Adblocker is a direct obstacle to their existence. What is your proposed alternative for them to make money if not ads?

Blackrock is an asset management company

They're an investment company that have purchased trillions of dollars in shares of some of the most massive companies you or I are aware of. Google, Amazon, Telsa, all of them. The more shares they own, the more direct legal power they have over the company. So just like Alphabet owns Google, a company like Blackrock can own Alphabet by direct investments. They have over 52 million shares of Telsa valued at $220 each or about 5% of the company. These are the kind people conspiracy theories are made about and are the ones we should be taxing into oblivion for those bigger wages. Not YouTube.

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[–] mycorrhiza@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 years ago (2 children)

of Google, not Youtube

That's my whole point! Google can afford it. Even if YouTube showed zero ads and earned zero revenue Google could afford it.

If I want to support a small creator, I donate. I don't feel bad about hurting the bottom line of one of the highest-earning companies in the world.

Even if YouTube runs at a deficit, it's probably worthwhile for Google to control the main video hosting hub on the internet and keep competition out of the game.

So does shipping, etc.

Spending on shipping or manufacturing is a lot less discretionary than spending on advertising. You have broad leeway to advertise less or more, and past a certain point the main requirement is that you advertise as well as your competition. If Google shows fewer ads across the board, even half as many ads, you're still in business.

What is your proposed alternative?

If you want to talk real life, they're already raking in $60 billion a year in profit so I see no need for an alternative. If you want to talk hypotheticals, I think central back-end infrastructure like Google's servers — and the data we put on them — should be publicly owned, with an open-source marketplace of front-end services we can use to access it. We should be able to browse YouTube with whatever site interfaces and suggestion algorithms we find most useful, not the ones most profitable to Google.

Blackrock owns 5% of Tesla

Blackrock's clients own 5% of Tesla.

Blackrock dies tomorrow if they do anything other than what their clients expect of them. The sole purpose of Blackrock is to invest rich people's money and maximize returns for them while managing risk. They have some leeway in how they do this, but only up to a point. They're very good at what they do but they are ultimately replaceable.

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[–] RealFknNito@lemmy.world 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

Google can afford it

Yes but if you had a store in a chain that wasn't turning a profit and constantly kept costing you money with no solutions in sight, you'd eventually shut it down and call it a day without some other reason. I think right now the only thing keeping YouTube alive is the level of unmitigated backlash they'd get for dumping it. Sure, they control the main video hosting platform on the internet but what are they able to do with that? Hold onto it and talk about it at parties? Not every small creator has extra ways to donate to them, not every creator rises to the level of whipping your wallet out, but should still support them no matter how miniscule it is.

They're already raking in $60 billion a year in profit so I see no need for an alternative

My brother, that is not an answer. Services have costs, costs need to be mitigated with revenue, things worth doing usually turn a profit. I'm asking you for an alternative knowing one doesn't exist or the multi-billion dollar company would have already tried it. They're limited to advertisements, selling your data to brokers, or asking for a subscription. We've got adblockers, tracker blockers, and the content is still free to access without a subscription (for now). Freely using a service that isn't free is not now nor will ever be sustainable,

The data we put (on Google servers) should be publicly owned

Hahaha.. to own them we'd have to pay for them. Things like Lemmy exist because people volunteer to accept the cost of hosting the instances. A company built to earn money is not going to do that. The broader problem is capitalism, sure, but that's a different topic. Youtube does, and in my opinion (without societal changes), should try to make a profit on what they bought, developed, and now host. Their splits with creators are fair and I worry they'll become less so as their options become fewer.

The sole purpose of Blackrock is to invest rich people's money

Yes but those investments are in Blackrock's name, giving them legal control. Yes, they can lose their clients if they fuck up and depending on how, be liable for returning some or all of that money, but no matter how you look at it they still have that control. There are very few of us who are truly beyond being replaced.

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[–] mycorrhiza@lemmy.ml -1 points 3 years ago

Hold onto it and talk about it at parties?

If someone else has the main video site on the internet, that is a beachhead for building a larger platform and challenging Google as a whole.

Hahaha... to own them we'd have to pay for them

We're already fucking paying for them! I've made this point twice now.

My brother

I'm out of patience

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