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YouTube blames ad blockers for slow load times, and it has nothing to do with your browser
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this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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privacy
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I know I will be hated for my input, but I use Firefox, pay for YouTube Premium, and my load times are fast. My browser choice hasn't caused any slow experiences.
Not that I have to justify my purchase, but it's $25 CAD per month, and I split it between my 5 family members. $5 CAD for ad-free on all my platforms plus YouTube Music, PLUS more money going to creators (as confirmed by Technology Connections on YouTube), I am fine paying a few bucks. Content creators have to get paid, and I hate sitting through ads, so it's a win-win in my books. I also don't want to waste time using third party apps, using DNS adblocking, pihole, etc. just to get a decent experience across my devices.
I'm sure my opinion will be taken very respectfully on Lemmy.
It's sad people feel obligated to write a wall of text to justify what the hell they're doing with their money. Yes google is shit. But paying for a service is still normal.
Please know that content creators get paid SIGNIFICANTLY less from Premium subscribers than they do from ads. If that's your reason for giving google $25, I think you should know.
I used to have Premium, but when I discovered that they were still serving me ads and using trackers, I cancelled.
FWIW, if you want to support content creators, a literal donation of $1 a year to your favourite ones will make them more money than your Premium subscription. I say this as someone with a 20k subscriber channel.
No they don't. I literally said in the post you're replying to that Technology Connections confirmed YouTube premium pays more.
https://mas.to/@TechConnectify/111319895234933188
Pretty wild that you ignored my original comment to spread misinformation.
I don't know who "technology connections" is or whether they've posted screenshots of their revenue breakdown from YouTube, but I'm telling you from firsthand experience of operating a channel with tens of thousands of subscribers that Premium pays peanuts.
From my own YouTube Studio analytics, YT Premium represents 1.3% of my revenue over the last 365 days. Ads make up the rest of it.
In fact, it looks like an entire year of YT premium pays out less than a few days of ad revenue.
You might call it "misinformation", but I have no reason to lie as a content creator.
A single "Super Thanks" I received the other day paid out twice as much as the entire month of YT Premium revenue. That's why I say that donating a single dollar is considerably better than paying Google.
And from my own experience, as I mentioned, Google was still using trackers and showing ads (on my TV) when I had Premium.
You can believe it or not, but you can't accuse me of spreading misinformation.
EDIT: Here are some large channels posting their revenue screenshots:
1.8M subs (YT Premium earned no more than 14.8% of her total revenue, but it was usually <10%) : https://youtu.be/KkKYMD1KTw0?si=0mkQzstlyG8MlhKB&t=97
42k subs (ad revenue vs YT Premium at the bottom of the screen): https://youtu.be/FawckyZqCPU?si=z7Xc60DqnpBmCiES&t=686
135k subs (YT Premium revenue is shown quickly when he scrolls the page... $148 vs $5000 from ads): https://youtu.be/jY-Rf3HsvK8?si=YyqnpBPNpf9eo532&t=382
I can go on, but you get the point. I have NEVER seen a channel that would claim AND PROVE that YT Premium makes more money than ads.
I literally linked both Technology Connections and Linus Tech Tips.
Sorry, but I'm willing to believe a YouTuber with 2.1 million subscribers over a random Lemmy user who claims they have a YouTube channel.
You've also posted 0 proof of what you're saying, so we are just supposed to believe you? Inb4 you Photoshop some graphs.
Not to mention Linus Tech Tips did a video (if you don't know who that is, they have 15.4 million subscribers) where he literally says YouTube premium contributes WAY more than ads.
https://youtu.be/-zt57TWkTF4?si=UiE2IQejKJiYygUA
6:55
"YouTube premium, which for those wondering contributes WAY more to the channels that you watch than ads"
2 big creators say premium pays more than ads, Mr tens of thousands of subscribers.
I posted three links from content creators of various sizes posting their analytics dashboard.
Really old video, but you can clearly see that YT Premium is only 18% of their revenue vs 81% from Ads. He hasn't proven that it's paying out more, he's only shown the opposite.
I trust my own experience, and what YouTube tells me I'm getting from ads vs. YT Premium.
Neither of the channels you mention proved what you believe to be true.
I trust big YouTubers who know the system better, thanks. I'm also continuing to pay for premium because I like the ad blocking, the thing you ignored from my original comment.
I guess the anti-paying for things Lemmy crowd showed up. If you broke just say so 💅
You're free to do what you like. I honestly just thought you might want to know, since you mentioned that you pay for YT premium to support content creators.
And I didn't "ignore" anything. When I had Premium, I was still getting ads on my TV, and Google was still using trackers on all platforms. I wasn't going to pay to be spied on or annoyed.
If the service works for you, then awesome. I'm not trying to stop you from paying for a service that works for you.
When it comes to supporting creators, I prefer to donate. It's clean, simple, and they get to keep more revenue.
One thing that you are missing that is super disingenuous, is the fact that YouTube premium does pay more.
If you take a video and you send it to 1000 people who have YouTube premium, and you make another video and you send it to 1,000 people who watch ads, the video you sent to premium users will pay more.
From the stats that you showed, you are lumping every single person who views a video in with the small fraction of people who have YouTube premium.
I also don't believe that you were continuing to get ads on your TV with an active YouTube premium subscription. I get 0 ads on any platform I'm signed into.
But it really doesn't, and the three other channels I linked to, who are open enough to actually show their analytics page, clearly illustrates this.
That's not how Premium works, though. Premium pays out based on views and time watched. Ads pay on by a) displaying ads. b) someone clicking on an ad, regardless of whether they actually watch your video for very long or not.
The major downside to Premium, however, is that larger channels can essentially monopolize on the Premium revenue, since it's not divided up equally and is disproportionately bias towards these larger channels. Small channels (<10million subs) won't make nearly as much from Premium as a channel like LTT.
Ads pay out differently, using quite a few variables, but it allows for even small channels to make money - way more money than Premium.
So, maybe this applies to the vast number of channels out there (i.e. the majority), but Premium doesn't pay more than ads. For the absolute top channels (by views and hours watched), they may very well be taking the biggest piece of the pie.
That's how YouTube counts it, and that's the most realistic way of doing it. So few people have Premium that it wouldn't make sense to exclude revenue generated by the vast majority of users.
Sigh... even YouTube staff admitted it..
I had contacted YouTube support about those ads in early 2021, the same time that the above thread suggests these similar reports were being made, so you can believe it or not.
Blud acts like YouTube premium still shows ads because of a bug from 3 years ago 💀
No, actually, even as recently as a few months back, YouTube did their own survey which showed that out of over 6000 Premium users, 21% were still seeing ads.
Really, I don't know what or who you're trying to defend. 🤷♂️
I'm not trying to defend anyone. Read my original post. I pay for premium because it works great for me. Lemmy users are so insufferable, trying to tell me how bad I am for paying for a service that works for me.
And yes, a Twitter poll is a great way to get data. The poll anyone can vote in, and many people DO vote just to see the results. Thanks for the very scientific and accurate data!
I did. Like I said, I don't want to prevent you for paying for something that works for you. My only comment to you was about how much content creators get from YT Premium.
It was good enough for Google, what's the issue?
And to counter your point, the survey was only limited to Twitter users. If anything, it underreports the issue of ads being shown, since not everyone is even using Twitter or following a TeamYouTube to know about the poll, for that matter.
But, let's say that you're right and that a ton of people just voted randomly (which isn't required to see the results, since the results are only revealed after the poll is over). Cut those numbers in half, and you're still talking about 1 out of 10 Premium users seeing ads. That's a hell of a lot more than none, even if it's never happened to you.
Anyway. It feels like we're beating a dead horse here. Enjoy YT Premium and the benefits it brings you, there's really no reason to be arguing over this at all. Cheers 🍻
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/-zt57TWkTF4?si=UiE2IQejKJiYygUA
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
You hit the nail on the head for me. I'm not a fan of Google, but for the cost spread across a few people, it's actually not a bad price. Knowing the creators I watch actually helps justify
Just got my monthly cost for a family subscription hiked from AU$17.99 to AU$38.99.
Oof. The whole family are definately heavy users of YT and YT Music, so it's still worth it... But ow.