YouTube Embraces “Greed is Good”
by Miki Saxon
I’ve written before that Alphabet has no scruples about how its various parts make money as long as they do.
YouTube is the most obvious proof.
It wasn’t until major brands pulled their ads that YouTube cleaned up a tiny bit of its act.
YouTube has previously been forced to make major changes because of advertiser backlash. In 2017, hundreds of brands pulled their advertising from YouTube after The Times reported their ads were appearing next to extremist videos. Dubbed the “YouTube Adpocalypse,” the mass boycott cost YouTube’s parent company, Google, an estimated $750 million, a note from analysts at Nomura Instinet said at the time.
When a “soft-core pedophile ring” was exposed last February YouTube disabled comments on most videos featuring kids, but only because big advertisers walked.
More recently, in spite of concerns over breeches of child privacy, brands have stayed steady and YouTube has done nothing to change.
Nor will it.
Because YOU don’t matter
YOU are a user.
Content providers are users.
As Forrester analyst Renee Murphy says,
“Users are the product, not the customer.”
Brands are the customer.
And the customer is always right.
Image credit: Joegoauk Goa
