This is pretty much what happened in India with all the OTT subscriptions (looking at you Disney+Hotstar)
No wonder Chrome has been cracking down even harder on ad blockers recently...
I have no inside info on why it didn’t survive even though I worked for Google when it initially launched (not on Contributor), but the fact remains it didn’t survive.
As pure personal speculation, I suspect it didn’t receive enough user uptake for Google to decide that it was worthwhile.
To avoid any confusion: I don’t work for Google now and am certainly not speaking for them in this comment.
So assuming they did try it, I'd say it died from lack of awareness rather than people just didn't want it.
I will say that Google has generally been bad at product decisions and execution, such as genuinely understanding what their customers and users want or need and effectively giving that to them in a logistically and commercially viable way, more often than they’ve been good at product decisions and execution. (Engineering quality and technical innovation are completely separate questions, and ones at which Google has historically been excellent.)
It’s very possible that better product decisions or better execution could have made Contributor a success.
The fact that Google has been intentionally making their products worse to enable price gouging (as proven in court) has made it easy for competitors to outperform all of Google’s offerings (except, arguably, YouTube, but that seems pretty moatless / prone to piracy).
Monero.
So even when it existed, I just lamented it didn't work like youtube red.
And that's in addition to them not telling people about it.
And that desire can vary per-service.
Paying youtube only rewards them for all this bullshit, and also they will turn around and use that money, not to become a great platform for mid-level groups and teams doing good work and making meaningful science or history contributions, but to mint more Logan and Jake Pauls, to support more Lunchly's, to benefit more assholes. Because that's more profitable even if people pay money directly instead of through advertising.
Paying for YT premium removes ads, that's the exchange here. If one doesn't agree with the content the platform provides, one has to find another platform, there are lots out there. They all have different rules.
I wonder how long we'll go for before we start to see ad-lite Premium, and something like Premium+ to view ad free.
I now pay for Nebula and it is a world of difference. I love that there is nothing but the video. I wouldn't mind comments but there are no related videos and nothing else. I just follow via RSS, click, watch video and leave. No fuss, nothing trying to grab my attention. It is just so relaxing compared to other platforms.
I am a satisfied & loyal customer of YouTube Premium Family edition [my "family" consists of 5 separate Google accounts I operate.] However, I still see more ads encroaching from every direction. The latest method is merch -- a lot of influencers will have customized keepsakes on offer, and YouTube will display the wares in the dooblydoo as you're watching each video. Each will link out to the storefront where you can purchase it. You know, tee shirts, mugs, plushies -- the kind of swag that says "I spend my disposable income to line the pockets of obscure entertainers."
The other ads I've got are for show tickets. Any group or troupe or entertainer who tours live will be hooked into YouTube's algorithm to find tickets for their shows. YouTube once told me that the closest venue for my favorite act was next week in Finland. It often leads to consternation because I hate live shows at this point, for many reasons, and sometimes I will price out a single ticket to my most-hated live show to see if it's $300 or $500. Sometimes in guilt for coveting that live ticket, I will donate the same amount to my favorite charity. That is how much I hate live shows and advertising.
I use that to skip the in-video promotions
Today, MS Teams does not work in Firefox.
rolph•8mo ago
associating your product with a negative experience is not a brilliant move.
immibis•8mo ago
immibis•8mo ago
musicale•8mo ago
AuthConnectFail•8mo ago
notyourwork•8mo ago
scoofy•8mo ago
slumberlust•8mo ago
scoofy•8mo ago
When that happens, I'll likely just move to Nebula.
_blk•8mo ago
metalcrow•8mo ago
JumpCrisscross•8mo ago
There is: you pay to skip ads.
_blk•8mo ago
namaria•8mo ago
greatgib•8mo ago
Not even that you have to restrain yourself, but I also noticed that more and more annoying ad recently kills the excitement to use the platform and to start random linked video by curiosity. Like giving electric discharges to an animal when he does something specific will hard wire into his brain that the activity is not interesting and more frustrating than providing dopamine.
Even looking at their feature, I'm wondering if the side effects are well understood by them: "or emotionally charged moment"
An advertisement at the wrong moment, like at the highly emotional moment will not just kill the moment in fact? Like losing the connection you had this the viewer?
For example, if I'm about to cry because of how emotional is the current moment, I'm deeply in, suddenly an advertisement for chips will show up, and when I come back to the show I'm totally in another state of mood, like "ok it's terrible, but who cares?"
al_borland•8mo ago
I already have Premium, so this won’t really impact me, but I hope it fails.
I’ve really liked the engagement graph on videos, so I can jump to key moments, but I guess this is the monkey paw of that feature.
Though I do expect the AI to get it wrong. A significant number of peaks on the graph are after ad reads or when text is flashed on screen quickly, which people go back to read. These aren’t necessarily peaks points of the narrative.