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).
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.
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
rolph•4h ago
associating your product with a negative experience is not a brilliant move.
immibis•3h ago
musicale•3h ago
AuthConnectFail•54m ago
notyourwork•42m ago
metalcrow•2h ago
al_borland•1h 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.