Youtube is Broken

And it’s going to change online content forever

YouTube is one of the biggest cultural forces on the planet. The platform has launched careers, created controversy and inadvertently caused tragedies. YouTube has been a cultural force on par with radio and television. It’s accessible almost anywhere (China and Russia excepting and Turkey sometimes) and the ability of people to communicate their brand release content and create careers on the platform is legendary. It is impossible for any one human being to watch everything on YouTube. There are thousands of years of content on YouTube. However, YouTube, like other platforms has broken what made it so unique and special. It was supposed to be a place where anyone could upload what they wanted and reach out to the similarly minded. With all the new changes, YouTube is quickly becoming a second TV.

Algorithms

One of the new changes that YouTube has made is what content gets presented. This is a new thing for most of the popular social media services. Rather than merely spitting out the raw content that has been shared by friends and liked pages (Facebook) or a raw feed of fresh videos (YouTube) an algorithm suggests only the videos that you’re most likely to watch for a sufficient time. This has led to people having to search for their favorite channels or trying to understand their ever more esoteric suggestions in the recommend videos that greets any signed in user on YouTube. For channels, they have to fight to get their videos seen by people who have already subscribed and for new channels or channels looking to grow it can be a matter of feast or famine. If a video gets suggested, new views could come pouring in. If the algorithm quits suggesting your video(s) then views can trickle to a halt. This problematic in a business based on views and shared ad revenue. Everyone who is trying to get seen on a social media platform is not just fighting for attention but they are fighting to be seen at all. The algorithm giveth and the algorithm taketh away.

Content Sweeps

YouTube, like other social media platforms. has been pressured to make changes in what content is allowed on the platform. White supremecist channels have come under scrutiny as of late and other channels that promote “hate speech” (however one might define that) have been taken down. Famously, Alex Jones was booted off YouTube for his many rants and other such speech that many people found to be outside of the norm. YouTube has also come under scrutiny for age restricting LGBT content or demonetizing the content. Other channels that talk about sex or sex education (with no nudity beyond what might see in public like shirtless men) have also been demonetized. YouTube is not making wise decisions in the content it decides to take off the platform or who and what gets demonetized which has also recently led to a lawsuit from LGBT content creators who feel that they are being treated unfairly.

Another area where the content on the platform has simply changed is the prolific nature of regular TV content on the platform. Those who have been using YouTube for many years will remember the random videos and other strange content that was the wheelhouse of the platform. YouTube has also been the home of content creators who create things so niche that it would never appear on TV. However, many people have noticed and complained about the fact that regular broadcast content has become more and more common on the platform. There is a reason for this and that reason is advertisers.

Advertisers

Ultimately, the reason for all these YouTube changes, besides social pressure, is that advertisers are looking for more ad-friendly content. In an age where brands can be damaged by being associated with the wrong statement, the wrong person, or the wrong thing, brands are sensitive to what content they advertise on. Brands want to be on YouTube, the audience is bigger than TV and is better targeted than the broadcast medium, but they want to do it in the same way that they advertise on TV. This has led YouTube to promote the safe TV content and to remove channels from the monetization program more often because advertisers would not like the ads shown, before and during the content. This is crushing for creators who have created businesses around their channels and it has made YouTube a difficult platform to create content on in a sustainable way. Good content takes time and money. For a while, YouTube created a way for creators to create ever-better content and get paid to do it but now, many creators are simply leaving the platform or opening up Patreon pages to appeal to their fans directly to pay them to do what they do.

In this way, the biggest thing break YouTube is one simple thing: money. YouTube has reached a place where they are so big and culturally important that for Alphabet to really make money off the platform, they have turn YouTube into the very thing it was meant to replace: TV.