this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
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Frustrated YouTube viewers seek explanation for hour-long unskippable ads (Update: Statement) (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 3 days ago by moe90@feddit.nl to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Look, I don't disagree with you. YouTube has many flaws and they've rapidly enshittified to increase monetization. But YouTube is a far more complex* operation than your ISP. It took a decade to start making a profit on YouTube.

The amount of hardware behind it is insane. The amount of work behind it is insane. A lot of that work is performed by really expensive software engineers in the US and Europe.

It was never sustainable from the get-go. Not with a single pre-watch ad and no premium tier, anyway. They HAD to add more ads and a premium ad-free tier. Where I disagree with them is the amount of ads and the cost of the premium tier.

*The big cloud providers (including Google) have grown so big, they don't use ISPs in the traditional sense to connect their data centers. They run their own subsea cables between continents to improve connectivity. Whether or not you like the companies, they put a LOT of work into keeping you on their platforms. Of course this is for Google Cloud customers, but YouTube basically IS a Google Cloud customer. Just an in-house one.