I was actually kinda wondering the other day why super large content creators with good cash flow from what they already do, don't ditch Google and Patreon or anything else that takes a cut to be nothing more than a middleman to accessing the content? They don't need to host on the same level as YouTube; they could probably make more money hosting their videos on their own website, where they can control what is free or paid for, and can work directly with advertisers themselves.
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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And how do they get big? How do they get discovered? SEO ?
They're getting huge because of the platform.
I'm not saying google is not evil but it literally gives them their audience.
I watch YT more than anything else by a mile, and if my top subscription moved to their website, and I had to jump through hoops to watch them on my TV device, by installing a browser or something I probably would stop watching them or watch them way less. Another TV friendly app sure that wouldn't be a problem, but I don't see many doing that.
I'm talking about those who have already gotten big, like PewDiePie or Good Mythical Morning (the latter of which started on their own website before youtube even existed, btw). Not the dude who just started a channel last week and has nothing to do shit with.
If they somehow even got 10% of their audience to go to another platform that would be a miracle
The lift of running your own platform is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to creating your own video hosting platform.
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hosting their videos on their own website
I love that entrepreneurial attitude. If an online service is unsatisfactory, just develop your own software from the ground up and provision the infrastructure from your pocket. Car industry sucks? Just build your own car! GPU prices high? Grab a soldering iron and a handful of sand, how hard could it be?
Things are always more complex than they appear. The whole point of services like Youtube and Patreon is to offload that complexity onto the provider in exchange for a fee (or some other form of compensation) from the user. Just look at how many early Lemmy instances have gone offline because of the overwhelming financial or administrative burden. Hate the companies all you like, and by all means look for independent solutions, but don't pretend they offer no value whatsoever.
There are open source alternatives that already exist.
Literally all of them have tried at some point. But honestly you just end up with a bunch of effectively streaming services that you have to pay for.
I already have hbo, Netflix, krangle + and Hulu and YouTube and now I need «randomyoutuber+» x10 too?
Yeah no thanks
Well, there is Nebula, which is kinda like that. But most of them also put their videos on YouTube, using Nebula as the premium ad-free option with a little bonus content.
I'm worried about Nebula's business model being profitable enough to be sustainable in the long term but given their business model includes making every creator on the platform a part-owner of the platform that does limit how bad things can get
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Streaming video is expensive. LTT did it with Floatplane, even going so far as to develop their own backend. Watcher and some other YouTubers did it with Vimeo as their backend, but Vimeo still takes a large cut.
At the end of the day, people are doing this, but YouTube still offers a compelling value compared to other platforms. It’s hard to beat their scale, sophistication, and the discoverability of their platform.
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Cartman brah
That's very cool indeed – although I dread the moment he starts talking to his followers about Lemmy.
It would be a larger influx of bullshit than even Reddit was able to pull off.
Dude, eff that, influx of bullshit from reddit would be nowhere near. It wouldn't be problem of bullshit. It would be problem of scale. Remember how instances panicked and had to grow at neckbreaking speed during reddit exodus?
This would be bigger, while at the same time having a lot less long-term benefits because a lot of his audience wouldn't stick around.
I mean, I don't know of him now... he's way older and, seems significantly less immature than he was in the past, it's possible a good portion of his fanbase has also grown to be more tolerable.
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This wound up being a much better watch than I thought.