I had a scary thought: what if youtube decided to join the fediverse? (fedia.io)

submitted 2 months ago by atro_city@fedia.io to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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When I saw MKBHD on threads available through flipboard, the thought crossed my mind. Wouldn't it be a game changer for the biggest websites to suddenly try to coax users and content creators with "one account to rule them all" solution?

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[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 27 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't think they care at all about what we're doing here on the Fediverse. Lemmy has like 46k users, PeerTube has like 20k users. That's next to nothing to them and on Youtube a single content creator might have a way bigger audience than all of Lemmy, Peertube, etc. It wouldn't be worth 10 minutes of their time to come up with an embrace and extinguish concept unless that changes substantially and we get like 100x - 1000x that many users. Or there is something else to gain for them. But they're certainly not interested in the userbase here.

[-] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 15 points 2 months ago

Might have a bigger audience? Hell, Mr Beast has 309 million subscribers.

The entire fediverse combined isn't even a rounding error anywhere google would even notice.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 4 points 2 months ago

To elaborate: it's not about gaining the users from the fediverse: nobody give a shit about us. It's about taking away users from other big platforms.

Imagine if MKBHD realised he could do all his media relations from a single account. He could post a promotional picture (or video) on his youtube account and have it be visible on instagram, threads, twitter, tiktok, etc. . Comments from tiktok accounts would show up on the youtube video to youtube users on youtube.

Or a tiktok user uploading their short videos would have them show up on youtube shorts and insta (/threads) at the same time. Again, engagement from any platform would show up on one single account.

[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't think that's a possibility. All of those platforms make profit by displaying advertisements to people. Thet means they have to bind the users to their website or app. To display ads there. That's why they commonly restrict things and don't interconnect, but keep the users in a walled environment. I don't see any way for that to change with the current business model of all of the social media and big tech companies.

I also like the Fediverse. And I'd think it'd be awesome to have that. But I think it's a very unrealistic idea. Except for maybe if the EU forces them to open up or something like that.

[-] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 21 points 2 months ago

if the fediverse succeeds, isnt it inevitable?

the whole 'one account' thing wont really exist though, as they would be blocked by a metric shit-tonne of instance owners who are either terrified or just plain butt-hurt that corporations might take part that those admins will block the big players.

this will leave users needing to find neutral instances in order to obtain 'one account to rule them all'

i find nothing to fear here.

[-] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 16 points 2 months ago

I don't see how they could harm the fediverse as is. I don't see how embrace extend extinguish could work, as if they extinguish, then the fediverse would just return to how it is now. There's no way that people currently on Mastodon would decide to move to threads, as most are on there because they don't trust big social media companies

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 8 points 2 months ago

That's not the danger, the danger is there being even less incentive to move to opensource alternatives. If you can have one account on e.g youtube with which you can talk to people on threads, send pictures to insta, and receive comments from everywhere, why move?

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 8 points 2 months ago

For the same reason that people use newpipe or invidious instead of the youtube app or website: a better experience. The kind of people who use the official client aren't going to be moving to be fediverse anyway!

[-] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Because google and meta are creepy companies. I still use Instagram. I will not use Instagram if it had activitypub support.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago

I still use Instagram. I will not use Instagram if it had activitypub support.

wat?

[-] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 points 2 months ago

There are people I still need to keep in contact with. That's why

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago

Oh, I see. That confused me, but I get it now. My bad.

[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There's no way that people currently on Mastodon would decide to move to threads

Snazzy Labs did exactly that after unidirectional federation was enabled.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago

Probably the same thing that happened when Threads decided to join the fediverse.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago

Sure, the reactionaries would sign something to not federate, but if threads and youtube start federating, you think things are going to stay the same?

[-] veeesix@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago

So basically sign-in with Google?

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago

Do you understand what the fediverse does? Do you need to login to lemmy.world in order to make a comment with your lemmy.ca account? Do you need to login to mastodon.social to see responses from mastodon.social users?

[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 0 points 2 months ago

Wouldn't it be a game changer for the biggest websites to suddenly try to coax users and content creators with "one account to rule them all" solution?

No, that would be ideal.

[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You’re getting downvoted but you’re right. If they joined the fediverse that means you can have an account on any other platform you choose, including one you own. And that one account can access all the content everywhere. So basically you’d get all the perks of YouTube but few if any of the problems.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 0 points 2 months ago

For users, maybe, not for content creators. They still want to get paid and on the fediverse, the only thing you can rely on right now is people going through the hassle of clicking on a donate button, opening a third party website, logging in there, and following the procedure to donate. On youtube it's just, users just have to watch videos.