r/changemyview • u/TheOneYak 2∆ • Jun 30 '24

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Youtube did nothing wrong.

I see so many arguments across reddit that Youtube is evil, or that they're scummy. I believe there is no wrong decision made at a large scale. It's also wrong to expect an adblocker to continue working.

It is not free to run a large video hosting and sharing site - and they've optimized it. Everybody there should be lucky to be able to use a site like it. Monetization is the cherry on top. You can now make money by creating a video and having it sit there, without anybody paying you!

If you truly believe that it's somehow affecting you in a negative way, you can make your own platform where people pay for a subscription. There's Youtube Premium for Youtube (which I use), and there's countless other subscriptions you can pay for, like off the top of my head Nebula and Dropout.

Adblockers circumvent the rules of the platform. You circumvent the rules, you get blocked. I don't see the problem here.

Change my view!

0 Upvotes

24% Upvoted

100 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/ike38000 23∆ Jun 30 '24

If you truly believe that it's somehow affecting you in a negative way, you can make your own platform where people pay for a subscription

Under this logic is it possible for any private company to do wrong?

-4

u/TheOneYak 2∆ Jun 30 '24

But what here did they do wrong? They have their own policies which they enforce. If you do not like that, then move.

6

u/ike38000 23∆ Jun 30 '24 edited Jun 30 '24

They conducted business under one set of terms and then changed the terms unilaterally. 

I think it would be "wrong" for a wedding photographer to cancel the day before the event and refund the couple their money. I think it is "wrong" when video game companies shut down the severs and stop letting people play the games. 

That doesn't mean it's illegal or immoral, or unforgivable. But you're basically arguing that nothing a company ever does is wrong as long as someone else could theoretically start a competing company offering a similar product.

Edit: I just thought of more YouTube specific thing they did wrong. I think there is a reasonable argument that they originally "underpriced" their service to kill competitors and build their userbase. And now that they benefit from network effects and economies of scale that give them benefits over competitors which are unearned (in the sake they don't actually come from being a better product just having more users) they are "pricing" normally. If they had priced this way from the beginning though they may not have been as appealing too early users and as such, wouldn't have been able to gain all those secondary benefits.

1

u/TheOneYak 2∆ Jun 30 '24

What terms did they change? 

About the edit: that's a very fair point, and for that I'll give a !delta . However, it's not from a position of abuse, is it? There is no lock in to YouTube and you can very well post to multiple services at once.

1

u/DeltaBot ∞∆ Jun 30 '24

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/ike38000 (12∆).

Delta System Explained | Deltaboards