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> Creators went for direct monetization outside of youtube instead of ads, and youtube responded by keeping their net income the same by just showing ads anyway.

It's more complicated than that. Small time creators or others ineligible for the Youtube "partner program" have no choice but to monetize outside of Youtube. With this change, the only way you as a creator can choose whether ads appear on your video is to make partner.

The scummy thing here is that Youtube has made it harder and harder for creators to become eligible to monetize their channels, and now they're swooping in to take 100% of the ad revenue on those small-time channels.




Being eligible to monetize doesn't look that intimidating? https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851?hl=en

Not sure how many small creators both can't manage that but can manage external monetization?


1000 subscribers? You can sign up and make more money from 3 patreons than 1000 yt subscribers, what are you on about?


That depends on the amount of content you post. 1000 people watching a reasonable length video might only be $1-2 per video, but 10-15 videos a month would be $10-30. That can be more than 3 patrons.


Yeah - but you dont need to post weekly content with patreons, you can get by with monthly given the subscription, and tbqh you can probably do bi-monthly with many types of subscribers - supporting instead of expecting content.

Also with 1000 subscribers you dont guarantee 1000 views, just potential views.


Most people I know using Patreon post weekly, with maybe 2-3 posts a week. That includes 2nd-tier content like WIP and polls. Patreon requires a substantially smaller commitment, but it's more difficult to find patrons than viewers.


Even YouTube made $3 billion in non-advertising revenue last year which includes subscriptions. The ad business brought in $15 billion revenue.




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