YouTube is turning me into a conspiracy theorist.
All Youtube's recent bullshit and weirdness, from adpocalypse, double super-secret probation, the demonetization bot, the stupid-ass bell notification icon, even things like Elsagate, its all crippling the old system so they can put in a new one. And I can tell you right now where its going.
Boosted Videos.
I will be shocked if we don't see youtube, after one or two more "oh, things are so terrible but we can't get human eyes to look at things, what shall we do?" events, drop in with a new solution. "Boost this video to have a human review it and, once it is approved, you'll get put in front of X number of viewers!" "Well, the only way to keep these creepy videos off the Youtube Kids' App is to pay to get on the app, it's just the only solution we can come up with", etc.
That's what the "best stuff first" algorithms are on social media, preludes to the Facebook model. Why let people follow creators they want and get notified to see that creator’s work when they can CHARGE the creator to get access to their audience?
The stupid bell icon? It kills the whole point of subscriptions and adds another layer to the process of getting your video in front of people who want to see it, this will make it easier for them to charge you to get your videos reliably to your own subscribers.
Adpocyalpse. Simple and obvious “opt in/out for certain keywords” options for the advertisers are passed over in factor of using yet another drunken, rampaging bot to auto-flag stuff. You can’t get a review unless you’re already a big channel, and even if you’re big the review time ensures you’ll lose most of your ad revenue. Makes it really tempting to avoid the problem by paying for a boost or similar type of audience-buying system.
Elsagate. I’m not saying that Youtube is paying weirdos to find and produce incredibly disturbing videos and is putting them on the youtube kids app. I’m saying they saw it happening, and they’ve let it run rampant because a massive public backlash is only going to be a bump in the road for youtube, but the resulting moral panic will allow them to move to a pay-for-play process without worrying about creator grumbling. You can get away with anything as long as you scream “but think of the children” loud enough.
I’ll be shocked if they don’t launch a pay-for-audience program in the next twelve months.













