COPPA, Youtube advertising and the future of online content creation Part 2

So what can be done about this?

What is needed is a total restructuring of the YouTube business model, both for individual creators and the platform as a whole.

it is highly unlikely that YouTube itself will take a lead on this. YouTube is owned by Google, and targeted advertising is Google’s core business model across the majority of their services. Instead it will be up to creators and their viewers to work towards creating a platform where enjoyable and popular content can be rewarded without the need for targeted advertising.

Unfortunately in order to do this viewers must be willing to pay more to directly support the content and creators they enjoy.

Here is the current situation. Instead of paying upfront for the content with money, we pay ( often without realising it) by handing over our personal data to YouTube. What this means is that the perceived value you of the content we consume is much less than it should be. The targeted advertising model allows for videos that require one or more people working full time to produce to be viewed and enjoyed by us at no upfront cost.

We need to actively unlearn this ingrained belief, as it will be the biggest thing holding us back from the radical change needed to resolve these issues.

There are multiple different ways that viewers could more directly support the content they care about, most of which already exist in some form. YouTube already has the channel membership feature, and there is also Patreon, which many creators both on YouTube and other sites us to support their income. Patreon is particularly useful for creators that do not produce content to a regular schedule, as it can be set to charge patrons per video instead of monthly. There is also YouTube Premium, the platform’s ad free subscription that includes access to exclusive videos. Instead of sharing ad revenue, YouTube shares some of the revenue from the YouTube subscription fees with creators.

The other more direct way to support creators without targeted advertising, is by paying for other things creators offer. These can be services, like coaching sessions or VOD reviews from expert gamers, or physical items such as clothing and other merchandise.

Here is the ideal outcome of following this approach as I see it. Once YouTube creators begin to see a majority of their income coming from sources outside of advertising, then there will be less need for them to run advertisements on all their videos. Once YouTube sees their revenue from advertisements dropping, and revenue from other sources (channel memberships, premium subscriptions etc…) increasing, it will take away the incentive for the same level of data collection. The content that will be promoted is that which fans are most willing to pay for, which will be better for viewers as this is content they have consciously chosen to promote, instead of subconsciously through algorithmic recommendations. This should lead to a system that values content that viewers actually care about, and be less open to exploitation than the current system.

Of course this is definitely an idealistic idea of how it could play out. There are certainly major challenges to this kind of systemic change. The default cost for channel memberships, $4.99 per month in the US and £4.99 in the UK, are too high for many YouTube viewers who may keep up with 10 or more creators. YouTube Premium seems more reasonable ($11.99 US and £11.99 UK), although the revenue cannot be so clearly directed towards your favourite creators. If YouTube was thought about more like Netflix, as a paid subscription service rather than the free ad supported model, then this option might seem more palatable to users. Some channel memberships for those channels that the viewer cares about the most, in addition to a Premium subscription, would seem to be the best model based on what exists currently.

YouTube is a massive multinational corporation that is dependent on a business model that has been shown to be harmful to the YouTube community and society at large. However ‘money talks’ as they say. If enough people were willing to change their perspective and value the content they received highly enough to make the other methods of supporting creators more profitable than targeted advertising, then we could start to see the beginning of positive change in how this company operates. It won’t be easy, as it requires us to take something we’re given for free, and to pay money for it, but it might be the best way to ensure the long term survival of the platform and the community, that despite all the problems it has, we care about very much.