Ad blocker still works. They really want people to stop using YouTube though, don’t they.
The real problem is that barriers to entry for competition are insurmountable.
If I wanna compete, I gotta host those files somewhere. With Google, Amazon, or Microsoft. That’s basically my whole list of options.
I mean, I can opt to do it myself, but… That’s beyond David v Goliath. No way I could manage the amount of spam, CSA, DMCA, terrorism/misinformation and other shit that would seek to take the competition out.
The other reason why it’s impossible is simply that nobody would upload their genuine content to your site because it doesn’t get as much “engagement” as on YouTube. Social inertia is why YouTube can pretty much do whatever the fuck they want and people will stay.
Twitch is the same thing for livestreams. Not even Facebook using fuck-you money to literally buy exclusivity contracts with streamers could change that. People just didn’t want to watch there (although I can understand their reluctance).
Your metadata is still extremely valuable to them, and it’s not limited to just watch history and likes, but rather everything on how you engage in their services, including where your mouse cursor sits.
Parroting the angry me Yorker whose name I forgot. If you use an ad blocker your likely privacy aware and they don’t get much/any meta data from you.
Also YouTube is extremely costly to run. They are making it abundantly clear you are not valuable to them if you aren’t watching ads. You aren’t that important.
^ mostly this. Ad revenue from watched ads isnt all of their income, not even close
