• theshonen8899@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’m a software engineer at AWS and work on video content delivery for services like Netflix. The idea that one single ad could cover the cost of delivering a video that’s been replicated in multiple servers, multiple regions, multiple countries throughout the world is pretty hilarious. No matter how much money you think YouTube is making I can almost guarantee it’s not enough. There is a reason there is no significant competition in this space, it makes no money.

    • joneskind@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      What’s less sustainable is centralized web. You must know that since you work for Amazon, right?

      When PopcornTime was still a thing you could watch adfree any movie you’d like even in 4K because resources were shared through peer to peer.

      Now, YouTube gets up to 12$ RPM, content creators get maybe 40% of that. With 2 prerolls and 2 midrolls + banners they get plenty enough money to make things work. Google has the most aggressive VASTs of the market. They are everywhere, called multiple times per pages.

      Spare us your tears.

      Besides, no significant competition? Is that a joke?

      • theshonen8899@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        If you think it’s sustainable you can create a new service yourself, no one is stopping you. I’ve done cost estimations for projects with 1M+ customers and the margins are so tight we’ve killed at least a dozen services despite pouring months or years of effort into their designs and prototypes. It’s easy for you to complain about freebies from your couch but the reality is that if someone could make a better service than YouTube, they already would have. “Spare is your tears” lol.

    • daniskarma@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Genuine question.

      How is been running for almost 20 years, most of them with very few ads?

      I doubt they had been just sinking money for the kind of their hearts.

      I do not know how much it cost to run a service like YouTube. Or how much money they make by ads or other ways. But they have been running for long enough to be a successful business.

      And it’s just the latest few years when they are pushing these aggressive techniques.

      • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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        5 months ago

        How is been running for almost 20 years, most of them with very few ads?

        Investor money, then Google money. Video streaming requires fuckloads of storage and is a HUGE bandwidth hog, especially if people want to watch stuff at 1080p or higher resolutions. Youtube is a money pit, but it’s a major and nearly untouchable internet power, especially given its size and reach.

        And it’s just the latest few years when they are pushing these aggressive techniques.

        The “easy money” from loans with very low interest rates has dried up, also Google being Google.