[yrgulation]

I would vouch they need money to pay for hosting and everything else, and as a free service perhaps ads are the only way. Not sure how one can expect youtube to host that amount of content for free perpetually.

I dislike ads, particularly dark patterns, and shocking I pay for youtube premium. An unpopular opinion but can someone please explain how can all this be hosted for free? Or why do some believe they should?

[tartoran]

Ads in moderation are ok. An excessive interminable shower of intrusive ads are met with complete block.

[singularity2001]

I'd honestly pay for their premium 13$ per month if it wasn't Google:

Doing so would allow them to cross reference all their tracking to my personal details, or at least to a fixed id.

[thijsvandien]

Exactly. The main reason I don't pay for YouTube, is that I don't want to be logged in to browse it—already getting tracked enough without that.

[serix]

I pay for family premium less than 6$ (I'm not from US though)

[peruvian]

You can sign up for Premium under a VPN and get it for cheap, even in the US. I pay $3/mo for it.

[tkiolp4]

I understand YouTube (they need money, they run ads)... what I don’t understand is the companies that pay YouTube to post their ads. I mean, who on earth likes ads? Being interrupted by Company X while watching a video will make me with high probability hate company X (instead of making me buy their products). This is something i don’t really get because no one likes ads, but here you have that’s the number one strategy of (bad) companies in marketing. It’s so stupid.

[LarryMade2]

I think a good part of the problem is Youtube has a lot of advertisers, and even with their popularity still a limited number of videos potential customers watch; so, they load up the ads on videos to get enough exposure for the advertisers to believe they get their money's worth.

[lambda_obrien]

I would pay, except youtube had these ads that are like, " hate being annoyed by ads? Pay us!"

Fuck youtube.

[tpoacher]

Try Coca Cola, the refreshing drink. I believe OP's point is not that any amount of ads is unacceptable, and I'm sure they would agree with your statement. Johnsons and Johnsons baby shampoo; no more tears.

HOWEVER. Dove cream soap, your luxury soap. I am sure, Skittles, taste the rainbow, that you will also, Adidas, impossible is nothing, agree, Nike, just do it, that if the ads themselves, Snickers, satisfaction, outnumber the actual content, Tesco, every little helps, that becomes very, Volkwagen, the people's car, frustrating to the point of, Babybel, just pop and eat, madness, is completely, Kleenex, the soft tissue, unnecessary, and just plain greedy, Durex, to our competitors customers, happy father's day.

[Bancakes]

If youtube becomes paywalled, I'll just stop using youtube. It's that simple.