[hobofan]

> would be killed or copied by YouTube the second the project got any traction

Why? For Youtube there is little money to be made from a tool like this. The target customers for tools like this are advertisers that interact directly with creators. E.g. that's also what nindo.de, a similar platform in the German social media space, built by a popular Youtuber pivoted to.

[LeifCarrotson]

Those advertisers could be interacting directly with Youtube, but these platforms help them skip over the middleman and go right to the creator.

[hobofan]

In theory yes, but in practice not really. AFAIK Youtube doesn't offer a platform to do direct placements with creators, which make up the bulk of creator earnings (basically every big channel is only profitable via those). That Youtube hasn't built out a platform with tools to enable that, so that they could get a piece of that pie is entirely on them.

[tomashubelbauer]

I feel like even mid-roll ads are just too different type of advertising medium than a direct video integration so they shouldn't be thought of as alternatives to each other. And it would seem to me that the general vibe is that sponsor spots are more hip and more prestigious for advertisers. I used to see those from new and agile companies whereas any sort of normal in-stream ad type would be preferred by more established and classical companies. I use both uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock these days though so my anecdata might be stale.

[joshspankit]

Once upon a time YouTube barred creators from talking about how much they made. Over time they have also taken steps to hide the numbers. They seem to have shifted and gotten comfortable with it, but personally I would also be hesitant about putting in the resources to build a YT analytics platform.