[mu53]

increasing friction for ad blockers will increase ad views will increase revenue.

It is pretty easy for a company whose existence depends on ads to see people that use ad blockers as leeches or freeloaders or other derogatory terms to justify making their lives more difficult.

Youtube premium is around $15, and depending on people's video usage, it pays for itself

[Telaneo]

This is the reflex/instinct approach though. Sure, they increase friction for people with adblock, and then 5 minutes later, uBlock Origin does an update to undo Youtube's friction, and we're back to square one. No gain for anyone, no thought of what happens long term, just busywork.

I'll pay for Youtube Premium the day they bring back a pre-2015-ish Youtube web layout, tone down the ads accordingly for those who can't pay, community subtitles, dislikes and annotations. I have no intentions of paying for a service that grows worse year over year, which I constantly have to counteract with either browser add-ons, or separate programs like yt-dlp and Freetube. I'll pay for the content if need be, but that's what Patreon is for in most cases. Youtube's a middleman I'd rather not have to deal with, but which we're stuck with.

[mu53]

It is very likely that you are a customer that youtube would rather not have to deal with, so the feelings would be mutual

[zahlman]

> Youtube premium is around $15, and depending on people's video usage, it pays for itself

How many ads does YouTube have to serve in order to net $15 from the advertisers?

How much would they gross in this circumstance (vs. what they pay out to content creators)?

[mu53]

If Youtube's services (streaming/storage) are not paid for, they can't pay content creators.

When people do not pay for services directly with a credit card, they pay for it indirectly with ads and data collection. The internet would be a better place if companies didn't have to worry so much about monetizing indirectly. Plus, the only companies that can give out free services often have monopolistic intent.

This whole debate embodies why the internet has become what it has.

[zahlman]

I agree with all of that. But I'm not debating; I'm trying to understand what the underlying numbers are.

[1over137]

But thats even less private. If you log in, they know exactly who you are.

[aspenmayer]

They likely have nearly as good an idea who you are based on what you watch from which IP address(es).