[bryanjclark]

"This isn’t the first time Windows Phone users have been shafted by the Mountain View company not willing to develop for the platform."

Bullshit - this isn't Google screwing over Microsoft, it's Microsoft being idiots. If MSFT built a YouTube app that didn't blatantly violate Google's policies, I don't think it'd be a problem.

YouTube wants viewers, regardless of which platform they're coming from.

[aespinoza]

I have to agree with you on this scenario. Microsoft could have built the app and respected Youtube Terms of Service. But instead they decided to mess with Youtube's business.

It is sad that Microsoft decided to strip the Ads and allow downloads from their own, because the Windows Youtube App may never come back now.

[lotso]

Microsoft doesn't have the APIs necessary to enable ads.

[zainny]

Is this a confirmed fact? So far I think we've only heard from Microsoft regarding this.

[rbanffy]

Their Xbox guys seem to have the APIs.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/28/youtube-xbox-app/

[ebf]

That app is built by YouTube.

[bentcorner]

I'm honestly surprised by that. How long until a VP at Google decides it should be pulled to align with the company strategy? I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that we won't see a youtube app in the next Xbox for these very reasons.

[aespinoza]

That is very sad indeed if true. Isn't Microsoft trying to break into the ad business as well? I thought I saw something like that in some Surface Apps.

[dendory]

But isn't the point here that Microsoft doesn't want to have to build the app? Google builds YouTube apps for all major platforms but shafts Windows Phone because of their war with Microsoft. So Microsoft is forced to build their own, so they decided they will build it to be best for users, not Google, hence no ads, able to download videos, etc.

[Spearchucker]

Finding a motive from Google is difficult. Windows Phone only has 2-point-something-per-cent global market share [1], so I doubt Google sees Windows Phone as a threat to Android. That leaves "war with Microsoft", as you put it.

They must've known that this will get press attention, and companies like this weigh the impact of such attention very carefully before making a move. I'd love to understand the real motive behind this.

[1] I'm unsure of the numbers!

[rbanffy]

Microsoft developers are not idiots. This is a PR stunt. A lame one at that.

[CloudNine]

>YouTube wants viewers, regardless of which platform they're coming from.

Then why don't they make an Windows Phone YouTube app and show ads on it? Hell, show double the ads just to annoy WP users. Or are they afraid that it will hurt Android?

[bishnu]

My guess is, [expected revenue per user] * [expected number of Windows Mobile users] - [cost to build a decent YouTube app] is a negative number.

[jbigelow76]

What a crock. Google has many legit reasons to not want to build an app for a competing platform, so be it. But to think a company that routinely throws money away on tons of other development efforts while letting search ad revenue subsidize the cost would suddenly start doing a cost/benefit analysis of such a trivial effort is absurd. If your formula was applied to other products, like Google Reader which was never monetized and had huge infrastructure costs, they never would have seen the light of day. This is a strategic stance on Google's part, not financial, nothing wrong with that.

[nivla]

Yet they have an official chrome browser app for Windows 8.

[eddieroger]

Yeah, it shares a codebase with the Windows 7 version if it's different at all. The number of Windows 7 + Windows 8 installs is far greater than Windows Phone users.

[josh2600]

Youtube is considered core mobile functionality, like a browser, but Youtube is a fiefdom in which Google does not have to compete (unlike the ultra-competitive landscape of the Browser wars). While Google has nothing to lose and everything to gain from restricting access to YouTube, the same cannot be said about the Browser, thus they compete.

It's simple economics; don't waste money helping people dethrone your monopoly (I AM NOT ADVOCATING THIS POSITION, SIMPLY STATING MY PERCEPTION).

[ankitml]

that is a naive world view. Google has never viewed its product with such simplicity. THey are created and destroyed by a vision (sometimes bad vision, most time good vision) (sometimes in good competitive spirit, sometimes in the view of stifling competition).

[lawdawg]

Same reason the vast majority of devs do not make a WP app, or release a crappy version 2 years later.

[CloudNine]

Even Vimeo can make a decent Windows Phone app and a Windows 8 app and Youtube with a order of magnitude more revenue cannot?

If you really believe that, I have a bridge to sell.

Give me a break, Google is doing this to hurt the adoption of Windows Phone.

[lawdawg]

> Google is doing this to hurt the adoption of Windows Phone.

If you really believe that, I have a bridge to sell ... after I stop laughing.

[lawdawg]

@CloudNine WP users can access YouTube videos, the only difference is whether its through an official app or their web browser. So yes, it does matter a lot to them that these eyes are no longer seeing ads that they previously would have.

Google has obviously determined that WPs tiny marketshare isn't enough to justify creating a native app when the browser will work decently enough. Thinking otherwise is just ... idiotic.

Yes, Google is making a big deal out of this when apps like MetroTube already do the same thing. The difference here is its Microsoft, a huge company who has gone out of its way to sling shit on Google, instead of 2 dudes from NZ.

[CloudNine]

>So yes, it does matter a lot to them that these eyes are no longer seeing ads that they previously would have

Then why don't they give access to the Youtube videos and ads API to Microsoft? Microsoft has stated that they're happy to add Google's ads if given access.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5715889

[CloudNine]

I'll be laughing longer at you at simplistically believing Google's lame excuse for the lack of a WP app that so many people are using Windows Phone that it's affecting Youtube's ad revenue because of not showing ads to them, but at the same time it's not worth monetizing the very same eyeballs by making an official YouTube app and showing ads to the Windows Phone audience.

[myko]

I'm guessing if Microsoft removed the 'download video' button from their YouTube app - directly violating YouTube's policies - Google wouldn't be so hard lined about this.