• @fubo@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    “Demonetization” is just what YouTube’s promises to advertisers look like when they affect video creators.

    Money on YouTube flows from advertisers. The revenue from charging advertisers to show ads is split between YouTube/Google and the video creator. If your video is not shown with ads, then there is no revenue to split.

    YouTube gives advertisers a very small control over what videos their ads are shown on. They have a few different classifications of videos, and advertisers can choose which ones they want to be seen with. Advertisers are paying for the service of YouTube putting their ads on videos — but only the videos that YouTube thinks the advertiser does want to be seen with.

    If your video is fully “demonetized”, that means YouTube has decided that no advertisers want to be seen with it; or that they are not willing to take revenue from showing ads on that video. But they’re still hosting it, making it available to viewers.

    Video creators’ revenue is a share of the ad income from YouTube showing the video (and accompanying ads). A “demonetized” video is one that doesn’t show any ads — so there is no revenue to split. It’s not that YouTube is taking all the revenue and leaving none to the video creator. They’re not making any, because they don’t think the advertisers would be okay with being charged to be seen alongside that video.

    However, the creator of a “demonetized” video is still receiving value from YouTube. It is not free to host that video — especially if it is popular. Network bandwidth, data storage, and transcoding of video for viewers’ browsers are not free; YouTube covers the cost of these. YouTube is willing to host a lot of videos that they make zero money from, at their expense, rather than censoring those videos by taking them down.

    • @DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      YouTube is willing to host a lot of videos that they make zero money from, at their expense

      That’s just not true…they’re hosting it because they data-farm the living shit out of both the creator and anyone that gets tangentially close to their site. More content = more people visit = more data on these people = more money…They make a lot of money on this data, even if no ads are shown on a video, and are by no means doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

      • HobbitFoot
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        910 months ago

        Yeah, but they aren’t making nearly the amount of money on the video as they would with the ads, and no where near enough to compensate the creators beyond free hosting.

        You can still publish demonetized content, just don’t expect to make money from it on YouTube.

        • @darth_helmet@sh.itjust.works
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          110 months ago

          They use that data to sell ads at you across the entire internet. Google is making plenty of cash off those “demonitized” videos.

      • @fubo@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I didn’t say it’s charity. I said the video creator (who wants people to see their video) is receiving a service from the video host, which otherwise they would have to pay for. Hosting your own video on your own storage and network bill is not free.

        If they didn’t think they were receiving any benefit, they would just take that video down.

        They don’t.

        • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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          110 months ago

          Hosting your own video on your own storage and network bill is not free. If you don’t believe me, go try doing it yourself.

          I know this is true but why do I see so many people on lemmy pushing for self-hosting and even talking about it like its some low rent hobby?

          • @fubo@lemmy.world
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            210 months ago

            It’s not exactly an expensive hobby, but it’s also not free.

            YouTube hosts a lot of videos.

            And — by the fundamental theorem of financial calculus that I just made up — “not free” times “a lot” equals “big bucks”.

            • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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              110 months ago

              And — by the fundamental theorem of financial calculus that I just made up — “not free” times “a lot” equals “big bucks”.

              Finally, someone who gets my idea of math.