Back when YouTube was created, it was full of short videos - weird content, shock humor, and whatever came to people's mind to upload. At this point of time, the YouTube algorithm was in its infancy, only paying attention to the amount of views on the video - no matter how long the audience actually watched, video creators were paid solely by how many people clicked on that video. This created a wave of clickbait titles and thumbnails and deceiving the viewers just to get their attention for just a second or two.
Then, in 2013, the YouTube algorithm was changed to use view duration as a statistic - videos that people viewed for longer were suggested in search and their creators were rewarded. This defeated, for the most part, the clickbait content, but it also killed the profits of video creators who made short animations as part of their career. On the other hand, Let's Players dominated the YouTube scene because of their high viewer retention, longer content, which is why Youtubers like Pewdiepie, Jacksepticeye, and Markiplier have millions of subscribers today.
And all was good, until the Adpocolypses started.
From 2016 until now, advertisers have started to boycott and withdraw from YouTube due to controversies regarding inflammatory content, such as Pewdiepie's videos making references to Hitler and others that YouTube regarded as "hate speech." Advertisements from major brands from Coca-Cola to Adidas were pulled from channels with the exception of those deemed "family-friendly."
Such YouTube algorithm changes have been easily exploited, and Jake Paul is an easy example of this. Many of his videos are thinly veiled advertising, and he's admitted himself that his main audience are children from age 8 to 16; in one of his videos called "THE BEST SONG WE'VE MADE YET," almost half of the content are plugs for his merch and music.
It's partly YouTube's fault, because they lack regulations on its content revolving around commercial time that television does: the FCC limits advertisements to around 17.5% of the original content, and the broadcasters are prohibited from displaying website addresses “during or adjacent to a children’s program if products are sold featuring a character in the program, or a program character is used to sell products.”
And so far, it's really been working - Jake Paul's net worth is estimated to be $19 million, he has 19.7 million subscribers as of now, and he gets almost 5 million viewers per month. Despite his controversies (exploiting and upsetting babies for views and content clearly not appropriate for children, being marketed to children), Jake Paul has exploited the YouTube algorithm to become very successful.
It's really interesting how YouTube has a "cancel culture" where people are shamed for posting content that is "inappropriate" or considered wrong by its viewers. However, these are the videos that seem to get the most views. You use Jake Paul as an example, and it seems that his videos that do the best are the ones considered the most scandalous. This means that he will be getting more views, therefore making more money and this only inspires him and other YouTube creators to make scandalous videos. In a way, influencers are trying to be as dramatic and cause as much trouble as possible in order to be the most popular, make the most money, and to benefit their careers.
ReplyDeleteI think one super interesting case study would be Shane Dawson. Shane used to make outrageous, offensive comedic videos before he slowly began changing his style. His old content was definitely not advertiser friendly. He struggled to find his place on Youtube again until he began making his current docu-series style videos. He is now extremely popular, gets tens of millions of views on every video, which is appealing to advertisers. He never used to get sponsorships, but he now has brand deals in every videos and I believe monetizes them by playing ads. Shane helps Youtube by bringing in viewers and ensuring people are using the website, so Youtube now supports him. When he made controversial content, it was much harder for him to be supported by brands. Shane is one clear example of how Youtubers may change to more marketable content. I also find the FCC advertisement limit you mentioned very interesting as I didn't know about that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, and I think the algorithm has also mark many Youtube channel that is saying truth about some other companies and political's view point. They usually "hide" those video and make the views really low compare to the likes and commands for such channel. Also, Youtube will make this kind of Channel unprofitable. This force many channel like this shut down, and only few survey and it is because those Youtuber doesn't even want to make any profit from this.
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