^ mostly this. Ad revenue isnt all of their income, not even close
Comment on YouTube just made it harder to avoid ads with a tiny skip button
ElectroNeutrino@lemmy.world 11 months agoYour metadata is still extremely valuable to them, and it’s not limited to just watch history and likes, but rather everything on how you engage in their services, including where your mouse cursor sits.
DacoTaco@lemmy.world 11 months ago
AeroLemming@lemm.ee 11 months ago
If you block browser ads, they still make money off of you from mobile apps showing ads. If you use DNS-level blocking, they can still use your data to tailor ads for those around you.
Womble@lemmy.world 11 months ago
But the value per person they get from " use your data to tailor ads for those around you" a tiny amount and the amount they get from selling your eyeball space directly to paying customers is (comparatively) vast, I could easily see it being 1000x greater or even more. Youtube is going to war on adblockers for a reason.
DacoTaco@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Exactly
Moneo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Parroting the angry me Yorker whose name I forgot. If you use an ad blocker your likely privacy aware and they don’t get much/any meta data from you.
Also YouTube is extremely costly to run. They are making it abundantly clear you are not valuable to them if you aren’t watching ads. You aren’t that important.
ElectroNeutrino@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yes and no. Metadata is more than just tracking info. I did mention watch history, likes, and mouse position, which are not things that can really be blocked. This also includes things such as how likely you are to click on a video based on thumbnail and screen position, how long you watch specific videos as well as how long your overall watch train is. All in all, how you actually use the service is something that they pay very close attention to, and is still very valuable.
Moneo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
How is any of this information valuable to them if I block all ads?
ElectroNeutrino@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Because you aren’t an individual to them, you’re a statistic providing them with valuable market research on how their service is used.
“People that watch this collection of video classifications are more likely to watch videos who’s thumbnails have these characteristics. Only 1% of them use ad blocking so we can improve our ad presentation rate if we present more videos with these thumbnails to this group.”