YouTube's monetization engine has demanded some amount of interference between you and the thing that you're trying to get to. If you're looking for how to tie a bow tie, YouTube's monetizationengine has demanded that that video be 10 minutes long with a midroll ad in it. And then you back that even farther and it's like, oh, all of this is a game. Like what YouTube makes is a game that spits out money.And they are just constantly kind of rewriting the rules of this game. Do you think YouTube is an entity understands that? That it is fundamentally unpredictable, what billions of content creators will do?"
Today, I’m talking to Mark Bergen, a reporter at Bloomberg and the author of a new book about YouTube called. Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination.
YouTube has always been fascinating to me because it’s such a black box: everyone feels like they know how the platform works, but very few people have a real understanding of the internal politics and tradeoffs that actually drive YouTube’s decision. Mark’s book is one of the best of its kind I’ve read: not only does he take you inside the company, but he connects the decisions made inside YouTube to the creators who use the platform and the effects it has on them.
This was a fun one – keep in mind that for as little as we might know about YouTube, we might know even less about TikTok, which is driving all sorts of platforms, even YouTube, into competing with it.
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23113078
Links:
YouTube Partner Program
Hank Green on Decoder
iJustine
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters. And our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices