There is something curious going on with YouTube; it’s a strange phenomenon that Forbes called ‘Adpocalypse.’ The rampant demonetization of videos by Google on YouTube has heavily hit the earnings of popular content creators. Amos Yee, Singapore’s enfant terrible who is famous for dissing the city-state’s founder Lee Kuan Yew on YouTube, recently stirred up more controversy in his former homeland.
Yee asked his followers to support his videos on Patreon:
“Now more than 50 percent of the current videos on my channel have been demonetized, and because future videos of mine will obviously deal with controversial political subjects and [have] vulgar language, there’s a very high chance that more than 50 percent of my videos will continue to be demonetized and I won’t make money [off] them.”
Yee is not alone; there are others who have also been hit by this wave of YouTube demonetization. Philip DeFranco, a YouTuber with 4.5 mln subscribers called demonetization a “form of censorship” in a Business Insider article.
YouTube alternatives
If income loss is an issue then people can simply choose an alternative platform right? The answer would be, it is not so simple. YouTube has over one bln users and according to them, that is one-third of the Internet.
The second most wellknown video-oriented website is Vimeo, which has 170 mln users worldwide out of which 42 mln are in the United States.
However, Vimeo is seeing phenomenal rise and they claim that they have grown 80 percent over the last year.
The philosophy behind the two platforms is completely different. Vimeo basically charges content creators for putting their content on the platform and offers 500/MB per week of free storage (25 GB/year).
YouTube is fueled by advertisements and sharing that revenue with creators. Some YouTubers though have experimented with Vimeo by making films. These include Joey Graceffa and ComicBookGirl19. CNBC quoted Kerry Trainor the former CEO of Vimeo as saying,
“When it comes to monetizing that viewing experience, it’s about allowing and empowering creators to actually charge for content instead of relying on a purely mass advertising-based model.”
YouTube claims demonetization strengthens creators
YouTube published a blog this year which claimed that they want creators to ‘express themselves while earning revenue.’ They wrote, “There’s a difference between the free expression that lives on YouTube and the content that brands have told us they want to advertise against. Our advertiser-friendly content policies set the tone for which videos can earn revenue, ensuring that ads only appear where they should…
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