• snooggums@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    As a free user they get engagement, which may or may not offset what they get out of those that do provide them income. It seems like that was good enough for a couple decades.

    • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I…really don’t think it was ever about engagement. I think most free users just didn’t have an adblocker.

      I think ublock orgin’s adoption just picked up over the years, and it’s not as if Youtube gets cheaper (I’d imagine it just gets more expensive)

      I mean engagement is great, they make the algorithm work (well, “work”) but I’m pretty sure the ads were the selling point (for google) before premium was even an option.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Google is an advertising company. That’s how they make money. Everything else they do – search, youtube, apps, phones – is just an ancillary sideshow that’s a vehicle to showing people ads, or gathering data on them to use in showing them ads. So you are 100% correct.