A slightly unusual video from the fantastic Technology Connections channel. It articulates a lot of my own thoughts on social media, “algorithms” and AI.
What surprised me the most was the statistic that only 3% of author’s views come from the subscriptions feed. This is wild to me because subscriptions are pretty much the only way I have ever used YouTube.
I’m not all that sure; don’t they get the same amount of money from ads no matter how you find them? And they get a hefty chunk on “Join” and “Thanks” payments (a 30% cut, IIRC), which people are less likely to spend on non-subscribed channels.
If you look at your Subscribed page and don’t see any updates, there’s a good chance you’ll leave YouTube without watching anything.
The Home page has a higher likelihood of tempting you to watch something you hadn’t planned on.
That’s a fair point, improving the subscription feed would be in their best interest for the people who use it, even if that number is low.