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Comment by jerlam | Hacker News Reader

In January this year, a lot of independent YouTubers, unrelated to private equity and cars, also quit:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/20/24044533/mkbhd-weighs-in-...

The car YouTubers are just a little behind the curve.

There was a pandemic bubble in 2020 - 2021 where ad spending on video was huge, tech companies increased their headcount substantially, and creators were riding high. Twitch and YouTube were dropping eight-figure exclusive contracts left and right. Those days are over, the money isn't there anymore, and we are seeing the tail end.

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Google is taking the money from ads and instead of going to creators, it's going towards AI

Google pays the majority of ad income to creators, 60/40 split for full length videos (and the inverse for shorts)

yes, according to Google, that's the split. But you are relying on Google to correctly report the revenue and correctly report which videos it should be attributed to. How sure are we that Google is being honest with how they are handling things? They have been proven to be quite the liars in the past.

THIS. I know many creators who have quit because they are simply not getting the ROI for the level of effort they put in before. Call it what you want, or put the blame on them, but at a certain point a vast majority of people saying "we aren't making any money anymore" can't all be wrong.

I wouldn't trust Google or Sundar in the slightest to the what is the best interest of users. They can only be counted on doing what is best for them first, shareholders second. Users are seen as a gadfly that must be managed, like employees.

No, that is according to the contract that creators agree to. This is widely reported by creators.

Yes, I realize that is the contract. But are they allowing their view counts to be audited by an unbiased 3rd party? I wouldn't be surprised if they are using "Hollywood accounting" to calculate those revenue shares.

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