Yes, but ultimately it is not my responsibility to make their business model viable. That's between them and Google - not me.

I am not Google's accountant. They can figure it out.

It's not your responsibility. That's why Google makes you do it (pay or watch ads). Otherwise they can't pay creators and if they don't get paid then you don't get content you like to watch. Lose lose. So I'd say they kinda figured it out.

> Otherwise they can't pay creators

> In 2024 the company made a revenue of $350.01 Billion USD

YouTube made THAT much money? Cool tho I want to know sources.

Now assuming that let's check how much it costs to host/recode/stream stuff. How dare companies want to profit right?

just wanted to show they don't need you to watch ads to pay them

then you didn't did you?

I did by showing that Google has plenty which they can use for payment.

By that logic Apple should give away iphones for free. This is not how things work in capitalism

No by that logic Apple could give IPhones away for free

If they want to eventually fold yes doing things for free is great

Google does not make me do it, I am free to mute the ad and look away. I don't have to watch ads, that is my choice.

If you want to be pedantic: "Google adds video pre-roll ad during which you are likely to see it"

It's not pedantic at all: if I look away and mute, which is perfectly allowed, versus use an ad blocker, what's the difference?

The outcome for me is identical. I don't see an ad, and I won't buy something.

It's the same reason why DVR recording was never piracy. It's the same thing as if I watched the show, except the DVR does it.

> if I look away and mute, which is perfectly allowed, versus use an ad blocker, what's the difference?

The difference is you still see the beginning of the ad and some people see a big part of it because they don't have the habit of muting and looking away out of fear of missing the beginning of the video for example.

> The outcome for me is identical. I don't see an ad, and I won't buy something.

You still see the beginning of the ad. Whether you buy something or not is not always what the ad is trying to do sometimes it's just raising awareness

> if they don't get paid then you don't get content

[citation needed]

You're saying no content would be created if there were no payments?

Have you never met a real artist?

Yes, real artists need time, supplies, space to work, etc. If you don’t pay them, they’ll have less of everything they need to make the art you like.

Have you seen a well produced YouTube video? It can take days sometimes months and a lot of costs.

Why is it automatically assumed that just because you post a video on youtube that you deserve to be paid? None of my videos made me any money and I’m fine with that.