YouTube as Storage

Re:YouTube as Storage by wasmainiac on Saturday February 14, 2026 @04:52AM (#47013203)

I wonder if that still holds true? The volume of videos increases exponentially especially with AI slop, I wonder if at some point they will have to limit the storage per user, with a paid model if you surpass that limit. Many people who upload many videos I guess some form of income off YouTube so it wouldn’t that be that big of a deal.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by weird-eye-issue on Saturday February 14, 2026 @05:16AM (#47013332)

What they said only holds true because the growth continues so that the old volume of videos doesn't matter as much since there's so many more new ones each year compared to the previous year. So the question is more about whether or not it will hold true in the long term, not today

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Re:YouTube as Storage by raincole on Saturday February 14, 2026 @07:44AM (#47014153)

The framing here is really weird. The volume of videos increasing isn't 'growth.' Videos are inventory for Youtube. They're only good when people (without adblocks!) actually watch them.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by amelius on Saturday February 14, 2026 @08:03AM (#47014237)

^ This.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by weird-eye-issue on Saturday February 14, 2026 @10:08AM (#47015062)

Growth in this context is that there are a larger volume of videos each year. So each year a single video is exponentially a smaller and smaller percentage of the total.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by raincole on Saturday February 14, 2026 @11:48AM (#47015988)

Yeah and the math doesn't check out.

For example, if in year N youtube has f(N) new video. Let assume f(N) = cN^2. It's a crazy rate of growth. It's far better than the real world Youtube, which grew rather linearly.

But the rate of "videos that are older than 5 years" is still faster than that, because it would be cubic instead of quadratic. Unless the it's really exponential (it isn't), "videos that are older than 5 years" will always surpass "new videos this year" eventually.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by weird-eye-issue on Saturday February 14, 2026 @06:58PM (#47019697)

> Unless the it's really exponential (it isn't), "videos that are older than 5 years" will always surpass "new videos this year" eventually.

Such a weird strawman argument that you are making up. You've over thought this so much that you are missing the forest from the trees

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Re:YouTube as Storage by whycombigator on Saturday February 14, 2026 @08:02PM (#47020113)

Video sensors are continuously getting cheaper, better and more more prevalent over time. The trend is towards capturing all angles of everything, everywhere, at increasingly higher resolutions.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by UltraSane on Saturday February 14, 2026 @03:35PM (#47018123)

Yes. a video no one watches is a waste of storage.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by dotancohen on Saturday February 14, 2026 @09:00PM (#47020373)

Maybe not.

Maybe it could be used to train a neutral network. Maybe it contains dirt on a teenager, who might become a politician two decades from now. Maybe it contains an otherwise lost historical event.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by weird-eye-issue on Sunday February 15, 2026 @03:29AM (#47022024)

Or it just helps to cement YouTube as the go-to place for uploading and sharing videos for almost any purpose which has a long-term positive effect for user engagement and retention

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Re:YouTube as Storage by pogue on Saturday February 14, 2026 @04:55AM (#47013216)

I assume it's an economics issue. As long as they continue making money off the uploads to a higher extent than it costs for storage, it works out for them.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by throw_await on Saturday February 14, 2026 @05:25AM (#47013377)

Do they make a profit nowadays

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Re:YouTube as Storage by rezonant on Saturday February 14, 2026 @06:53AM (#47013822)

Likely yes, with a margin of perhaps 38%

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34268536

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Re:YouTube as Storage by ranger_danger on Saturday February 14, 2026 @05:05AM (#47013273)

I wonder if anyone has ever compiled a list of channels with abnormally large numbers of videos? For example this guy has over 14,000:

https://www.youtube.com/@lylehsaxon

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Re:YouTube as Storage by HeliumHydride on Saturday February 14, 2026 @05:45AM (#47013453)

There is a channel with 2 million videos: https://www.youtube.com/@RoelVandePaar/videos One with 4 million videos: https://www.youtube.com/@NameLook

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Re:YouTube as Storage by buenzlikoder on Saturday February 14, 2026 @06:26AM (#47013659)

NameLook puts a whole new meaning to "low effort videos"

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Re:YouTube as Storage by qingcharles on Sunday February 15, 2026 @01:29AM (#47021518)

Lord above. This is the worst garbage I've ever seen:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mrOXqgShzI0

This shit is the reason I can't afford a new HDD.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by wellf on Saturday February 14, 2026 @06:03AM (#47013539)

First one has transcribed stack overflow to YT by the look of it

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Re:YouTube as Storage by ranger_danger on Saturday February 14, 2026 @11:28AM (#47015791)

I guess I should have mentioned I wasn't looking for automated/AI-generated videos.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by b00ty4breakfast on Saturday February 14, 2026 @11:15PM (#47021007)

AH! I've stumbled on that first fellas videos before! The videos aren't crazy complex but the sheer volume is impressive in a perverse kind of way.

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Re:YouTube as Storage by pwdisswordfishy on Saturday February 14, 2026 @11:28PM (#47021059)

> The volume of videos increases exponentially

Source?

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