There is something curious about what happens with YouTube; it's a strange phenomenon that Forbes called "Adpocalypse". The creeping demonetization of videos by Google on YouTube has heavily affected the revenue of popular content creators. Amos Yee, the enfant terrible of Singapore, famous for having dissolved the founder of the city-state Lee Kuan Yew on YouTube, has recently sparked more controversy in his former homeland.
Yee asks his fans to support his videos on Patreon:
"Now, over 50% of the current videos on my channel have been demonetized, and because my future videos are obviously dealing with controversial political topics and vulgar language, there is a very good chance that over 50% of my videos will continue to be demonetized and I will not earn money [off]. "
Yee is not alone; there are others who have also been affected by this wave of demonetization on YouTube. Philip DeFranco, a YouTuber with 4.5 million subscribers called demonetization "a form of censorship" in a Business Insider article.
YouTube Alternatives
If income loss is a problem, can people simply choose a right platform alternative? The answer would be, it is not so simple. YouTube has more than one billion users and according to them, it is a third of the Internet.
The second best-known video site is Vimeo, which has 170 million users worldwide, including 42 million in the United States
However, Vimeo sees a phenomenal increase and they claim that they have increased 80 percent over the last year.
The philosophy behind the two platforms is completely different. Vimeo essentially charges content creators for putting their content on the platform and offers 500 / MB per week of free storage (25 GB / year).
YouTube is powered by ads and shares this income with creators. Some YouTubers have experimented with Vimeo while making movies. These include Joey Graceffa and ComicBookGirl19. According to CNBC, former Vimeo CEO, Kerry Trainor, said:
"When it comes to monetizing this viewing experience, it's about enabling to creators to charge content rather than depend on advertising purely
YouTube claims that demonetization strengthens creators
YouTube published a blog this year claiming to want creators "express themselves by earning revenue." There is a difference between freedom of expression on YouTube and content on which brands told us they want to advertise. Advertisers set the tone for revenue-generating videos, ensuring that ads only appear where they should, and to ensure that we apply this process fairly, we also give creators the opportunity to to appeal if they feel that their videos have been unfairly demonetized. We are taking these steps because the trust of advertisers is essential to the financial success of our creators. At first glance, this may seem like an effort to balance the needs of sponsors and advertisers and creators, but it also seems that YouTube encourages creators. only to make content that is acceptable for money bags or suffer financially.
Third-Party Income Stream
Patreon, based in San Francisco, has emerged as an alternative fundraising model for YouTubers who are unhappy with the current state of the art. things. Patreon allows viewers to make monthly and continuous "promises" that directly benefit creators. The site claims that they have sent more than 150 million dollars to creators up to now. They charge a fee of five percent of the income that is raised for the creators. Right now, they support a wide variety of content creators beyond video creators like musicians, writers, comic artists, podcasters, and so on.
Now, Brave jumped with his last browser. We've already explained how Bravo ICO raised $ 35 million from an ICO that issued BAT tokens. Brave users have a choice, they can either distribute contributions based on the time they spend watching videos or "pinning" a fixed amount to their favorite creator. Brendan Eich, CEO of Brave Software Inc., explains why they choose to extend the reward system to YouTubers: "We see big platforms leveraging the next generation of content creators that are generating so much value for platform owners. form. Emphasizing the need to connect viewers and creators of YouTube content, he adds, "Brave reconnects users directly to content creators; with Brave Payments that we have made available in beta using Bitcoin over the last year, and now provided in Brave for notebooks and desktops using the Basic Attention Token (BAT) instead of Bitcoin. "
Space for a Decentralized Solution
YouTube content creators who were hitherto at Google's mercy have begun to explore options for monetizing their content.
The arbitrary nature of demonetization, which puts the burden on creators to ensure that they produce "advertiser-friendly content" or that they follow a "process" with YouTube.
Brave will help YouTubers avoid the vague rules they are currently facing, for example creators with less than 10,000 lifetime views do not receive advertising revenue.
Although there are alternatives available like Patreon, this also puts creators at the mercy of an intermediary.
Decentralized platform could play a role here, says Brendon, "Patreon is a success because it allows people to contribute directly to registered creators, but we see Brave as a decentralized way for users to go directly, via contributions pinned in Brave Payments.
These pay a percentage of the monthly budget chosen by the user in BAT to the recipients, without any centralized registration site acting as an intermediary. "
Everyone can enjoy
This is not only the creators of content on which brave focuses but also the viewers. ad-free experience without having to worry about installing additional plugins. Brendan tells us that YouTube creators who will promote Brave will see an uplift in contributions via Brave Payments. & # 39;
It reveals: "We are going to move to give Brave users BAT grants soon, and we have private ads that pay users the bulk of our program revenue, starting with trials in the first part of next year.
This should be win / win / win for YouTube content creators, their fans and Brave.the moment these features that Bra Introduce are only available on the desktop.
We are told that the mobile output will be announced in the near future. Brave has already spent a million downloads on Android
Fortune favors the brave
What Brave is doing, is that YouTube users are benefiting from it. an ad-free experience, while leaving revenue content creators with courageous payments powered by the BAT token
This decentralized Blockchain system is an alternate universe and a new way of doing things that is dynamically different what Google offers.
Brendan acknowledges this but also tells us that it's about being brave in the end, "Brave is for users who have the courage to defend their data and their experience against tracking and advertising, which turned out to be two sides of the same abusive piece controlled by
If that puts us at odds with Google in the short run, we believe that long In the long run, web standards will develop to address user rights, privacy from conception, payment without intermediaries, and even anonymous advertising – everything we build in Brave and Google is not built into Chrome. "