You don't need X-ray vision to see that you're going to need to pay for YouTube in the not-too-distant future.
So the company that recently announced that its original content will no longer be behind a paywall is poised to turn the most successful ad-supported video platform and one of the largest social media platforms on the planet into a subscription-based service like Netflix and Hulu?
YouTube doesn't want to compete with Netflix. How Susanne Daniels is getting ahead of streaming wars
A quote from the article:
Unlike many other streaming services, YouTube already has a large global audience, with viewers watching more than a billion hours of video on the platform each day. YouTube estimates it draws more than 1.9 billion viewers a month. Actor Will Smith alone has nearly 5.6 million followers on his YouTube channel, livestreaming himself skydiving.
The catch is that most watch videos for free — with ads — making it difficult to convince viewers they should join a subscription service to pay for content.
“There is a plethora of SVOD (subscription video on demand) services right now, and we do something really well,” Daniels said. “Our core business is outstanding and successful and, really, the No. 1 global video platform — so why not take advantage of our strengths and focus there?”
Long before YouTube charges regular users to watch videos, I suspect they'll start charging people who make money from posting videos, or who have huge subscriber followings. And long before that, ads will become more prevalent than they already are, and YouTube will remove the option to skip ads after 5 seconds. And long before any of that, they'll have to do a much better job of getting rid of content on their site that violates copyright laws, because the last thing they would want to do is make money off of content posted on their platform in violation of copyright laws.