Extortion as a business model

What do you mean where have I been? Busy. I have a life you know...what? Why are you laughing? Oh, wait, I see it. You've read previous entries on my blog and can't square that with my indignant insistence that I have a life. Irony. 

Pictured: like, the three hundredth post about Star Trek.

"Capitalism? Flawed? How dare you sir!"

-some rich

Anyway, carrying on from last week where I made an observation which I'm sure no one in the history of making observations had ever made before--that capitalism may be, in some ways, flawed--I'd like to talk about YouTube. You know, that thing you can watch videos on for free assuming that you're willing to put up with advertisements. Advertisements which count down to when you can skip them begging the question: why are you having to sit through them in the first place?

Above: Content...and, incidentally, a
grim window into my search algorithm. 

Capitalism, that's why. It seems to be the answer to all the worst questions. Thanks Milton Friedman...But savvy internet users know that you can pay YouTube to remove the ads. I don't do that of course, it's dumb and only plays into their hands. I make it a point to look away or tune the ads out. Yes, I know it's how ugh...I hate this term: content creators, make money, but the algorithm or whatever doesn't know if I actually watch the ads, so win/win, right? Anyway, I bring all this up because I just read this thing about how they've raised the price of the family plan.

"Enjoy some goddamn content!"

-YouTube

Which doesn't affect me at all, because like I said, I don't pay for YouTube and even if I did, I'm a childless shut-in three cats and a pair of crocs away from giving up entirely, and it's only the family plan that's getting the price hike, so what do I care? I don't. I just saw this article and was reminded that there is such a thing as paid YouTube subscriptions and I now want to talk about the insane corporate thought process behind it. Like, they're essentially extorting subscribers, right?

I always skip the ads before I become
invested in toilet car person's plight,
but I do hope it works out for them.

Ok, extortion is a strong word, you don't have to watch YouTube. But their business model is "endure this forty-five second ad for an ulcerative colitis ad or pay us $11.99 per month." The assumption being that ads are terrible and we (YouTube) know they're terrible but we just put them there so you'll want to pay us to take them out. It would be like Kia including a vuvuzela recording that plays while you drive and can't be shut off unless you subscribe to Kia Premium or something. 

And fine, I get that YouTube, like most successful companies now, doesn't actually produce anything and in order to keep the lights on they have to generate revenue somehow and ads are that somehow. I just thinks it's bizarre that it's both in the running of ads and the not running of ads that they make their money.

"Rather than ask subscribers to pay to opt out of ads when they watch videos,
on You Tube, I propose we take the videos and the ads out of the equation
entirely. Let's just bill people. It's called thinking outside of the box."

-some YouTube exec