Enshittification

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What is enshittification?

The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source

The lifecycle of Big Internet

We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.

Embrace, extend and extinguish

We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.

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YouTube is experimenting with server-side ads (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

You either pay for premium or watch ads.

Or you pay a premium and watch ads (ex. HBO Max, Netflix etc.), which is always the end goal for the goblins at these companies. Enough is never enough, that's the problem.

Companies can still make money without going overboard. If anything the reckless pursuit of maximizing profits at all costs is bad business practice if your goal is a sustainable company.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Slippery-slope nosense. We're talking specifically about YouTube here, let's stay on topic.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Is it nonsense? They got rid of the paid tier that only got rid of ads at the start of this ad blocking war. And their tactics have been escalating more and more along with the amount of ads shown. Do you honestly think they will just stop at some point and be satisfied? Seems naive to ignore the trends from all other companies and assume youtube won't follow suit given the choice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I'm not an oracle, I can't tell the future.

I can, however, tell you that if you pay youtube for premium, you won't get ads this month.

It'll get "worse" with time, because youtube doesn't have an expiration date. But that's the price of accumulating information. And people are going to decide wether it's worth paying for.

Enshitification is when the product gets worse with time and user gains nothing (or loses).

"more ads" is basically covering "increased cost" due to increasing content, and content quality.