WEBVTT - The YouTube Story Part Three 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.160 Technology with tech Stuff from half stuff works dot com. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:14.640 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.520 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here at how Stuff 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.759 Works and I love technology, and today we're going to 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:27.560 cover the final part of our three part episode on YouTube, 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.360 the YouTube Story. There's a ton of stuff has happened 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:35.800 over the relatively short number a short time that YouTube 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.520 has been around, but it's important to talk about because 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.800 YouTube has had such a huge impact on multiple aspects 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:48.400 of culture in general and online culture in particular. Now, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.960 when we left off in the last episode, it was 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:53.800 the beginning of twelve and YouTube had announced the launch 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.800 of premium channels. In this episode, we're gonna follow up 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:58.960 on that and catch up onto what YouTube has been 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.840 up in recent years. So let's first jump right back 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:07.320 into the CEO. Salacamonga had announced a push toward the 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:12.200 lean back viewing experience. Now, this is a concept that 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.040 was carried over from television. The idea is to create 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.280 a slate of programming that encourages a viewer to stick 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:22.399 with the experience and continue watching once your selected video ends. 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.360 The television example of this would be something like the 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:30.800 must See TV strategy for YouTube and meant tweaking algorithms 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.120 so that viewers would be prompted to watch a related 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:35.880 video to the one they just finished, one that would 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.880 presumably meet their preferences and encourage them to stay with 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.560 the platform. One thing YouTube tried to do to encourage 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.440 more binging activity was to change up how it determined 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.720 which videos it should recommend to users in the first place. Now, 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.040 in the past, the videos that got lots of clicks, 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:58.080 those viral hits of yesteryear, were given extra love. They 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.920 were put in a prominent place on YouTube landing page 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.200 so that you were more likely to click on them. So, 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.320 in other words, if you shot a video and it 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.120 got a lot of attention early on, you were rewarded. 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.239 You've got more prominent placement on YouTube's landing pages. Thus 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.119 you got even more opportunities together views, and it could 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:18.400 just skyrocket from there. On the surface, that seems like 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.160 a pretty solid idea, because people are clearly already drawn 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:26.040 to watching that popular video, so giving it a better 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.480 position would drive even more traffic, right, But the folks 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.120 at YouTube saw how this could be a problem, and 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:37.000 it's a problem that stretches well beyond YouTube itself, because 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.040 focusing on that metric made it really hard to convert 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:45.000 people from watching one video to watching more than one video. 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.480 And what's worse, you couldn't guarantee that all those views 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.800 meant someone watched a video all the way through. So 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.320 if I click on a video and decide within the 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.200 first ten seconds it's not really a video for me, 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.440 and I click away, my view still counts, but it 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.240 may not mean that that video is particularly good. It 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.560 may mean that the title or the thumbnail was really 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.840 interesting or really enticing, and that's why I got me 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.880 to click. And once I saw that what I thought 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.200 I was getting was not what I actually got, I 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.760 clicked out. Well, you don't want to reward that because 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.600 it's not a great user experience. So YouTube decided that 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.079 the best way to convert people into watching multiple videos 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.760 was to look at watch time on videos, as in, 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.280 how much overall time did people spend watching that video. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.280 So if you uploaded a twenty minute video and people 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.760 were only watching the first thirty seconds, chances are that 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.360 video would just sink to the bottom of YouTube's vast 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.560 library under this new regime. But if you uploaded a 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.000 twenty minute video and people were on average watching at 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.040 least nineteen minutes of it. That suggested the video you 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.920 uploaded had real value to it. So YouTube began to 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.400 shift and promote videos that had longer engagement times rather 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.400 than just a lot of hits. And as I said, 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:07.400 websites across the Internet we're struggling with this same problem. 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.240 If you run a site, let's even use how Stuff 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:14.120 works as an example. Your ideal situation is that someone 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.400 comes to your site to learn something cool. They read 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.240 a specific article, then they noticed that there's all this 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.960 other cool stuff on the website, and they spend a 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:25.480 good amount of time exploring. People who have gone to 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.000 Wikipedia and said, oh yeah, I went down a rabbit hole. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.200 I started clicking on links and learning about thing after 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.960 thing after thing. That's what we're talking about. That level 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.640 of engagement. While you don't want to see is someone 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.960 coming to your site and then they bounce after they 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.760 read one article, or worse, they read part of an 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:44.920 article and then they bounce. They don't even click all 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.640 the way through. So YouTube's change in policy opened up 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.559 the door to a new type of YouTube celebrity, being 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.440 the gamer. Now, don't get me wrong, people had been 0:04:55.560 --> 0:05:00.440 uploading video game footage with or without commentary for years, 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.880 and only a few YouTubers had really gathered a large 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.280 following through the process. But with this change in policy 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:12.159 came an unexpected consequence. Video game related videos began to 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.760 rise in the ranks, and that's because of a few 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.600 different reasons that relate to video games and video game audiences. 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.520 For one thing, the audiences were wanting to watch a 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.839 complete video of their favorite personalities or their favorite games. 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:30.960 Then audiences of other videos were so if you have 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:36.159 a video where there's a particularly charismatic gamer or there's 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:38.960 a really cool game on their people were more likely 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.039 to watch it all the way through. It became a 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.479 real career path for some people to create video game 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.360 related content and uploaded to YouTube, because if you could 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.279 find an audience of a decent size and the stuff 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.320 you uploaded was entertaining enough, you can see your videos 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.320 receive a lot more love because again, your videos tended 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.440 to be longer. Let's play, video in a video game 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.640 might be fifteen minutes or forty five minutes or an 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.400 hour or even longer than that, and if people are 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.920 watching all the way through. Because of YouTube's new ranking system, 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.440 you would be given preferential treatment because you had a 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.479 greater amount of watch time for your video. So we 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.919 started seeing these let's play videos, which would follow a 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.680 gamer's experiences as he or she played through a game 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.559 on a regular basis, and those videos had a built 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.400 in story progression. In fact, I had a double layer 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.720 story progression because you had the story within the game 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.560 itself what is actually happening as the game unfolds, and 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.280 you had the story of the gamer's journey. What is 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.800 happening to the gamer? Is he or she controls a 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:44.360 character or other element within this game. Now, we humans 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:48.159 love a good story, and we hate it when a 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.720 story gets left off right as you're getting to an 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.040 interesting moment. And if we were a little further into 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:55.960 this episode, I'd be a smart alec and I would 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.520 put an ad break right here. But we're not there yet, 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:02.320 so I'll just keep going. So let's play videos encouraged 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:07.000 viewers to watch the whole video, and they inspired binge watching, 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.600 as viewers wanted to see an entire story from beginning 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.720 to end. So let's say you start an episodic game 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.840 or a game that has a very long play through 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.360 one episode might be an hour, and it might represent 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.880 only a fraction of the entire game, and your next 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.160 episode is the next hour of that game play. Well, 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.080 if someone discovers your videos and they like you, they 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.480 might start binging from beginning to end. They want to 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.160 see the whole thing, and they're eagerly awaiting the next chapter. 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.440 So those pretty long videos would end up getting massive 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.200 rankings in YouTube results. You would land on the landing 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.320 page and see them at the very top. The combination 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.120 of features meant that the metrics of the YouTube algorithm 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:51.520 were all being pinned by let's play videos, and they 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.200 began to take over all of YouTube, including the homepage. 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.400 In fact, at some points, fIF or more of the 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.240 videos featured on the homepage where game being related videos. 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.720 And out of all of those games there was one 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:10.320 that was really dominating, and that one was Minecraft. Now, 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.360 at this point, I have to give a shout out 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.840 to a YouTube channel called The Game Theorists. It's a 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.880 really good YouTube channel. The guy does an excellent job 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:26.840 breaking down elements of games and game culture, and he 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.720 did a great episode about this very topic. He really 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.920 dives into the change of the YouTube algorithm and the 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.839 effects it had on the platform in general, as well 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.040 as the launch of a brand new industry in video 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:44.199 game videos that really didn't have a lot of traction 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.880 up to that point. He has an episode titled game Theory, 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.520 How Minecraft Broke YouTube, and it was extremely helpful and 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:54.960 it's also entertaining, so you should check it out. As 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.360 the game theorist points out, YouTube's change in its algorithm 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.280 would lead to game dominating that homepage for a few years, 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.920 until YouTube executives made a conscious decision to course correct 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.640 in mid two thousand fifteen and filter all those gaming 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.839 videos out of those home pages. We'll talk more about 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.840 that a little bit later. Now. There were some other 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:21.200 unintended consequences of this change in policy. For one thing, 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.200 shorter videos had a harder time getting discovered because you 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.840 had a system that was rewarding videos for the amount 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.200 of time that was spent watching those videos. A one 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:36.239 minute animated short couldn't compete with a fifteen minute Minecraft video, 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:38.560 And the same was true for artists who uploaded cover 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.360 songs or short performances. Anything that was less than ten 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.000 minutes was going to have a harder time showing up 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.360 as a recommended video. Simply because it was not as 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.520 long as those longer pieces that had really good engagement. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.560 So that was another argument against this. It wasn't just 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:58.080 that video game footage and video game content was taking 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:03.000 over YouTube. It was that suddenly things that were legitimately 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:08.520 well made and entertaining we're not surfacing because the length 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.959 was a detriment. The algorithm was punishing these videos in 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.520 effect because they were too too short, and that was 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.240 a problem. YouTube also updated its YouTube TV feature to 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.280 create a more user friendly experience for people watching YouTube 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.800 on their television screens, which was good because more devices 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.600 and even televisions were starting to support YouTube content. But 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.440 navigating a user interface on a television is a different 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.600 experience than on a mobile device or a PC. You 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.280 typically don't have a mouse and keyboard, so finding the 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.600 right way to navigate the app so that you encourage 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.439 people to use it rather than frustrate them is pretty challenging, 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.680 and figuring out how to do it so that each 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.559 instance of the app is optimized for the specific viewing 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.640 experience of the user adds even more difficulty. Two thousand 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.720 twelve was also an Olympics year, and YouTube partnered with 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.640 NBC for the London Olympics to provide live streaming of events. 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.160 This was a departure from the way Olympics coverage had 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.040 worked in the past. It used to be back in 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.120 the day that the way you'd watched the Olympics is 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.120 you'd have to wait for a localized broadcast of Olympics 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.920 coverage well after the actual events had happened. But in 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:18.000 the era of Twitter and Facebook and the Internet in general, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.960 it became impossible to avoid spoilers. With this time delay approach. 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.840 You would find out that people had one or lost 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.880 in their respective Olympic events, and you'd still have to 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.480 wait hours before you could actually watch it, which didn't 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.640 really give you an incentive to tune in. TV networks 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.600 had experimented with some streaming services in the past, but 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.240 two thousand twelve marked the first time that YouTube was 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.959 being used as a primary outlet for Olympics coverage. This 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.040 was a tall order because at times there were up 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.400 to a hundred different feeds populating YouTube, providing live footage 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.679 of different events, and that wasn't the only live event 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.200 YouTube covered in two thousand twelve. It also served as 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:59.160 a platform for more presidential debates and eight million people 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.760 watched YouTube live to witness Felix baum Gartner's space jump 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.040 that happened on October two thou twelve. That event set 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.040 the record for the largest number of concurrent viewers for 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.360 a single YouTube live event. Now the top videos of 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.439 two thousand twelve, apart from gandam Style, which I've already mentioned, 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.200 including Walked Off the Earth's cover of Somebody that I 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.839 Used to Know by Got You walk Off the Earth. 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.120 There's a group that makes creative music videos and finds 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.040 complicated ways to play songs, so in that example, it 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.200 involved five people playing the song on a single guitar. 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.079 It's a fun video and it's also a fun band 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.280 that writes original music, so you should check them out 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:40.400 if you haven't heard of them. There are other big 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:43.319 videos that came out that year. Call Me Maybe by 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.480 Carl ray Jepson was another popular video that complimented the 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.120 earworm of a song. Epic Rap Battles posted a win 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.880 with their Battle of Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney episode, 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.880 and not all popular videos were for pure entertainment. One 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.400 that ended up getting a lot of views was a 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:05.040 documentary titled Coney two thousand twelve. This was a documentary 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.679 that detailed the effort to capture Joseph Coney, a Ugandan 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.679 military leader who had been indicted for war crimes. Now, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.520 the documentary sparked a heated debate not just about the 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:20.320 particulars of the case, but about online activism. Some critics 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.920 said that the documentary bordered on slacktivism, which is when 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.280 you take an action that ultimately has no real impact 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.280 on the outcome of a situation, but it gives you 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.520 the satisfaction of feeling as if you've accomplished something. So 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.440 selactivism is a real problem. Many movements online don't really 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.960 amount to anything more than just that simple feeling that 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.080 you've supported a cause you believe in, but you haven't 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.360 actually done anything. But there are others who argued that 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.200 the video helped bring attention to a real crisis in 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.000 Uganda and wasn't sla activism at all. As for Coney himself, 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.240 he is still at large in Uganda, although his support 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.920 has reportedly diminished significantly. At the hight of his influence, 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:06.240 he commanded thousands of guerilla soldiers. Today it's supposedly closer 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:10.960 to a hundred. Now let's segue into but you know 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.640 what before I jump into that, how would I take 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:23.120 a quick break to thank our sponsor? All right, now 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:27.600 we're in and YouTube I mentioned earlier had sort of 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.400 launched an award show, but they had quietly shuffled it off. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.400 It was called the YouTube Awards, and after two thousand 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.720 and eight they really didn't talk about it anymore. They 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.600 didn't really bother to do them again, but in the 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.600 company launched a new awards show called the YouTube Music 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.880 Awards or y t m A. Nominees were announced on 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.560 October two thirteen. They included a lot of different people, 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:54.479 but some of the nominees were Demi Lavado, Lady Gaga, 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.120 Justin Bieber, and Epic Rap Battles of History, among others. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.560 The winner for Video of the Year was I Got 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:04.200 a Boy by a group called Girls Generation, which I 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.200 had never heard of. Do you hear about them? Ramsey? 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.480 Ramsey shaking his head, no, he also has not heard 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.760 of them. Well, it just shows that our K pop 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:16.520 knowledge is severely lacking. It's a Korean band, so I've 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.200 heard some K pop, but I did not know about 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.920 this group. So I apologize for my ignorance. But apparently, 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.040 UH pretty good group at least, it got a lot 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.400 of traction and won the award that year. YouTube tried 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.120 to get into paid subscription services in two thousand thirteen 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.760 with the launch of about thirty paid premium channels. These 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:40.480 channels included everything from Sesame Street to UFC events, hopefully 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.440 without any crossover, although that would be amazing. It covers 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.680 a pretty broad spectrum. Obviously, on the low end of 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.600 the scale, some of these channels were asking for ninety 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.560 nine cents for a monthly subscription. According to Variety, the 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.400 average was closer to two dollars cents a month now. 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.080 A lot of those channels focused on family friendly content, 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.560 much of it specifically aimed at younger kids. The initiative 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.560 didn't really catch on with customers, however. Variety followed up 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.440 the launch with a story in July two thous thirteen 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.200 that stated many of those premium channels hadn't seen very 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.280 much subscriber activity at all. National Geographic VP of Global 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.320 Strategy Adam Sutherland summed up as company's perspective with the quote, 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.080 we had hoped to set the world on fire. We 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.840 are not setting the world on fire right now. End quote. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.240 Mark Cuban gave a similar response with regards to a 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:40.760 YouTube premium channel called hd net, saying it was quote working, okay, 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.440 not amazing end quote. YouTube had hoped that these subscription 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.880 model channels would provide another source of revenue on top 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.560 of ad money and rentals, but viewers were not flocking 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.640 to this new alaca cart service, and eventually all the 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.560 way up in the seventeen so just last year, YouTube 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.800 would find a phase out this experiment entirely. By then, 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.200 the company had introduced a different subscription service called YouTube Bread. 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:08.240 But while chat about that more when we get there, 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.399 another failed experiment in two thousand thirteen really backfired on 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.439 YouTube and Google. It was in that Google made the 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:20.080 decision to unite YouTube with Google Plus. Now in part, 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.879 this was an effort to cut down on trolling and 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.720 abuse by requiring YouTube users to register with the service 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.600 using their real names. To have a Google Plus account, 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.040 you had to use your actual name, at least initially, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.760 and so thought YouTube executives. YouTube commenters would have all 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:41.439 their comments tied to their actual identities. This, they thought 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.040 would cut down on extreme cases of abuse and trolling, 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.800 because anything you said would be linked to you as 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.560 a person and not just a handle that may or 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.679 may not belong to you. Now, I haven't really touched 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.440 on it in these episodes, but YouTube comments have long 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:01.919 been seen as one of the pits of user engagement online. 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.000 YouTube comments are often the ones held up as saying 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.760 this is an example of a bad experience for a 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.600 content creator. That's not to say that all content creators 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.720 get terrible comments from YouTube users, but it does happen 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.000 frequently enough that the phrase never read the comments has 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:25.240 become pretty common common parlance in the online world now. 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.480 The response to this particular move of YouTube and Google 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:32.919 Plus logins being merged was extremely negative among a large 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:38.320 population for different reasons. Some people were angry that their handles, 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.760 which they had possessed for ages, were going to be 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.399 stripped away. They had built a lot of time and 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:47.479 effort into developing a persona that was represented by a handle. 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.000 Some were arguing that the anonymity offered by YouTube's previous 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.719 policy allowed people to more honestly communicate with the outside world, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:00.000 and even offered up protection up from potentially oppressive regimes 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.719 that could punish someone for speaking out against them online. So, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.560 in other words, if you force someone to tie their 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:11.720 actual identity to their YouTube profile and they upload a 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:16.199 video that is somewhat critical of an oppressive regime, they 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.680 could end up getting targeted by that regime. That was 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:24.119 a real concern. Others were worried about an online brand 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.359 they had established through years of work and content creation. 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:29.800 So let's say that it's a person who is known 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.720 by a particular nickname. Put pie is a good example. 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.480 They said, well, that's where all my value is. Don't 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.600 make me give that up. And many accused Google of 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.240 trying to artificially boost the popularity of Google Plus by 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.760 requiring YouTube users to create a profile on this languishing 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.359 social networking site. I mean, and to be that last 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.640 accusation holds the ring of truth because I remember when 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:56.520 Google Plus was in beta, the only people who were 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.720 on it were entrepreneurs and tech journalists. So I was 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.280 one of those people, and initially it was great. I 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.120 loved using it because it felt like I knew everyone, 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.760 or at least knew of everyone who was on the platform. 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.360 When Google Plus opened up to everyone, there was an 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:16.639 initial flood of new users. Everyone was eager to be 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:18.680 part of this new thing, and that was a big 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.760 problem for a lot of those early adopters. Now, it 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.320 wasn't just that there was an element of exclusivity with 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.159 Google Plus in those early days, although that was definitely 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.680 part of the appeal. It was that this small population 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.000 made it much easier to connect with people in a 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.439 relatively narrow niche. So I could network with lots of 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.000 people in tech journalism pretty effectively because we were the 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:44.280 only ones on Google Plus. But as the new people 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.160 found out, and as most of us already had figured out, 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.720 Google Plus did not have enough to differentiate it from 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.960 other social platforms like Facebook. So the question became, why 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.800 would you move from Facebook, where nearly everyone you knew 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.639 already had a profile to go to Google Plus. It 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.200 didn't set itself apart enough to really have its own 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:10.159 strong appeal, and so once those floodgates open, the limited 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.240 use case of a social networking platform for tech journalist 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.800 nerds like myself was eradicated. So Google found itself with 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:19.760 a big social network platform with a lack of users 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:24.399 and a lack of engagement. Thus, requiring YouTubers to join 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.639 Google Plus might have been seen as a hail Mary 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.520 pass to try and get something going on the social 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:35.840 network site. The man that move was met with major resistance. 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.600 People hated it, and it wasn't just the commenters, but 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:45.679 also the creators. Eventually, in Google would officially back down 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.800 from this policy and no longer require YouTubers to have 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:52.240 a Google Plus account. Bradley Horowitz, who was the vice 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.480 president of Streams, Photos and Sharing, would create an official 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:59.520 Google blog post stating that users wouldn't need a Google 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.240 Plus pro file to access Google services anymore, and that 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.320 YouTube would be the first platform that would see rollouts 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:10.680 of those changes now. The videos that were really popular 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:16.560 in two thousand thirteen included the infamous music video what 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:21.320 does the Fox Say? By TV nor Man. We really 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:25.879 love our novelty songs on YouTube. Also, do you remember 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.199 the Harlem Shake I Do? That was a meme that 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:32.520 lasted for about a month and then kept on going 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.320 for a month too long. Harlem Shake videos first really 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:41.440 got their their go in Uh. There was a comedic 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:46.440 video about how animals eat their food, which is absolutely ludicrous, 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.880 and I have to admit I think it's pretty funny. 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:56.359 There was a video featuring Steve Cardinal who was doing 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:00.600 a parody of Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball on the The 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:06.399 anonymous and Random chat service chat Roulette, so people would 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.480 connect with him and then suddenly a naked Steve Cardinal 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.080 would swing in on a Wrecking Ball to Miley Cyrus's 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:16.760 songs that got a lot of a lot of views. 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:19.960 There was a prank and a coffee shop in which 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.200 patrons thought they were witnessing a demonstration of telekinesis, and 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:27.240 a terrifying kind of horror movie way just a little entertaining. 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:33.240 One of bad lip reading videos went big. There was 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:36.400