this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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As a free user they get engagement, which may or may not offset what they get out of those that do provide them income. It seems like that was good enough for a couple decades.
I...really don't think it was ever about engagement. I think most free users just didn't have an adblocker.
I think ublock orgin's adoption just picked up over the years, and it's not as if Youtube gets cheaper (I'd imagine it just gets more expensive)
I mean engagement is great, they make the algorithm work (well, "work") but I'm pretty sure the ads were the selling point (for google) before premium was even an option.