Apple has recently announced that in its newest mobile update, it will allow users to download ad-blocking applications. While this may appear to be harmless and more of a convenience than anything else, it actually disrupts an enormous market. Mobile advertising is roughly a 70 billion dollar market. Given the huge number of iPhone users that will likely download the applications to avoid a 15-second clip before their selected Youtube video, that market could take a big hit. While the new software does hurt big advertisement companies like Google, it also hurts small-time content producers.
A lot of people begin their respective Youtube channels with the hopes of one day making it big and becoming a Youtube partner. Youtube's partners get paid based upon the number of video hits they get because Youtube gains revenue from playing advertisements before videos and placing advertising banners on the borders of the video. If those advertisements stop playing due to Apple's new update, then Youtube partners lose all value that they have gained from producing videos about the things that they love. It is a crime to strip people of their ability to make money from producing content that they love. Youtube and other video platforms provide extremely easy access to uploading videos to a broad audience whereas the film industry is not only different but also generally very expensive to get into.
I sat down with a friend of mine who produces Youtube videos for fun. His name is Matt Ceh Castillo and he is a fellow student at Stonehill College.
How do you feel about this new ad-blocking software?
Ceh Castillo: I think it is rather detrimental to the general Youtube community. While I did not start producing videos in order to make money, I can see where people are coming from when they want to make money from what they're doing.
What do you think will happen when the ad-blocking goes through?
Ceh Castillo: I can't imagine everybody just quitting, but I could imagine that those that were sponsored by Youtube and made videos daily would stop making so many videos and it would become much more sporadic.
Why is that?
Ceh Castillo: Making videos is an arduous process, from actually making the video, to editing it, to actually uploading it, the process takes hours. I love it, but I just can't see people doing it everyday when they now have to go find another source income.
As a whole, ad blocking is going to have a negative effect in regards to both small-time content producers and advertisement companies. Ads may seem like an inconvenience, but in reality, they sustain the final product that we love.
