YouTube's new ad strategy is bound to upset users - Hypertext
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Peak Points place adverts at the point where users are most engaged in a YouTube video.

This week YouTube hosted Brandcast 2025 in which it revealed how marketers could make better use of the platform to connect with customers.

A few new so-called innovations were announced at the event but one has caught the attention of the internet – Peak Points. This new product makes use of Gemini to detect “the most meaningful, or ‘peak’, moments within YouTube’s popular content to place your brand where audiences are the most engaged”.

Essentially, YouTube will use Gemini and probably the heatmap generated on YouTube videos by people skipping to popular points, to determine where to place advertising. Anybody who has grown up watching terrestrial television where adverts arrive as a way to build suspense will understand how annoying Peak Points could become.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    How would a free variant of YouTube work on the long run?

    Some options:

    • charge channels for hosting costs - most channels make more from sponsorships, patreon, and merch than ads; could even be free for smaller channels
    • charge customers for premium features - like Discord Nitro; they already have this in the form of super chats or whatever