YouTube will now count a view as soon as a video starts playing
techcrunch.comOh joy. Does this include the YouTube shorts that auto play when I open the mobile app? I know, my fault for having it installed.
They've already been doing this for Shorts since last year. Now it will also apply to all other forms of content on YouTube.
Yes. More enshittification.
Exactly. More reason to pay creators less.
How will this pay "creators" less? Isn't it going to generate more views?
It incentivises clickbait. The creators that we are talking about provide value in long form videos. If all you need to get paid is a five second view (lower bars to payment) the market will adapt and “automated solutions” will take a chunk of what now goes towards creators.
Exactly. We already have a lot of videos with the phrase “what until the end, you wouldn’t believe what happened” and similarly we’re now going to have a lot of mumbling in the first part of videos.
Why do you consider this enshittification, just out of interest?
I suspect because clicking on a video that has a bait thumbnail, realizing it's garbage, and clicking away will now count as a view for it.