YouTube Premium users across the globe are facing significant price hikes as Google increases subscription costs in over a dozen countries. This follows earlier price jumps in various regions, including the United States last summer. The latest increases vary by region, with some countries experiencing hikes between 30% to 50%. For instance, in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy, the Family plan will rise from €18 to €26 starting November, while the individual plan will increase by €2 to €14.
Countries affected by these changes include Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, UAE, Switzerland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Colombia, Thailand, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Denmark. Although most Reddit reports are from European users, the price hikes also impact the Middle East, Colombia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. YouTube had already raised its subscription prices in India by 15–20% in late August.
They may be having problems, but they have billions and are not going anywhere.
Unless you want to provide some sources for reputable financial analysis of Google failing I’ll assume you’re working on conjecture or hopium.
I don’t get the idea of “hopium”, yes I hope they collapse. It doesn’t bring me any kind of like euphoria to do so, and I’d prefer if you didn’t make comments on my psychology, unless you are some kind of psychologist or have an advanced degree in psychology, it seems problematic and ableist and also you don’t fucking know me; but sure I can take a whack at supporting evidence, as an exercise:
A quick google search returned this article, geared toward investors, that outlines many issues with Google’s current monetization strategy.
https://the-cfo.io/2024/07/25/the-hidden-red-flags-in-googles-most-recent-earnings/
Problems with google’s implementation of AI are documented here:
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/06/googles-ai-overviews-misunderstand-why-people-use-google/
https://www.wired.com/story/google-ai-overview-search-issues/
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/15/24154808/ai-chatgpt-google-gemini-microsoft-copilot-hallucination-wrong
The CEO also said they cant do anything about ai hallucinations.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/ceo-google-ai-hallucinations
So the feature that is affecting their overall profitability, that is forcing them to make dramatic quality of life changes doesnt even work and can’t be fixed, according to Google.
Youtube is more aggressively pushing ads to users, and the price of their subscription based services continues to squeeze consumers.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/23/24252145/youtube-premium-price-increase-europe-asia-middle-east-south-america
https://www.howtogeek.com/youtube-is-adding-even-more-ads/
Far from the only game in town now, competitors like tik tok and insta reels have forced Google to make changes to the platform in order to stay competitive. These changes have yet to pay off for google within this competitive environment, and the company can no longer afford to develop loss leading tech like in previous stages of the business.
As Google continues to limit access to its platform to users who use adblocking or other services such as NewPipe or Invidious to view content, it would be a stretch to say that these dedicated and tech savvy users will just view ads to continue to use the platform. On the contrary, one can just not watch youtube, and it will be an overall improvement to one’s own wellbeing. As ads and subscriptions increase, an inevitability for a platform that must remain profitable quarter on quarter, year on year, I think it’s safe to say that users will just go elsewhere for content, driving away advertisers.
Google, in an effort to preempt the market is spreading itself too thin across too many market segments too cautiously. You said that Google “Has billions and isnt going anywhere” but actually this might be a huge disadvantage, as smaller competitors able to be more dynamic and interruptive can take big chunks out of the profitability of Google, who has to remain conservative while staying on top of the latest tech. A tech, which by all accounts, doesnt even work very well.
Cloud services are too competitive. Features like Google Maps, which Google hasnt figured out how to make profitable, and can’t make subscription based while good free versions also exist, the same of which being true for other google services such as workspaces and the features contianed within, will continue to get worse as these will be the first areas to receive cuts in staff and investment as profitability is continually squeezed.
At its peak, Yahoo had a value of around $200B adjusted. in 2016 it sold to Verizon for 4.8 billion, and is likely worth even less now though exact numbers are hard to find. Google is no longer in their growth phase, and they have failed to monopolize the tech industry in most segments, other than (arguably) search. They will continue to struggle to make profits, leaving them with three distinct options: sell sections of the business, serve more ads, cut expenses such as developers. each of these options are merely survival strategies, and not a way for a tech company to continually grow. It’s my prediction that Alphabet will become little more than an aggressive patent troll, and Google will start to shrink until it becomes small enough to be acquired by a competitor. Alphabet’s current valuation is about $2 Trillion, which aint nothing. this isnt going to happen overnight. but fewer users means less advertisers, less advertisers means less investment, and less investment means death. Maybe the timeline is more or less long, idk if it will take 5 years, or 10 or 20. but it is an inivitability due to the limitations of our economic system and the constrictions that a very large companies with a large amount of non-finance capital are forced to face. Any number of things could happen to severely damage google’s ability to continue to do business, but what they might do to innovate is unclear if not an impossible task altogether.
https://www.axios.com/2021/05/04/verizon-aol-yahoo-valuations
None of this hints at the downfall of Google and more them having to pivot to find more revenue streams and find things that work.
The issue is perpetual growth, if you take that out of the equation then Google can keep on googling and won’t be going anywhere.
As for commenting on your psychology. I didn’t. I literally used the word “hopium” which is common parlance to mean:
To be clear I was using it disparagingly.
You can’t take perpetual growth out of the equation. That’s capitalism. Also I don’t see the point of being rude. You have been consistently rude to me for no reason.
“All they have to do is do something that you showed they are trying and failing to do” OK buddy try reading
I gave you a long supporting argument and you respond with two sentences and no supporting sources despite demanding them from me. Its actually quite sad and intellectually dishonest. Its no wonder that you seem to stan Google so hard, they are a garbage company so it makes sense for you to identify with them.
If you decide to respond, put a little meat on the bone, i challenge you to do give an actual supporting argument rather than “nuh uh.” Otherwise just don’t respond, its that simple. I was posting off the cuff and you challenged me to do better. I met your challenge. Do better, unless you can’t.