The relationship between YouTube and ad blockers has always been a bit… strained. Creators rely on ad revenue to keep making the videos you love, while viewers often find ads disruptive and intrusive. Lately, however, things have taken a turn for the inconvenient, with reports suggesting YouTube might be taking a more aggressive stance against ad blockers.
Recent user experiences paint a frustrating picture. Reports indicate that some viewers with ad blockers are encountering issues such as videos automatically skipping to the end upon playback, or being stuck in endless buffering loops. Others describe sound issues, where the video plays with no audio until the volume slider is adjusted, only to be muted again shortly thereafter. While these issues might seem like glitches, the timing coincides with growing reports of YouTube’s new tactic.
There’s no official confirmation from YouTube, but the evidence suggests a deliberate strategy. Disabling videos or making them unplayable for ad blocker users would certainly incentivize them to turn off their blockers and view the ads that generate revenue for creators.
The Creator Conundrum
Many content creators rely on ad revenue to fund their work. Without that income, the quality and quantity of content we enjoy could be impacted. While ad blockers offer a solution for viewers seeking an uninterrupted experience, they can harm the creators who rely on ad revenue to keep making the content we love.
Finding a middle ground is ideal. Perhaps a less disruptive or intrusive ad format could be explored. For viewers who still prefer an ad-free experience, YouTube Premium offers a subscription option. Ultimately, the goal should be to create a sustainable ecosystem that benefits both creators and viewers.
What Can You Do?
If you’re experiencing playback issues with ad blockers, you can try temporarily disabling them to see if it resolves the problem. Keep in mind, that doing so will allow ads to play. Alternatively, consider supporting your favourite creators directly through features like YouTube channel memberships or Super Chat donations.
This situation is still developing, and it’s unclear what YouTube’s long-term strategy might be. One thing is certain: the war between ad blockers and monetization continues, and viewers are caught in the middle. Here’s hoping a solution emerges that allows us to enjoy great content without sacrificing a seamless viewing experience or the livelihood of content creators.
For avid YouTube users, the platform’s abundance of ads during video playback, especially on smart TVs, can sometimes be more than a minor annoyance. YouTube appears to be listening to its viewers and is testing a new approach to ad delivery that could provide a more seamless watching experience, albeit with longer ad breaks.
YouTube is recognizing that how we watch content is evolving. With more viewers enjoying longer videos on their smart TVs, the current frequency of ad interruptions might not align with the viewing experience. In response, YouTube is experimenting with reducing the number of ads shown but extending their duration.
For many viewers of long-form content on TV screens, having ads scattered throughout a video can be disruptive. Google’s research reveals that 79% of viewers prefer ads that are grouped together rather than spread out in smaller interruptions. To cater to this preference, YouTube is exploring options to provide fewer but longer ad breaks, creating a more seamless viewing experience on larger screens.
Improved Transparency
In addition to fewer, longer ad breaks, YouTube is considering enhancing the transparency of its ad experience. This may include providing viewers with better information about the duration of ad breaks, allowing users to prepare for more extended interruptions.
While these changes are currently experimental, YouTube tends to introduce them if they prove successful and enhance the viewer experience. So, if you’re a regular YouTube viewer on a smart TV, you can look forward to a potentially improved ad experience in the near future. However, if longer ad breaks are not your preference, YouTube Premium remains an ad-free alternative worth considering.
YouTube’s efforts to strike a balance between ads and content are in response to evolving viewer habits. As the platform continues to lead in streaming watch time on connected TVs, it aims to provide an experience that aligns better with the expectations of its audience.
We love YouTube, and we love using YouTube for all kinds of things. The amount of content you get from YouTube is so vast that you could technically learn everything you need to learn in the modern world on the video sharing platform. With everything we love about YouTube, there is something we also despise about YouTube – ads. While it started out as a simple played out ad at the beginning of whatever videos you want to watch, ads on YouTube have grown to become an irritation.
There is the argument that the number of ads that are being served to us on YouTube is necessary. The ads pay for the platform and help YouTube not just profit, but also pay its various creators for their contents. The ads also help keep the platform free to use for the billions of the world. As much as we hate ads being served to us, it is a necessary evil and quite inevitable to keep the platform from charging us for contents. Except, they sort of do.
There is such a thing called YouTube Premium, a paid membership to YouTube. What that offers you is things like picture-in-picture mode, and open access to YouTube Music, regarded to be one of the biggest official music libraries you can find anywhere. You also pay for the omission of ads when you consume your contents on the platform.
If you still want the free experience on YouTube but without the ads, the only way around them is through using ad blockers. There are several tools and third-party programs that skips and blocks ads on YouTube unless they are baked into the video itself. That means that you are getting a YouTube Premium-esque experience, but without paying for it, which is frowned upon by YouTube, obviously.
Source: Reddit
In the most recent attempt to battle ad blockers, YouTube is giving users three strikes before completely blocking a user from using YouTube. There are no mentions on whether blocked users will be blocked indefinitely, but the wording leads us to believe that you can be unblocked just by disabling your ad blocker app or algorithm. Obviously if you choose to pay for YouTube Premium, you will immediately be unblocked and given fuss free experience with YouTube amongst other things.
The new measure was spotted by a user on Reddit, interestingly enough. YouTube has not commented on their new measure, but the new measure does make a lot of sense for a company that relies mostly on ads to survive. While it is somewhat aggressive, it could be a necessary step for Google to protect their platform and ensure that it is still profitable.
iQIYI continues to push its new approach to entertainment – “advertainment” – with new shows. The latest show comes in partnership with GrabFood Malaysia and covers one of Malaysia’s most passionate subjects – food. “5-Star Hunter Bersama GrabFood” is the first branded reality show that debuted on iQIYI on 2 June 2023.
The new reality show follows Malaysian celebrity Chef Fikree and several local food bloggers as they search for Malaysia’s most authentic cuisine with one catch – the food must come from one of GrabFood Malaysia’s 5-star Restaurants. The show brings the popular format of sharing the story and inspiration behind the food and marries it with a unique approach of highlighting the services and impact of GrabFood on these humble establishments. However, Chef Fikri turns the tables on his celebrity guests as they are challenged to recreate the dish they just tasted. These recreations are then tasted by random guests at the eatery. So, will Chef Fikri come out on top? You’ll just have to tune in to find out.
The variety show is one of a growing number of “advertainment” shows that iQIYI first introduced with its show “Sorry Naik Lorry” not too long ago. The new format integrates advertising and brand awareness seamlessly into shows allowing brands to bring more awareness to services and goods offered. It also allows brands to sidestep the usual ad break and seamlessly integrate themselves front and centre in the show.
Source: iQIYI
“We are thrilled to collaborate once again with GrabFood Malaysia as our esteemed partners for the production of our first-ever local branded variety show. In the realm of entertainment, over-the-top (OTT) platforms like iQIYI have emerged as pivotal catalysts propelling the growth of the local entertainment industry while offering brands a fresh avenue to establish a relatable connection with their audience. This innovative approach allows brands to transcend traditional advertising and instead present their offerings in a captivating and profoundly influential manner that resonates more effectively with the audience.”
“5-Star Hunter Bersama GrabFood” debuted on iQIYI on 2 June 2023 and will feature six fifteen-minute episodes. To celebrate the launch, iQIYI will be giving away GrabFood vouchers worth RM50 to all their viewers. All you have to do to get your share is follow iQIYI on their social media pages and keep an eye out for the giveaway posts and answer a few simple questions about the new show.
With the release of Google’s My Ad Center, we had a few questions that we needed to be answered. So, we sat down with a Google Spokesperson who graciously answered them and gave us further insight into the new customizations and how they would impact Google’s products.
Q: We all know by now that Google abides by a certain code when it comes to handling user data. For the benefit of those of us that may not be aware, what are these rules and how does Google implement it in-house?
Google Spokesperson:
We build privacy that works for everyone. Protecting our users’ privacy and security is a responsibility that comes with creating products and services that are free of cost and accessible for all. This is especially important as technology progresses and safety needs evolve. We look to a set of core principles to guide our products, our processes and our people in keeping our users’ data private, safe and secure.
Respect our users, respect their privacy. We believe that these ideas are inseparable. Together, they represent a single, core belief that has influenced everything that we’ve made since day one, and everything that we’ll make moving forward. When people use our products, they trust us with their information, and it’s our job to do right by them. This means always being thoughtful about what data we use, how we use it and how we protect it.
Never sell our users’ personal information to anyone. We use data to make Google products such as Search and Maps as useful as possible. We also use data to serve more relevant ads. While these ads help fund our services and make them free of charge for everyone, it’s important to clarify that our users’ personal information is simply not for sale.
Make it easy for people to control their privacy. When it comes to privacy, we know that one size doesn’t fit all. Every Google Account is built with on/off data controls, so our users can choose the privacy settings that are right for them. And as technology evolves, our privacy controls evolve as well, ensuring that privacy is always an individual choice that belongs to the user.
Q: With the launch of the My Ad Center, Google is giving a degree of granular control to users when it comes to seeing ads. How will these controls impact user privacy?
Google Spokesperson:
My Ad Center builds on our commitments to privacy by giving you the ability to control what information is used to personalize the ads you see. And if you’re not sure what you’re sharing, it’s easy to quickly see what information we use, and control it based on your preferences.
You can decide what types of your activity are used to make Google products work for you — independent of the ads you’re shown. In the past, if your YouTube History was on, it automatically informed how your ads were personalized. Now, if you don’t want your YouTube History to be used for ads personalization, you can turn it off in My Ad Center, without impacting relevant recommendations in your feed.
You may also see ads meant for certain audiences based on your Google activity – categories such as education, relationship status or the industry you work in. Now you’ll be able to choose and adjust how categories inform your ads, or turn them off completely. This way, you can more easily choose the ad experience that’s right for you.
In addition, users have the ability to see fewer ads in five sensitive categories, including alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, and weight loss. Before, this feature affected ads shown on YouTube and Display. Now, it expands to ads shown on Search and Discover.
Q: How does Google My Ad Center impact user experience with Google’s other products like Android, Chrome and Workspaces? Considering on Android, ads pushed via Chrome and Workspace e.g. Gmail are also based on user preferences.
Google Spokesperson:
My Ad Center gives you control over the kinds of ads you see across Google’s surfaces including YouTube, Search and Discover – in fact, when you’re signed into Google, you can access My Ad Center directly from ads appearing on these three platforms, allowing you to manage your ad preferences without interrupting what you’re doing online.
(Background: My Ad Center will not affect the user experience of Android, Chrome and Workspace. My Ad Center provides control over the ads that user sees on Google’s properties such as Search display ads and YouTube, but does not alter the user experience of those properties itself)
Q: My Ad Center brings in a new dimension of personalisation when it comes to ads. How will this data be used by Google when it comes to serving ads to individuals who utilize the dashboard? Will it impact the ads being served to those that don’t use My Ad Center?
Google Spokesperson:
My Ad Center starts with an entirely new, friendly and clear experience that offers more granular and flexible controls as well as visibility into which ads and categories are used to serve ads. For the first time, users will be able to tell us what they want in addition to what they don’t want when it comes to ads – in the ads themselves. My Ads Center is the complementary Google content experience, where users tune the ads they see by choosing both what types of ads they want to see and what information is used to power them. We’ve also kept the option to turn off ads personalisation and feature it prominently across the product experience.
Q: In My Ad Center, users are able to select ads they wish to see from brands and companies they like. They are also given the ability to remove ads from those they don’t. These personalisations could possibly create a potent echo chamber that can falsely affirm dangerous ideologies. What has Google done to ensure that these personalisations don’t hinder open discourse or cause the spread of misinformation?
Google Spokesperson:
Google have long since prioritised transparency, choice and control when it comes to the ad experience for users. My Ad Center offers more granular and flexible controls as well as visibility into which ads and categories are used to serve ads.
In this regard, users will be able to choose which topics they want to see more or fewer ads about. Users can only choose to block ads for select sensitive categories such as alcohol, gambling, weight loss, dating and parenting.
All Google ads must abide by our advertising policies.
Q: In countries like the United States and Canada, it’s common to be inundated with political ads. In other parts of the world, we may see ads from organisations like the UN. How is Google addressing the potential bias that personalisations on My Ad Center can influence the outcomes of grassroots initiatives and potentially a nation’s political landscape?
Google Spokesperson:
See response above
Q: Google My Ad Center also brings up concerns with advertisers when it comes to advertising on Google’s platforms – particularly with distribution, CPM and CTRs. What measures is Google taking to make sure that these personalisations don’t negatively impact advertisers?
Google Spokesperson:
The My Ad Center features are to provide users with more transparency, choice and controls. There is no plan to change how advertisers can target their campaigns in our ad products. However, where we see the advantage for advertisers is their ads being seen and engaged with by users who are genuinely interested in their products and their brand topics.
Q: What should advertisers be aware of in the first few months after the rollout of My Ad Center? How can they factor this major change into their advertising plans?
Google Spokesperson:
The choices users make will be automatically incorporated into the signals we use to personalise ads. There is no action needed from advertisers that want to serve ads to users who are interested in their brand or topic.
Our online experience has largely been determined by our preferences and interests. However, since the introduction of online advertising, we’ve been inundated with advertising on every page. Since then, we’ve been exposed to more ads in a more personal way. Many a time we’ve been faced with ads which have taken cues from our browsing, conversations and even social media – whether we like it or not.
That’s about to change as Google’s recently announced My Ad Center. The new dashboard empowers users – like you and me – to take charge of our online experiences by customizing what and how we see in online ads. It even gives us the option to turn off ad personalization altogether. However, when it came to the announcement, a few questions emerged when it came to how this would work. So, we’re doing a deep dive with Google to explore how My Ad Center affects the big picture.
Putting User Privacy in the Forefront
When it comes down to it, Google’s simple-to-use interface is driven by a philosophy that puts privacy first with accessibility in mind. In the words of the Google Spokesperson, “ We built privacy that works for everyone”. While we were sceptical as Google is a big data and search company, what we learnt from their explanations let us realize the complexity that comes with the business of data.
That said, Google works by a set of core principles when it comes to handling user data in its processes, product development and services. First and foremost is respect for the user and privacy. Two ideas that the spokesperson calls “inseparable”. It’s lauded as a core principle that has guided the company since day one. In fact, Google takes ownership of the need to respect and protect the data they collect from users.
The second principle would surprise anyone – Never sell our users’ personal information to anyone. It’s a long-held conception that Google, like other data companies, uses user data and personal information to generate revenue. However, the company affirms that it uses the data only to inform the personalization and develop products internally. They also use the data to push personalized ads to users which is where they make the bulk of their revenue.
The third principle is the inherent need to make controls and personalization simple and accessible. They are wholly aware of the nuances that come with designing products and features including controls for that privacy. This nuance informs the development of products and options that are becoming increasingly accessible and simple to understand. In fact, My Ad Center embodies this with its approach.
An Easy-to-Use Experience to Take Charge of Your Ads Experience
My Ad Center is the epitome of the simplicity and accessibility that comes with the third principle. Google’s approach when it comes to taking charge of ads and personalization on My Ad Center is very “what you see is what you get”. The interface is simple and, most importantly, easy to navigate and understand. It’s one of the simplest interfaces with all available options front and centre. You don’t have to dig into menus to get to your settings. In fact, Google has put the option to turn off personalization as the first option you see on the top right. Within the interface, Google has used simple, easy-to-understand prompts and choices to allow everyone the ease of customizing their experience
However, design is only the first step. Google isn’t just allowing users to control how they experience ads. We’re also empowered to choose whether data collected from platforms like YouTube, maps and web activity influence our experience on ads. With a simple click of a button, we can enable or disable these data sources. This would mean that young parents who have Coco melon and other kid-centric content on their YouTube accounts can emancipate their ads experience from their YouTube recommendations.
In addition, users are also given options to prioritize, deprioritize and remove brands and topics according to their preferences. Google has also outlined some sensitive topics including dating, gambling and weight loss that users can remove altogether. These customizations not only allow users to complement and control their experiences across Google’s platforms. It also allows us to avoid triggers online and also stay true to our stances when it comes to supporting brand advertising on Google.
While it may seem like we will eventually create an echo chamber of our own ideas and ideologies. The approach to giving granular controls remains true to Google’s priorities in providing a transparent and user-centric ad experience for users. However, even with the control, these controls and the ads served on the platforms are governed by Google’s advertising policies.
Of course, when it comes to advertising – the biggest question that comes to mind is how it will affect YouTube creator revenue and advertising investments. The long and short of it is that nothing is going to change. The freedom to customize and personalize the ads experience will not have a foreseeable impact on advertising or creator revenue. Google hasn’t officially stated anything in this regard, but their spokesperson has reassured us that revenue-wise, creators can rest at ease. However, it is worth noting that it is still early with My Ad Center only being around for a month.
On the flip side, for advertisers, with the increased personalization, advertisers can expect to see more users engaging with their ads. While this may seem counterintuitive, the increased personalization and control will also mean that targeting for ads will be more effective. With more and more users opting to see and engage with ads from certain brands even with the drop off from those who opt to blacklist brands and topics.
More Control, More You
All in all, the personalization and customizations that My Ad Center provides allow users to control their ads experience in a more granular way. They will allow more effective control of privacy but they also have the potential to become a double-edged sword. Users who chose to turn off personalizations completely will experience more general, non-specific ads while those who fine-tune their options will have better, more relevant ones.
That said, this granular control will not affect all of Google’s products. Experiences on Chrome, Android, Android TV and Google TV will remain the same. We will continue to see ads in spaces like Gmail and YouTube but they will be ads that you want from brands and topics that you have chosen to see. Essentially, you are creating an experience that is uniquely yours which is hoped to be a safer space overall.
As consumers, we’re being inundated with more content than ever in this day and age. We’ve also become even more discerning, particularly in advertising and branding. What’s more, with the rise of over-the-top (OTT) services like iQIYI, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar, we’ve become even more selective of where we place our time when it comes to consuming media. Realising these trends, iQIYI has partnered with food delivery provider and app, foodpanda, to marry entertainment and branding with their latest series “Sorry Naik Lori”.
The new series is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between iQIYI and food panda in which the two companies worked from the bottom up to integrate foodpanda’s branding and app in the series. This process started with a collaboration between iQIYI, foodpanda and Universal McCann in developing the scripting and concept for the series. In the end, they produced a quintessentially Malaysian tale that tells the story of a husband and wife as they pursue two different versions of success.
“Sorry Naik Lori” follows the misadventures of Khairul, a young lorry driver living in Penang who is averse to Social Media and his wife, Nadia, who dreams of becoming a successful social media influencer. Nadia stumbles upon success when she becomes “ComelPasembur” when a NikNok video of her at her mother’s Pasembur restaurant goes viral. As her following grows, she is approached by a talent agency and decides to pursue her dreams against her husband’s wishes. This forces Khairul to learn to navigate the world of social media as he tries to keep his marriage alive while Nadia is forced to hide her marriage in pursuit of social media stardom.
The series also integrates a foodpanda rider, Talib, played by Tajul. The character not only plays a role in foodpanda’s brand integration into the series but also helps further the plot and misadventures in the slice-of-life rom-com.
The series is steeped in the Malay culture of Malaysia’s most popular island – Penang. Everything from the mannerisms and dialect used in “Sorry Naik Lori” is infused with typical Penangite flavours. The series stars Nizam Othman as Khairul and Ruhainies as Nadia. They are supported by a notable cast which includes local singer, Tajul, TikToker Ahmad Saffuan, Nafiz Muaz, Sheila Mambo and Asha Zainul.
“Sorry Naik Lori” premieres on 4th November 2022 on iQIYI. iQIYI’s freemium model allows you to enjoy the series for free with ads. However, if you want an uninterrupted viewing experience, you can just sign up for iQIYI’s VIP subscription for as low as MYR11.90.
Google is taking steps to enhance privacy protections and personalisation when it comes to the ad experience on their platforms. Yes – it’s not everyday that you see these two things in the same sentence but Google is trying to make them go hand in hand with their new My Ads Center.
The new My Ads Center will be rolling out to users around the world today. With Google’s new My Ads Center, users will be given more control of their ads experience on Google platforms than ever before. In fact, Google is providing the option to remove ad personalisations all together. However, they note that this option will not turn off ads, it will just serve less relevant ads.
So, how does My Ads Center affect user experience moving forward? It’s pretty simple, you will see ads that are relevant to you on your terms. At least that’s what Google is working towards. You will be able to remove ad categories that are irrelevant to you or that can potentially be emotional triggers. This includes categories like child bearing, weight loss and more. This also applies to brands. You’ll be able to remove brands that you don’t want to engage with.
My Ads Center also allows you to decouple your experience on Search, YouTube and more. This allows you essentially remove a dimension of information that Google’s algorithm uses to personalise your ads. Let’s say you don’t want YouTube to feed into your ad personalisations, you will be able to simply remove your YouTube History from your personalisation. This also applies to categories like relationship status and more.
My Ads Center on mobile. (Source: Google)
Users will be able to access My Ads Center in the Ads Settings menu in their Google account. Inside, you will have multiple options to customise your experience including ad categories, brands and your recent ads. Using these, you will be able to start customising your ads across all of Google’s platforms.
Guaranteeing Privacy with Personalisation
Google is reiterating its commitment to protecting user privacy. The company is reiterating that they “follow a set of core privacy principles that guide what information we do and don’t collect. We never sell your personal information to anyone, and we never use the content you store in apps like Gmail, Photos and Drive for ads purposes. And we never use sensitive information to personalize ads — like health, race, religion or sexual orientation.”
The new My Ads Center is, according to Google, a step further in fulfilling its commitments to protecting user privacy. It is – to date – one of the most transparent experiences when it comes to showing users what data are being collected and how it is being used; at least when it comes to ads.
Late yesterday Alphabet, which is what Google has become since their 2015 restructuring made their 2019 revenue reports available to the public. Of course Wall Street was the first to pick up the reports and ate their way through it to see if it matches all expectations. It did not; shareholders were not happy.
Source: Alphabet
Alphabet announced a total revenue of US$ 46 billion for 2019. That is a fair 17% increase from 2018. Sounds healthy, right? Wall street and shareholders though are expecting nearly a billion more in revenue though. Google missed the mark by about US$ 800 million.
US$ 800 million is quite small compared to the US$ 46 billion that they have made. Or, so you thought. Apparently it is quite a big deal in the market since every other competitor is reporting a huge surge in their own ad game. People like Amazon, for example reported a large jump on their ad revenue in 2019.
Still, Google also made sure that their shareholders are happy by also announcing that out of the US$ 46 billion of revenue, US$ 10.6 billion of those are profits. That number is bigger than estimated by Wall Street too. At least that is that.
They broke down where their money was made too within the Alphabet empire. Google cloud business, that is their Drive, Docs, Sheets and what not, makes up US$ 8.91 billion in total. YouTube, our beloved red play button on our smartphones makes up US$ 15.5 billion in revenue for 2019. That is just from Ads.
Source: YouTube
One of the bigger contributing factors of Alphabet disclosing YouTube’s earnings this year, as suggested via experts, is that the organisation as a whole failed to meet revenue expectations. The numbers, as per presented by Alphabet, indeed are quite staggering and mind boggling. The disparity could be due to a number of reasons; we cannot know for sure until Alphabet says something. The earnings number alone though tells us that the tech giants are still here to stay and they are still quite untouchable for now.
Still, the fact that YouTube, a platform that we all use for free makes US$ 15.5 billion is quite mind boggling. That is six times more than Twitch and one sixth of Facebook’s ad platform. Yes, we apparently still spend more time on the blue ‘f’ logo app than the social video platform. Then again, Facebook’s platform is plenty more versatile.
The ad revenues are not about to dwindle down anytime soon though. We cannot get enough of YouTube, you have to admit that. Annoying ads will not stop us from watching our favourite videos. But there is a bigger picture in play here though.
YouTube as a platform, thanks to the now disclosed US$ 15.5 billion in ad revenue, will grow even bigger. There will be more people that could potentially see more money in YouTube. While that means that there will be even more content for us to enjoy, that could also spell more ads being shoved in your faces. It is quite inevitable though; the more you consume, the more of a target you become.
