The largest video streaming platform in the world, YouTube has been receiving a series of news in recent months. The service finally won a Progressive Web App (PWA), allowing the site to be installed as an app on computers, brought HDR support to the Xbox, and has been working to combat fake news, establishing partnerships for the dissemination of reliable medical content.
In retrospect of the service’s recent advances, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki released her first open letter to the creators of 2021, revealing company figures and setting goals for the future. According to her, more than US $ 30 billion (~ R $ 160 billion) has been paid to artists and creators in the past 3 years alone.
The data also shows that the number of channels that joined the Partner Program, a program by which creators earn advertising revenue, more than doubled in 2020. In addition, citing research conducted by Oxford Economics, Susan said YouTube was responsible for about $ 16 billion of U.S. GDP in 2019, which would amount to providing 345,000 full-time jobs.
When it comes to the prospects for the future, the CEO points out that transparency is one of the points on which the company must improve, especially related to issues such as content strikes and advertising income. Also according to the executive, the scale of YouTube operations makes it difficult for creators to keep up with changes in community policies.
Susan cites a conversation she had with Charlie White, from the penguinz0 channel, who was struck by an old video due to recent changes in the platform’s policies. “We know that this situation is similar to frustrations shared by other creators,” explained Wojcicki.
One of the efforts to change this scenario has already started during the 2020 elections, with the new policy that would ban videos that encourage the spread of false information about voting fraud. The company gave creators a deadline to ensure that none of their videos violated the measures.
Wojcicki also dedicates part of the letter to regulatory measures, citing Section 230, a new American act that aims to exempt social networks like YouTube and Facebook from the responsibility for user-produced content. The executive says that the new measure should make the platform “more open” while “taking necessary actions to protect it”.
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Other than that, the publication gives new details of YouTube Shorts, the service’s response to TikTok. You can check the letter to the creators of Susan Wojcicki for 2021 on the official YouTube blog.