2021年8月5日 星期四

On Tech: YouTube is underwhelming

Even YouTube isn't an unqualified financial winner. This does not speak well for the vitality of the internet.

YouTube is underwhelming

Even YouTube isn't an unqualified financial winner. This does not speak well for the vitality of the internet.

Dani Choi

This question will sound ridiculous, but it isn't: Is YouTube a success?

Please hold your boos. It's hard to imagine the internet without YouTube. Buying the video site in its relative infancy was one of the smartest things Google ever did. But after nearly 15 years of being part of Google, the most successful money machine in internet history, it's still not clear that YouTube has fulfilled its financial potential both for itself and everyone involved in its vast digital economy.

Two data points: The money that YouTube keeps from selling advertisements — its main source of income — was about $11.2 billion in the past year, not much more than the ad revenue of ViacomCBS, a mid-tier American TV company that owns the CBS television network. Twitter, which is not so hot at money, pulls in roughly double the ad sales on average from each of its users compared with YouTube.

No one should feel bad about YouTube. Yeah, it's fine. But it says something about the vitality of the internet that YouTube is probably the most vibrant economy online and it's still hard to call it an unqualified financial winner. And if YouTube isn't winning, its masses of video creators also won't be.

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The internet's big promise was to give anyone a shot at making a living from doing what they love, but YouTube shows just how elusive that dream turned out to be. If YouTube isn't quite living up to high hopes, that means the internet isn't, either.

Let me dig a little deeper into how odd YouTube is in one important respect: It pays some of the people and companies that stock its virtual shelves with products.

At Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter, we make their products for free — with some exceptions — in the form of our silly memes, photos from engagement parties and beauty tutorials that we post. For video makers that meet YouTube's standards, the site typically hands over to those people and organizations about 55 percent of the money from ads that appear in or around their videos.

Because of YouTube's revenue sharing and other ways for content creators to make money from videos, it most likely has delivered more income to people online than any internet site ever. (This is impossible to prove. People do make money in less direct ways from building an audience on places like Instagram and TikTok, but YouTube remains a go-to spot for people to earn an income online.)

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Maybe YouTube, particularly after revelations several years ago that companies' advertisements were appearing in videos that promoted anti-Semitism and other horrific views, has been less aggressive than companies like Facebook and Twitter about shoving commercial messages everywhere. This is a good thing, even if those are missed opportunities for YouTube and video makers to earn more money.

The end result is that YouTube makes a lot of money for itself and video makers, and its revenue is growing very quickly, but the numbers remain kind of meh relative to its size and influence.

The fact that I even mentioned YouTube in the same paragraph as the middling TV company ViacomCBS and Twitter … well, that says something about how YouTube has underwhelmed for some time. YouTube's cut of ad revenue is also less than half the size of Netflix's yearly revenue. (Those figures don't count YouTube's income from other sources including subscriptions, which the company does not regularly disclose.)

If YouTube has so far fallen short of its financial potential, what does that say about the rest of the digital world? If you read the work of people like my colleague Taylor Lorenz, who chronicles the internet's labor force, it's easy to see that there may be a mismatch between the promise of the internet economy and the reality.

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Some people do earn a good living from their creations on YouTube or other apps, but many others are constantly hustling for peanuts and burning out.

It's hard to stand out in the sea of people making dance videos on TikTok, livestreaming video games on Twitch or hosting YouTube talk shows, and it has always been that way for creative professions. Except digital optimists wanted to believe that the internet would make it easier and more democratic for anyone to find their fans and their calling.

That's why YouTube's finances matter to the rest of us. If YouTube isn't quite working out, then the promise of the internet isn't, either.

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TIP OF THE WEEK

Watching the Olympics is still hard

Watching TV should be easy, but GOOD GRACIOUS it's not simple in the United States to watch the Olympics events we want to see. Brian X. Chen, the consumer technology columnist for The New York Times, walks us through his efforts.

I learned the hard way that people who ditch cable TV still get the short end of the stick.

This week, I was trying to watch a replay of the rock climbing events at the Olympics. I was particularly interested in seeing Adam Ondra, the world's best climber.

But the recording of the semifinals that NBC made available on YouTube TV, the online bundle of TV channels that I pay for, trimmed the climbing coverage to just one hour. To my frustration, the segment omitted most of Ondra's airtime. (Read this if you want to know how Ondra did in Thursday's competition.)

I posted a snarky complaint on Twitter. I soon learned from my followers that the Olympics coverage that Americans see on prime-time television or stream on services like YouTube TV is vastly inferior to the more complete Olympics event coverage in the NBC Sports app.

I downloaded the NBC Sports app and there it was: full footage of each event! But I ran into another problem. To use the service, I needed to log into the app with account information for a cable TV subscription, which I don't have.

(There is also Olympics coverage on Peacock, the video streaming service that's part of the same company as NBC. It's confusing.)

Long story short, cord cutting is great. It's far easier than it used to be for sports junkies to watch live games and events online. But it's still optimal to have cable TV, too. Who can afford all these subscriptions?

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Before we go …

  • We still haven't figured out health apps: New York is the first large jurisdiction in the United States where restaurants, gyms and other public places will require that customers provide proof of vaccination against the coronavirus. My colleagues Erin Woo and Kellen Browning look at the privacy implications of electronic systems to keep track of vaccinated people. (Other countries have also rolled out digital vaccine verification systems.)
  • Facebook vs. academics: The company said that researchers who solicited volunteers to help study the opaque system of ad targeting on Facebook are threatening people's privacy. Facebook has a valid argument, Bloomberg News says, and so do the academics.
  • Remember the Segway? No? Exactly. A former book agent writes in Slate about his role in overhyping the Segway, a novel but ultimately unpopular scooter introduced in 2001 that promised to change the world and did not. It's a useful lesson in how the pressure of impossible dreams can ruin the chances of a new product.

Hugs to this

The crowd at the 1996 Democratic National Convention danced to "Macarena." It is painfully corny and wonderful.

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you'd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.

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2021年8月4日 星期三

The T List: The T List: Five things we recommend this week

Ulla Johnson's beauty routine, a film by Yael Bartana — and more.

Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we're eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday. And you can always reach us at tlist@nytimes.com.

STEP BY STEP

Ulla Johnson's Beauty Regimen

Right: the designer Ulla Johnson. Clockwise from top left: Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream, $265 / 50ml, augustinusbader.com. Dr. Barbara Sturm Glow Drops, $145, drsturm.com. Perfumer H Ink, about $485, perfumerh.com. Reverie's Milk Anti-Frizz Leave-in Nourishing Treatment, $42, gmreverie.com. La Mer Crème de la Mer, $95, cremedelamer.com. Bobbi Brown Cosmetics x Ulla Johnson Highlighting Powder in Pink Glow, $50, available on Nordstrom.com August 16th. Joanna Vargas Twilight Face Mask, $75 for 5 sachets, $17 for single sheet, joannavargas.com. Retrouvé Classique Revitalizing Eye Concentrate Skin Hydrator, $415, retrouve.com. Joelle Ciocco Sensitive Cleansing Milk, about $84, joelle-ciocco.com.Portrait: Lexie Moreland/WWD. Products: courtesy of the brands.

Interview by Caitie Kelly

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What I've learned through working in fashion is that keeping skin healthy is the most important part of any beauty routine. In the morning, I use Joelle Ciocco's Sensitive Cleansing Milk face wash, followed by Dr. Barbara Sturm's Glow and Sun Drops. For moisturizer, I like Augustinus Bader's The Cream or The Rich Cream, depending on the season. I also just started using Crème de la Mer — I like it's cold, creamy texture. And I love Retrouvé, they have a great Revitalizing Eye Concentrate. I'm totally obsessed with sheet masks, too; I use SK-II's Facial Treatment Masks and Joanna Vargas's Twilight Face Masks. My good friend Romy Soleimani, who's a makeup artist, gave me the life-changing tip of putting them in the fridge. I'm also a firm believer in face sprays. If I'm in fittings or back-to-back meetings, I use Jurlique's Rosewater Balancing Mist throughout the day; it's a wonderful refresher. I don't really wear a lot of makeup, but sometimes I use a bit of the Bobbi Brown Cosmetics x Ulla Johnson Highlighting Powder in Pink Glow, along with the Extra Lip Tint, which is incredibly moisturizing and has a touch of color — it's like that one little thing you need before dinner. All of the work we've done with Bobbi Brown, which will be available on Nordstrom.com starting August 16th, is focused on getting glowy skin with a light touch. And I've finally adopted the eyelash curler — Shu Eumura has an amazing one. When I was a kid, every summer I used to travel to Croatia, where there are lavender fields, and all the markets sell lavender oil, which I still use every night before bed. It's very calming. I'm a religious perfume wearer, too, but I don't like scents that are overtly feminine or floral. I prefer something a bit more earthy. My go-to is Ink by Perfumer H, a small perfumery based in London. For my hair, I see Lena Ott at Suite Caroline, and she got me hooked on Reverie's Milk Anti-Frizz Leave-in Nourishing Treatment. It moisturizes your hair and tames the ends but isn't heavy. I love that tousled beach look year-round. As far as spa treatments go, the first thing I recommend to anyone coming to New York is the Healing Birch massage at the Shibui Spa in the Greenwich Hotel; it's like a little slice of Japan in the city.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

COVET THIS

A Fashion Designer Takes the Potter's Wheel

Shane Gabier's multicolor stoneware drum lamp with hand-stitched pongee shade (left) and stoneware vases (right).Cruz Valdez

By Nikki Shaner-Bradford

T Contributor

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When his beloved ceramics class was abruptly canceled last year, Shane Gabier — one half of the sustainability-minded fashion label Creatures of the Wind, along with his partner, Christopher Peters — knew it would be up to him to feed his passion. Leaning on his fashion background and pattern-making skills, Gabier began sketching shapes on paper and cutting out slabs of clay to transform two-dimensional ideas into physical objects: vases, sculptures and plates glazed in earthy tones. Inspired by Brutalist architecture, post-Memphis design and conceptual sculpture from the 1960s and '70s, Gabier's pieces are geometric and tactile; some vessels are made of interlocking pieces that can be subtly rearranged, while hand-shaped plates and bowls look nearly stonelike with their natural finish and uniquely tapered edges. Each piece is made from a heavy sculpture clay that "feels really natural and easy" to Gabier, who believes the sturdiness of the substance allows him to build taller without sacrificing the flat clothlike planes that distinguish his work. Gabier is selling his wares through the Portland-based design store Spartan Shop, but perhaps the best way to peruse them is simply to scroll through his Instagram, an endless feed of dripping colors and chunky shapes. From $375, spartan-shop.com.

DRINK THIS

Taking Wine Pairings to the Next Level

El Vino's rosé and a pitcher by LRNCE.Pia Riverola

By Eleonore Condo

T Contributor

Daniela Vargas Dieppa, Ramya Giangola, Sofia Ajodan and Jessica Flesh don't just work in fashion; they eat, sleep and breathe it. And after a trip to Baja California's Valle de Guadalupe winemaking region, they were determined to drink it, too. Thus El Vino was born, a sort of wine-of-the-month club in which painstakingly sourced bottles are beautifully packaged with specially designed labels and paired with objets created by artists and designers. "It's as much about what's on the outside of the bottle as it is about the inside," says Giangola. "For us, aesthetics drive so much of who we are." Their first release, a Baja rosé made by fourth-generation vintner Lulu Martinez Ojeda, is both crisp and sweet, with floral and fruity notes, and comes adorned with a label painted by Marrakech-based artist LRNCE, who also created a line of ceramics that echo the label's whimsically biomorphic artwork. This week, El Vino debuts its next wine, which is also meant to go with the LRNCE collection — a summery white that begins with pineapple and ends with a bracing minerality. From $28, elvino.shop.

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SEE THIS

Alternate History in Berlin

A film still from Yael Bartana's video and audio installation "Malka Germania" (2021).Courtesy of the artist and the Jewish Museum Berlin

By Gisela Williams

T Contributing Editor

"Redemption Now," an ambitious solo exhibition of the Israeli-born, Berlin-and-Amsterdam-based feminist artist Yael Bartana, opened earlier this summer in the Daniel Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum in Berlin. For more than two decades, Bartana has been playing with historical narratives and examining ideas of collective identity using photography, installation and video. The centerpiece of the current show, "Malka Germania" (Hebrew for "Queen Germania"), is a 43-minute-long video and sound installation commissioned by the museum. Projected onto three large screens, it presents an alternate vision of Germania — the name Hitler was to rechristen Berlin should he have won the war, planning to raze and remake the city in an image of hypertrophied neo-Classicism complete with a gigantic capitol dome. In Bartana's reimagining, an androgynous female messiah figure marches with a donkey through a modern-day version of Berlin with street signs in Hebrew. In the climactic scene, the dome explodes out of Wannsee lake (site of the infamous conference at which the details of the Final Solution were hashed out), suggesting a resurgent nationalism and anti-Semitism hiding just beneath the surface. "Redemption Now" is on view at the Jewish Museum Berlin through Nov. 21, jmberlin.de/en.

READ THIS

Still Lifes From the Pandemic

Left: Betony Vernon's "The Cut" (2020). Right: Wolfgang Tillmans's "Clipped Tulip" (2020).Left: Courtesy of Betony Vernon. Right: Courtesy of Wolfgang Tillmans and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne

By Alwa Cooper

T Contributor

Triadic, an international creative agency founded by curator Roya Sachs, creative director Mafalda Millies and producer Elizabeth Edelman, specialized in staging collaborative performance art pieces. Then came the pandemic. To continue to foster what Sachs describes as creative "cross-pollination" and "playful interaction," the trio launched a digital initiative in which artists were invited to submit a still-life image and text that reflected their experiences during lockdown. "We wanted a format that was simple enough for holistic storytelling but broad enough to give people artistic freedom," says Sachs. The resulting book, "Still Here: Moments in Isolation," which will be published by the German imprint Distanz on Sept. 21, compiles 127 of these works from contributors such as fine artists Wolfgang Tillmans and Elizabeth Peyton as well as author Chris Kraus and neuroscientist Mendel Kaelen, among others. The artworks range from annotated images of the opera singer Davóne Tines's workplace to a photograph of snippings from sex anthropologist Betony Vernon's DIY quarantine haircuts. $55, preorder at distanz.de; 100 percent of Triadic's share of the profits will go to the New York arts nonprofit Performa.

FROM T'S INSTAGRAM

T Magazine's Dreamy Summer Playlist

Malick Sidibé's "Regardez-moi!" (1962).Malick Sidibé. Courtesy of the artist's estate and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. All Rights Reserved.

Curating the perfect summer dinner party playlist can feel like a daunting task, and even music obsessives can fall into ruts and benefit from others offering up song suggestions. Recently, we asked a range of artists, musicians and other creative types to do just that, and to share a few tips on putting selections together. "I'll start off with 'Clair de Lune' — it invokes Paris and New York in equal parts, with mixed drinks clinking and obligatory salutations on display," said the musician John Cale, a co-founder of the Velvet Underground. As you move from cocktails to dinner, try playing something mid-tempo, soulful and longish, like Gram Parsons's "She" (1973), which, as the guitar slides past the four-minute mark, might subconsciously induce hunger. For the meal itself, keep in mind, as the musician Sharon Van Etten says, that "it's important to pick songs that don't take over the conversations. If it's too loud or bumping, it's impossible to talk to your friends or sit over dinner in a relaxing way." For more, visit tmagazine.com — and follow us on Instagram.

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