YouTube’s biggest star Pewdiepie weighs in on YouTube’s upcoming subscription service over on Tumblr, and he’s got some healthy dose of realism for everybody.
While Pewdiepie understands that folks are wary of YouTube’s new plan, he says it’s worth remembering that Red is the direct result of how people choose to consume the internet without ads. Naturally, YouTube has invested in alternate means of making money, Pewdiepie suggests.
Pewdiepie writes:
YouTubers lose about 40% of their ad income.
Personally, I’m ok with if you use adblock on my videos. Ads are annoying, I get it, I’m not here to complain about that.
But for smaller channels, this number can be devastating.
Despite this, it seems that many people’s general attitude towards Adblock is very open loose.
Here, Pewdiepie shares a number of screenshots of fans who speak highly of Ad Block. While he doesn’t berate them for doing so—some people have good reasons for using Adblock, of course—here’s his response:
I think what many people still don’t realize is that:
# YouTube Red exist largely as an effort to counter Adblock.
# Using Adblock doesn’t mean you’re clever and above the system.
# YouTube Red exist because using Adblock has actual consequences.
Makes sense to me. The only uncertainty is this: does YouTube Red actually offer something worth paying for? We’ll have to wait for the launch to find out.
Contact the author at patricia@kotaku.com.