Really feels like the somewhat open nature of yt is running on borrowed time

First you spend money to create something people really want and build a big user base.

Then you open it up to third party businesses and get them tied to your platform, making money off your users.

Once locked in you turn the screws on the businesses to extract as much money from them as possible.

Finally you turn the screws on the users to extract every last bit of value from the platform before it withers and fades into irrelevance.

	▲	akudha 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		What you say is true for most companies/software, but YouTube can play a nasty game for a very long time before it withers into irrelevance (if at all). They have enormous moat, one would need enormous resources to take on YouTube, I don't think anyone has that kind of patience or resources to even attempt. Like it or not, we are stuck with YT for a while. I have learned so much from YouTube - I wish it was more open and friendly to its creators and users :( In the meantime, all we can do is support smaller alternatives like https://nebula.tv/