Google ends the experiment that forced YouTube users to take a paid subscription for 4K content.
We recently wrote about several experiments Google is running to “force” YouTube users to switch to an expensive paid subscription. Google has indicated it will immediately stop ‘pushing’ users to a subscription to watch 4K content. This after apparently a flood of complaints from random test users who were unwittingly part of the experiment. Given that advertising on the non-paid version of YouTube is becoming increasingly dominant, longer and more frequent not entirely surprising. After all, why pay for something that is already heavily sponsored? Google will either have to look for another – more pleasant – way to move users toward a paid subscription (like lowering its price significantly, for example…). Or simply accept that YouTube – originally marketed as a platform full of only free content – will never compete with “real” streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and others.