4 Mistakes That Are Costing YouTube BIG.

YouTube have a fight on their hands when it comes to social video. Looking at some recent decisions, they're really not helping themselves.

Their decisions and product updates have been upsetting content creators and the community on which the eco system is built upon. Furthermore it is allowing other platforms to catch up and steal market share.

4 Mistakes YouTube Have Made

1. Google + integration - Without warning Google decided to mush together what many consider their failing platform (for the record I am a fan of G+) with YouTube and it caused utter outrage. One of favourite response at the time had to be Emma Blackery's song F*** You Google Plus (NSFW) as it encapsulated the feeling of the moment. This decision has had time to bed in but with the recent announcements of the break up of G+ and it's uncertain future, it seems it may have been a needless one.
2. Autoplay - Has anyone found a good use for Autoplay? As a user I HATE this and was over the moon when I found out how to switch it off. I don't know about you but I like to leave several tabs open, and often I would let a video I was interested in play out, now I am bounced off to further content before I've had chance to copy and share the URL of what I was watching. Plus I have seen many circumstances where videos autoplay onto competitor videos - not good. This is clearly an attempt to massage their viewing figures, it is not a feature created with the community in mind.
3. Lag on mobile - Although it was announced months ago, YouTube are finally now rolling out mobile optimised annotations. Now I am actually a fan of this but again their slow reactions have allowed Facebook and Twitter to sneak in who have had mobile read CTA's at the end of their native videos for some time.
4. Commercial Decisions - All platforms need to realise the power of creators. YouTube has historically had a good relationship with creators and been generally supportive, however they have recently clamped down on brand integrations. By introducing ridiculous rules and taking a top slice of fees they are strangling a good source of income from the people who have helped develop the very communities that drive YouTube forward.

Obviously YouTube were not going to have a monopoly on social video forever and it is only natural for competition to rise up, but if they continue making those kind of mistakes they could completely annoy their community and lose one their most undervalued and most powerful assets - creators.

If you want to read more about mine and Ben White's thoughts on this matter check out our full post here.