YouTube Adpocalypse: The YouTubers' Journey from Ads-Based to Patron-Based Revenues

YouTube Adpocalypse: The YouTubers' Journey from Ads-Based to Patron-Based Revenues

Period: 01.04.2023 – 30.09.2024

Digital platforms largely transform the creator economy. By providing easy access for content producers and content consumers, decentralized information sharing has implications for democracy and culture, as filter bubbles on social media and fake news harshly demonstrate. Hence, a sound understanding of factors influencing the content provided is crucial to design platforms and policies that support a knowledgeable society.
One such potential influence factor is the platform’s business model, as we can observe advertisement as well as subscription based business models in the creator economy. In this project, we exploit a rule change of an advertisement based platform that hampers the possibilities to obtain advertising revenues. How do content producers react to this shock? Do they replace lost advertising revenues by subscription revenues? Do they adjust the frequency, costs, or the content itself they provide? We aim at answering these question using data from Patreon along with YouTube presence information.

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