FOLLOW THE MONEY: A LARGE-SCALE INVESTIGATION OF MONETIZATION AND OPTIMIZATION ON YOUTUBE
FOLLOW THE MONEY: A LARGE-SCALE INVESTIGATION OF MONETIZATION AND OPTIMIZATION ON YOUTUBE
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跟随金钱：对 YouTube 上的货币化和优化进行大规模调查
DOI：
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Bernhard Rieder
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文献类型：
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作者：
Òscar Coromina;Ariadna Matamoros;Bernhard Rieder
虽然YouTube已经成为全球媒体体系中的主导角色，但平台、广告商和内容创作者之间的关系围绕货币化问题出现了一系列冲突。我们的论文借鉴了一个关键的媒体行业的角度来研究YouTube不断发展的平台战略和内容创作者的战术适应之间的关系。这涉及到寻找替代收入流，以及内容和参考优化，以增加受众和算法可见性。通过对“精英”频道（超过10万订阅者）的详尽样本（n=153.770）及其完整的视频历史（n= 138.3400.337），我们分析了视频描述中的链接，以调查众筹平台（如Patreon）的出现和传播，以及附属链接、商品商店或电子商务网站（如Etsy）。我们分析了视频长度和发布频率的演变，以响应平台政策以及可见性策略，如元数据和类别优化，关键字填充或标题措辞。综合起来，这些元素提供了YouTube“工业化”的广阔图景，也就是说，创作者寻求将他们的频道发展成媒体业务的方式。虽然这一贡献不能取代对特定频道或频道组进行更定性、更深入的研究，但我们希望提供YouTube精英频道的代表性图片，以及他们从开始到2020年初对知名度和成功的追求。
While YouTube has become a dominant actor in the global media system, the relationship between platform, advertisers, and content creators has seen a series of conflicts around the question of monetization. Our paper draws on a critical media industries perspective to investigate the relationship between YouTube’s evolving platform strategies on the one side and content creators’ tactical adaptations on the other. This concerns the search for alternative revenue streams as well as content and referencing optimization seeking to grow audiences and algorithmic visibility. Drawing on an exhaustive sample (n=153.770) of “elite” channels (more than 100.000 subscribers) and their full video history (n=138.340.337), we parse links in video descriptions to investigate the appearance and spread of crowdfunding platforms like Patreon, but also of affiliate links, merchandise stores, or e-commerce websites like Etsy. We analyze the evolution of video length and posting frequency in response to platform policy as well as visibility tactics such as metadata and category optimization, keyword stuffing, or title phrasing. Taken together, these elements provide a broad picture of “industrialization” on YouTube, that is, of the ways creators seek to develop their channels into media businesses. While this contribution cannot replace more qualitative, in-depth research into particular channels or channel groups, we hope to provide a representative picture of YouTube’s elite channels and their quest for visibility and success from their beginnings up to early 2020.