After reading Charles Balcita’s article on the current movement towards the blocking of advertisements, I was enticed to dig deeper into the discussion.  Charles primary argument was based on consumers using ad blocker to save themselves a minor inconvenience.  He also outlined that this consumer trend led to an immense loss of online publisher revenue.

AdBlock - A popular ad blocking add on

I would like to investigate a specific instance where publishers were denied revenue but in this case from the side of the corporations.  For instance, on YouTube, a video and media sharing website that has blown up in the last few years has seen major, “community guideline changes”.  Content creators commonly known as YouTubers have seen a tank in revenue in early February this year.  The changes were implemented without warning or announcement and seemed to target the more mature content on the website.

The backstory consists of fed up companies that were tired of running ads on YouTube without having control on which videos their ads would play on. Major corporations such as, Coke and Pepsi pulled out of business with YouTube for this very reason. At this time, YouTube was feeling pressure from their advertisers. YouTube’s solution was to silently implement an algorithm which detected mature content.  Companies were able to choose characteristics they deemed inappropriate and YouTube’s system would automatically demonetize the video.

In theory, this implementation is reasonable as companies should have the right to have control over their advertisements as a children’s toy company would not want to advertise on videos with profanity. However, YouTube did not inform content creators on the details within the changes and overall have had terrible communication with YouTubers. Furthermore, the algorithm was faulty and often times demonetized videos that followed the community guidelines.

In my opinion, YouTube needs to learn to respect and value their content creators. In reality, these creators are YouTube’s subcontracted employees and they are not treated as such.  Content creators livelihoods are being toyed with by YouTube with no communication on how to change videos to meet community standards.  It is ridiculous that a video can have hundreds of thousands of views yet produce very little revenue. This has forced certain creators to start Patreon accounts to have their revenue crowd funded by donation. Instead of Content creators battling YouTube, both parties need to work together to improve their platform. YouTube must make an attempt to educate and inform their creators before a competitor emerges and steals a majority of YouTube’s creative minds.

WC:410

Works Cited:

Websites 

https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/10/15609660/youtube-youtuber-ad-money-google

AdBlocking – A Sign The Free Internet Is Changing

Images

https://getadblock.com/

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/youtube

Shocking but inevitable news was delivered to Canadian’s on tuesday.  Sears Canada announced they are shutting down operations in Canada. The shutdown consists of 166 stores across the country, leaving 12000 Canadians unemployed. It is estimated that, “The company has been losing about 1 million Canadian dollars a day” (NYT P2). When I was reading the article all that went through my mind was, how? How could a built up, internationally reputable brand run such high deficits after years in the market?  The answer became apparent,” customers are increasingly shifting their retail shopping to e-commerce” (NYT P3).  Consumers are now able to purchase the same goods, at a lower price, from the comfort of their home.  Companies such as Amazon can provide this luxury to consumers.  My next question was, why did Sears not adapt to the change in consumer preference? It turns out they did! Unfortunately with Sears Canada, “high shipping costs have limited the growth of online shopping in Canada relative to the United States” (NYT P3).  With a combination of consumer preference and location, Sears Canada is no longer feasible.

Sear's Canada location under liquidation

Sears Canada as an international corporation took a major hit. The trading price of a Sear’s stock is the lowest it’s been in 8 months. In fact, it has dropped over 13% in just two days. However, I want to discuss the impact the shutdown will have on Canadian citizens.  Some of my high school friends were hit particularly hard by this announcement. One of my friends currently works part time at Sears in Coquitlam to help subsidize his university tuition. This unexpected lack of income will force him to search out a new job opportunity. Unfortunately, in the meantime he will have to live off of savings. Furthermore, not only will the laid off employees feel the financial loss but also the, “18,000 retirees of Sears Canada may be facing cuts to their pension payments.”

Diagram outlining the ease of online shopping

At first glance Sears Canada’s announcement seemed to only effect the corporation.  However after analyzing the situation, I learned that there are many more stakeholders involved in the closure. In the current technological-driven day and age the retail world is constantly changing. Companies who cannot adapt will be forced to shut down because the movement to e-commerce is inevitable.

WC : 372

Works Cited

https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:SHLD&xpid=4132891&evtid=1cHjWfOKPMqIjwPfjqq4DA&ep=sr

Images

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/sears-closures-impact-small-communities-1.4353011

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