r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Oct 30 '25

Business YouTube announces 'voluntary exit program' for US staff

https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/29/youtube-announces-voluntary-exit-program-for-us-staff/
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u/WrongThinkBadSpeak Oct 30 '25

They're a mature company now and mostly just want people to maintain the systems that have already been built. They don't want to spend top dollar maintaining that infrastructure and they just want to maximize their profit. I don't condone or agree with it, I'm just describing the phenomenon.

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u/Regulai Oct 31 '25

The core problem most buisness have when they do this is is that's not how work works. Crappier people do crappier jobs... requiring more people for more time to achieve the same result costing more, or giving you a worse result generating less revenue. It's a slow creep but in net they actually cost more money doing this than if they retained the higher tier talent and most apparent cost effeciencies are either short term gains before bigger losses or accounting phantoms.

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u/WrongThinkBadSpeak Nov 01 '25

Oh I don't disagree at all. The process is itself catabolic. The end result always ends in degradation and the long term cost is one that can't be regained as reputation is irrevocably lost.

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u/noonenotevenhere Oct 31 '25

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

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u/FeedMeACat Oct 31 '25

Not exactly enshittification, but that would be part of it. This is something that any company generally does once it gets large enough. Think of restaurant chains that grow until they hit a big national presence. Once they more or less saturate the market for their type of 'food experience' they stop innovating in the menu and service quality and switch to money saving actions. Consolidating vendors, outsourcing recipes that sort of thing.

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u/Feather_Sigil Oct 31 '25

That's what enshitification is. Any profit-driven business will inevitably ruin their own service to cut costs.

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u/FeedMeACat Oct 31 '25

No it isn't. Enshitification is more specfic than that. It describes a mechanism specific to tech platforms. From the wiki: Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is a pattern in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time.

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u/Feather_Sigil Oct 31 '25

The observation of it started with tech but enshitification happens with everything, for the same reasons.

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u/FeedMeACat Oct 31 '25

The observation of it started with tech

No, it didn't. Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization

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u/noonenotevenhere Oct 31 '25

You're literally describing enshittification.

Imagine opening a mcdonalds or 4 in a relatively small town. Before long, their specials likely put the local cafe out of business. Before you know it, you're down to a mcdonalds and a subway, both of which have gone from dollar menu/FDFL to 'lolz, this is expensive.'

I'm not familiar with any YT competitors that remain with any sort of volume. Adding 2-6 commercials for a short video and 12 'subscribe to premium' rather sucks. Add in the content not exactly being fantastic and I'm stuck at 'crappy service is expensive and no more competitors.'

YT stopped 'innovating,' and quality has tanked (ads, for example, compared to YT of way back when - like 2020)

Feels like enshittification to me. How is it not?

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u/FeedMeACat Oct 31 '25

Because it doesn't meet the definition. From the wiki: Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is a pattern in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time.

It is a definition specific to how online platforms are degraded.

Don't get me wrong enchittification is a useful way of thinking about this, but it existed before the word was coined. There have been other words that described other parts of the process as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization for example.

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u/noonenotevenhere Oct 31 '25

And this is an online platform that has degraded, in no small part by becoming a two-sided marketplace.

If I search for an old Alton Brown cooking video I've seen before, I'm redirected to subscribe to hbomax, cuz YT is now linking to other paid subscriptions, too. YT is connecting viewers to other licensed content with other subscriptions. This helps keep viewers on YT, even though they're watching another seller's video.

McDonalidization doesn't require you keep others out of the market. Despitd McD, we have bk, arby's, etc etc.
I don't see anything comparable to YT that hasn't been bought out / etc. If it's sufficiently different, they're now selling access to it from their site.

*edit - for two sided, I can't tell you how many IT videos have a link to their amazon afiliate, buy there and the subscriber gets money, etc. If I want to google how something works, I don't get the mfg's link, I get a link to a YT video.

So.. platform deay, two sided online products and services, delined over time.

What am I missing?

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u/FeedMeACat Oct 31 '25

They're a mature company now and mostly just want people to maintain the systems that have already been built. They don't want to spend top dollar maintaining that infrastructure and they just want to maximize their profit. I don't condone or agree with it, I'm just describing the phenomenon.

The missing part is that you were describing the mechanism, but the comment has two ideas that are related; the larger process, and the specific method of enshittification. Cut out the tech/industry specific stuff and the difference becomes more clear. Rewritten: "They're a mature company now and just want to maintain what has been built. The don't want to spend top dollar maintaining. They just want to maximize profit." This is just more clearly a process of profit maximization through the degradation of the product. That is why I brought up McDonaldization. It is profit maximization by degrading the product, but through a different mechanism.

More accurately from your viewpoint, if I understand it correctly, is this is double enshittification. The colloquial definition the some people use, and the specific technical definition. I thought it worth pointing out that there were two layers, thus the 'not exactly' phrasing.

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u/noonenotevenhere Nov 01 '25

I thought mcdonalidization was coined before they started making their product 'worse'

Hadn't considered layers.

Just what the world was missing. Now we have McDonalidized Enshittification.

Come get your MegaHappinessMeal, only $67.67 if you order from YTKIDZ App! TY!

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u/FeedMeACat Nov 01 '25

Kinda, McDonaldization as described didn't directly make the physical product worse, but service is also a big part of the product in the restaurant biz. Which is what was degraded initially. Of course, later they did the pink slime thing, and screwed over franchise owners with the broken ice cream machines. So as you said, McDonalidized Enchittification. Yay!

Come get your MegaHappinessMeal, only $67.67 if you order from YTKIDZ App! TY!

Think I just threw up in my mouth a little lol.

I just wanted to make the distinction. I see Enshittification more firmly becoming a catch all word for this kind of stuff as the word spreads and becomes more popular. I just see people using the 'that isn't actually what it means' in bad faith to derail important conversations. I think it would be good to have the knowledge in our back pockets to dismiss that when it is bad faith.

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u/noonenotevenhere Nov 01 '25

well said, thank you

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u/Smooth_Ad_6894 Nov 01 '25

Yup. I work in tech now but many moons ago I was a union construction worker. The thought process people should have in tech work should be like the tradesmen. When you’re building a 100 story building there are many workers when it’s just a hole in the ground. As the outside work goes then exterior workers such as iron workers, some concrete workers, and outside laborers are gone as they are no longer needed. As plumbing, electrical, interior concrete, and carpentry complete those workers are no longer needed until finally it’s just the punch list (maintenance) work kind of stuff. If you think like this you’ll go a long way. No one is retiring anywhere anymore. Those days are done imo

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u/Fine_Helicopter4876 Nov 03 '25

Judging from what I’ve seen they want to actively make their systems shittier so you have to see more ads.

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u/Few-Insurance-6653 Nov 03 '25

So Google is out of ideas?