Users protest when YouTube plays 5 ads in a row

YouTube is testing a major ad-related change on their platform. Now, instead of playing 2 consecutive ads, they will do a series of 5 consecutive ads. It is worth mentioning that the user does not have the option to skip. All will have to watch this series of 5 ads from start to finish if they want to continue the video.

Immediately, a wave of protests against YouTube surfaced throughout the cyberspace. Many people believe that YouTube’s action this time is a wrong step, which could lead to the collapse of the world’s largest online video viewing platform.

With a sequence of 5 ads in a row and no skip option, viewers will be interrupted for at least 1 to 3 minutes. This is a long time, enough for many people to turn off or switch to another video. While the entertainment or attention-grabbing needs of short videos are currently less than 10 seconds (like TikTok, YouTube Short, etc.), a few minutes to watch ads is absurd. Some other opinions suggest that YouTube introduced this new policy to stimulate users to buy Premium packages, a type of privilege that helps users not have to see ads.

In fact, showing 5 ads in a row is just YouTube’s experiment on certain audiences. YouTube will gather reviews to come up with a final solution. For peace of mind, a YouTube representative also emphasized that each ad lasts only about 5 seconds, which means the entire sequence of 5 ads will not exceed 30 seconds (if they are applied more commonly in the future). ).