Sleebi's Mission
YouTube has become a hostile platform for ASMR
At first that might sound extreme, but bear with me and you might see where I'm coming from.
At the start of September 2023 YouTube sent out an email to its creators that would shock the ASMR community. Until then, creators were able to choose where to place ads, for example only before their video (a pre-roll ad), as many ASMR creators did. With the new policy described in the email YouTube could additionally start placing ads after any monetized video (post-roll). As anyone who falls asleep to ASMR knows, ads after a video wake you up, defeating the entire purpose of watching the video. I personally felt urged to do something against this, so I put out videos informing and rallying the community, receiving more support than I’d even hoped for. The petition I started gained almost 40.000 signatures and several prominent creators spread the word, until it became too big to ignore. I was approached by YouTube and discussed the downsides of the new policy (antagonizing and pushing away their users), but to no avail; YouTube’s decision was made.
At this point it became clear to me that YouTube would only fall further from grace, ignoring every point of feedback from their users and creators for short-term gains:
- Ads: The amount of (unskippable) ads per video has only increased over the years, they wage war on ad blockers, and it’s only a matter of time before we see mid-rolls in ASMR
- Demonetization: Fully PG ASMR creators get demonetized for no reason, by an automated system
- YouTube Shorts are being forced down user’s throats, algorithmically optimized to be as addictive as possible, whilst traditionally long-form content like ASMR is being recommended less and less overall
- YouTube Search is deteriorating ('Wanna see a list of videos you’ve watched before instead of search results?')
- Generative AI: YouTube content is being used by Google to train generative AI , but they won’t specify which content.. do you think they specifically asked everyone for permission?
In the end it’s not a huge surprise YouTube as a corporation doesn’t care about ASMR. In fact, they might want to actively push ASMR away;
ASMR is one of the least profitable forms of content imaginable for a platform:
- Big files: The videos are generally between 20 minutes and 2 hours long, making for expensive data storage and transfer to the viewer
- Little ad placement: There should only be ads before the video, whereas other forms of content could have multiple ads every 10 minutes
- Low advertising demand: There is less interest in advertising on ASMR, as reflected in the relatively low cost per mille ($$$ per 1000 views)
- Poor engagement: Most viewers don’t actively watch the video (they fall asleep), making for poor engagement with any ads
- Little interest to pay: Most viewers would not pay for the ASMR they watch, making it hard to monetize in other ways
Sleebi
With Sleebi the same concerns are relevant; it will be a challenge to keep this platform running with the relatively high costs of service, and limited opportunity for revenue, not to mention the development of the platform itself. One only has to look at the past attempts for ASMR-specific platforms to see it is no easy feat. The (in)famous Tingles app resorted to directly making money off of creators’ videos without their knowledge or permission (something many current apps are still doing), and was rightly shut down after this controversy. In contrast, the creator-initiated Zees app was well-intentioned, but overestimated the price ASMR-viewers would be willing to pay monthly, and got dealt some unlucky blows in development.
Nonetheless, ASMR is personally important to me. I started making videos in 2016 and over the years have found good friends in the community, creators and viewers alike. I believe there should be a platform that both of these groups can love, that listens and adapts to their needs, and feels like a safe space that doesn’t take advantage of viewers or creators. Some concessions might have to be made, like lower revenue for creators, lower video quality for viewers, and me coding the platform by myself, but the intention is to keep Sleebi a free-to-use platform that never features content without explicit permission, compensates its creators fairly, and never interrupts your ASMR-viewing experience or sleep with ads.
Sleebi can only be made possible with your help; potential ways of keeping the platform afloat are silent, non-disruptive display-ads, a premium tier (without enshittification ), and donations, so if you like the idea, spread the word :)
If you want to weigh in on the important decisions for the future of Sleebi, go to the community page of my YouTube channel (as that’s still where the people are at this point in time) and vote in the polls or leave comments with suggestions. Thanks for reading!