Arrrr! Time To Be A Pirate: The Only Way Companies Can Build Big.

Too Long; Didn't Read

A few months back a new YouTube algorithm started suggesting me surprisingly accurate video recommendations. I’d watch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and watched it on the official YouTube account. But then, all of a sudden, I’d get recommendations to watch The Daily Show full episodes, from accounts with random names, like “Maureen”. They were cropped, too. In short — these are pirated videos, appearing ahead of official releases, stealing advertising dollars and my attention away from the “real thing”. Of course I’d watch them — they are “good enough”, and they appear earlier. YouTube knows it too, so I’d get push notifications when new episode would be up — even if I don’t follow the channel! The algorithm became so good, Google would recommend me pirated content I want to see from channels I didn’t know exist.