Anthony Casalena talking with Nilay Patel on Decoder:
…going back to that 20-year history, we are very used to social networks being around. They’ve certainly been around in parallel from, you know, every iteration — from Myspace, to Friendster, to Tumblr, to Facebook, to Instagram, to TikTok — you know, and sometimes they come and go, sometimes they have more staying power.
We actually see more demand than ever for websites right now, and the importance of owning that URL because, as you know, when you’re within a social network, you’re sort of beholden to them, right?
You’re beholden to them in terms of reach, you know, when you’re posting on these social networks it’s not guaranteed that all of your followers you reach when you post. And, you know, again, they come and go.
And so if you’re really locked into an audience there — if you’re serious about what you’re doing at all, that becomes sort of dangerous.
While I continue to (strongly) recommend WordPress over Squarespace as a creator-owned platform solution for my clients, the point the Squarespace founder is making here is rock solid, and woefully under-appreciated by most YouTubers at the moment:
Your subscribers are the platform’s audience, not yours.
— Tang
Nilay Patel’s owned platform is The Verge.
