Dru Riley talking with Greg Isenberg:
And not a lot of people are talking about it. I think a lot of people are bullish on YouTube right now, but I don’t hear a lot of talk of platform risk.
I’m reading a book, Same as Ever, from Morgan Housel, and he talks about the idea of risk, and like, risk is what you don’t see. And we’re not going to talk about platform risk when it comes to YouTube until we have to. Until there’s an event.
And it’s like, you know it’s coming. You just don’t know when. Like, you can’t predict, but you need to be prepared.
So, always have that funnel, right? …of, hey, YouTube is great for discovery, it’s great for growth, but always be driving to a more owned channel where there’s less platform risk.
Greg:
It’s interesting, because everyone will agree with you that Instagram, X, platforms like that, have platform risk. But, YouTube? Like, no one really talks about it, you know? Because what they say is, ‘Well, it has search built into it, and because it has search built into it, your videos will always get found.’
And the truth is, not necessarily.
Dru:
The algorithm changes. I mean there’s so many things that could change.
There’s this sort of competitive relationship between, like, platform and creator that exists. And it’s a friendly relationship at first — YouTube is well beyond this — but when a network or marketplace is trying to get liquidity, they’re very creator-friendly.
And then once they reach liquidity, they start to try to capture more and more of that value. And, of course, it’s hard to replace a marketplace or a social network because network effects are so strong (to go back to moats).
But there is this antagonistic relationship that’s also always there, whether we talk about it, or not.
I talk about it (a lot), and it’s nice to see others beginning to.
As platforms go, YouTube is currently the highest paying, least evil option for creators. But the platform vs. creator tension Dru speaks of is structural — permanent.
Which is actually fine, as long as you’re clear on the balance of power (YouTube: all, creator: none).
Smart creators respect the discovery opportunity platforms provide, but begin purchasing their independence as early as possible.
— Tang
Dru Riley’s owned platforms are: Trends.vc and DruRiley.com.
Greg Isenberg’s owned platforms include: Community Empire and GregIsenberg.com.
