YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki held frank talks with powerful YouTubers, and now she’s promising to tackle some of their biggest gripes

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Susan WojcickiGetty

  • YouTube is promising changes to address some of its stars’ biggest grievances.
  • These include copyright claims issues and being excluded from trending lists, which impacts their ability to earn revenue from ads.
  • YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki outlined her plans in a blog post on Tuesday after meeting with some of the platform’s most powerful stars.
  • Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

Some of YouTube’s biggest stars have become increasingly disheartened with the platform — and now it’s taking steps to win back their love.

In a blog post on Tuesday, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki outlined how the company plans to address some of its stars’ biggest grievances regarding its copyright claims system and being excluded from trending lists, which impacts their ability to earn revenue from ads.

YouTube has been criticized for its copyright claims system. This process allows companies that own music, movies, TV shows, video games or other copyright-protected material featured in YouTube videos to make a claim if the material is used without permission.

But some stars, such as British YouTuber Angelika Oles, say the system is badly managed and often leaves them vulnerable to false accusations, which could result in a "copyright strike," meaning the video is removed.

Wojcicki addressed copyright concerns in her blog post after "honest conversation" with a number of YouTubers, including Shane Dawson, who has 21 million subscribers. She said the company is exploring improvements.

Angelika OlesAngelika Oles/YouTube

We "heard firsthand that our Manual Claiming system was increasingly being used to claim very short (in some cases one second) content or incidental content like when a creator walks past a store playing a few seconds of music," she said.

"We were already looking into this issue but hearing this directly from creators was vital. We are exploring improvements in striking the right balance between copyright owners and creators."

Read more: The world’s biggest YouTube stars told us they’re burning out because of the unrelenting pressure to post new videos

Wojcicki went on to comment on other frustrations over YouTube’s trending page, which some creators say they are overlooked on, which means they miss out on ad dollars.

"We’ve heard it doesn’t seem to reflect what people are watching on the platform and that too many of the same creators show up time and time again," Wojcicki said.

"We want to better showcase our creators. Going forward, our goal is to have at least half the videos on trending come from YouTubers (with the remainder coming from music and traditional media)." This will also reflect a diverse set of creators, she said.

YouTube will also give its users more detailed guidelines around what content is suitable for advertisers.

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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Mary Hanbury)

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