>>60402174From my eurofag perspective I've only ever seen poor Americans latch onto Iphones as a status symbol in the same way poor blacks latched onto Nike shoes. Though it's absolutely true Asians are obsessed with status symbols and "luxury & premium" grifts.
But all of this indicates a deeper problem and trend - there is no more cheap money to keep all these bloated services and sites running. The US just doesn't have any more money to have a Netflix, Youtube etc. so all these companies are trying to pull an Apple. Apple's closed ecosystem of perpetual paying and subscriptions, just to stay afloat. My guess is this will gradually (maybe even quickly) kill a lot of huge expensive sites and that the future really could once more be a more decentralized hobbyist internet. This will also be the end of the American dominated internet if that can be said in those terms, and a further erosion of US influence. Oh, and just how Netflix perpetually raises its subscriptions so will youtube. The whole thing spells immediate doom. In the end it may become a purely American based and serviced portion of the internet, an actual and total normalfag containment zone. Even Musk has delusions about making twitter into a platform for everything. There's already way, way too many big (bloated) fish in a very small pond.
Anyway if you put a monetary gun to my head and make me choose between watching vtubers or paying for no ads I choose myself. It's basic monetary self-preservation, almost a natural law. I am membered to a few girls, but the mediator can go fuck itself. I just won't watch ads or pay youtube as such not to see ads. This whole "struggle" just isn't worth it because youtube overvalues itself.
