Maybe not that interesting for everyone here, but I found no better community for this.

  • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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    3 months ago

    Their quality going down is probably what’s killing their channel. Every video is a merch ad, and the occasional shilling for the fossil fuel industry probably doesn’t help any.

    These things are to be expected when you get bought by private equity, but let’s not be dishonest and say it’s all AI slop that’s killing them.

      • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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        3 months ago

        They are owned by private equity? It’s pretty common these days for the more popular YT channels. Veritasium, Astrum, Fireship, fern., and Hoog are some other examples. Basically, if it’s a popular YT channel, it’s either owned by PE, in negotiations to be acquired by PE, or pursued by a PE firm in the hopes that they can acquire it. Private equity is accelerating their acquisitions, actually, and they want to control everything that captures the attention of viewers.

        Here’s a video that talks about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ-rRXWhElI

      • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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        3 months ago

        They accepted, and continue to accept a great amount of money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That foundation owns over $11 billion in investments in the fossil fuel industry, including coal-burning utility companies.

        In return, there were quite a few videos that Kurzgesagt admits were funded directly by the Foundation, that exaggerate the positive influence corporations owned by the foundation have had. Videos which the CEO of Kurzgesagt has admitted they probably would not have made if the Foundation had not paid for them.

    • obazdaa@feddit.org
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      3 months ago

      I just looked at the public company records and they are not owned by private equity. What are you talking about?

      • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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        3 months ago

        First off, no you didn’t.

        Secondly, if you take money from billionaires to make propaganda videos for them, then you’re owned by them. You sell your soul to the devil, you can’t undo it later because you get called out for it.