The move is apparently aimed at providing a better experience to its users.
We’ve all been annoyed by those 30 second advertisements on YouTube. Well, the days of being annoyed by them are over…wait for it…in about a year. In an official statement given to Companion, Google said that the move is aimed at providing a better experience to YouTube users. “As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30 second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,” Google said.
However, advertisements that are shorter than 30 seconds can still be made unskippable. YouTube also has a six-second unskippable bumper ad, which was introduced last year. It will be interesting to see whether YouTube starts pushing other unskippable ads, though.
Unskippable advertisements on YouTube are definitely annoying, and many have agreed with this move by Google. However, one wonders why a move aimed at providing a better experience to users will take a full year to be put in place. Does Google have plans to come up with something else that makes up for it?
Further, the fact that Google is looking at such a move could be a reaction to Facebook’s recent foray into video. The world’s largest social network has been pushing videos on its platforms, making it one of the chief competitors to YouTube.
