General Question

luigirovatti's avatar

Does YouTube count multiple clicks by the same person on a video as views?

Asked by luigirovatti (2926points) 2 days ago

Is it even legal? The most watched video on YouTube is a kids song with 15 billion views. That’s more than two times the people on earth. The viewcount doesn’t count because we can’t know how many people actually watched it. It’s just an excuse to gather popularity and rise through the rankings—maybe even monetize the video with the ads, if they’re lucky. Might as well employ fake views.

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12 Answers

jca2's avatar

In the case of anything to do with kids, I can tell you that many (if not most) kids will watch something over and over and over and over.

luigirovatti's avatar

@jca2: I prefer that the person watching the video gets counted once. At least trace the ip or something.

jca2's avatar

I have no clue how they count it.

JeSuisRickSpringfield's avatar

The counter is for views, not viewers. So yes, it counts multiple views by the same person. The number of unique viewers is a valuable piece of information. You can’t really expect them to make it public in the same way that a valueless piece of information like number of views is. I also have no idea why you think this might be illegal. YouTube has no obligation to share any of its data with you, and it is very upfront about the fact that it is sharing the number of views (and not the number of viewers).

luigirovatti's avatar

@JeSuisRickSpringfield: I already explained that they might be fake views. At least give the public a concrete piece of information to judge whether youtube actively removes fake views, likes, bots or something.

JeSuisRickSpringfield's avatar

@luigirovatti That doesn’t respond to anything I actually said. You asked if YouTube counts multiple clicks by the same person on a video as separate views. The answer is yes. Then you asked if it’s legal. The answer is also yes.

jca2's avatar

@luigirovatti Why should multiple views by the same person NOT count as multiple views?

Tropical_Willie's avatar

@luigirovatti Why would it be illegal ?

luigirovatti's avatar

@Tropical_Willie: It’d be illegal only in certain cases, namely because we don’t actually know how many people watched this. It could be bots.

@jca2: I just prefer that I know how many people actually watch the video. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

“namely because we don’t actually know how many people watched this. It could be bots.”

is not illegal . . . . . . . . only you are confused !

JeSuisRickSpringfield's avatar

@luigirovatti “It could be bots.”

Bots can by annoying, but they aren’t illegal. It’s still unclear what crime you think is being committed here.

” I just prefer that I know how many people actually watch the video. I’m sure I’m not the only one.”

You’re definitely not the only one. But that information is valuable. Sites like YouTube sell that data for money. They will not give it away for free under each video.

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