So, this is a wonderful opportunity to ask any questions of Todd
about how the system works.
First of all, though, in your mind, what is the algorithm?
The algorithm, correct me if I'm wrong
is the system in how videos are promoted
or recommended to people on the app
so if I'm on my homepage
what videos would be showing up for me to click on.
That's the algorithm.
– Yes, I think that's pretty accurate. – Yes? OK.
Are you always frustrated by the system?
– Leading question! – Are you happy with the system?
How do you feel about it in general?
Is it a point of frustration for you?
I feel like I should be more mad about the algorithm
just because a lot of creators are very frustrated with the algorithm
but personally, I just don't have...
I'm pretty... I'm all right with it.
So, how about any questions for Todd about how the system works.
I just wanted to ask generally, what is the main goal of the algorithm?
What videos and channels does it want to promote?
The algorithm is there just to rank the videos.
We get 400 hours of new videos uploaded every minute.
How do we decide
when you show up to the site, load your homepage
which videos to show there?
So, the way it generally works is
we have different techniques of selecting videos
things like whether they're clicking on, whether they're not clicking on.
If they do click, do they like it, do they dislike it?
All those things come together
and then we train a model
to predict whether that user will click
how long they'll watch, whether they'll like it or not
and this all speaks to what our real goal is
which is to make sure users are happy with what they're watching.
So, how active are you guys in monitoring mistakes in the algorithm?
Mostly, we try to set up the system
so all that data is teaching the algorithm
when it's doing the right thing and when it is making a mistake.
Whenever the algorithm recommends something
that someone doesn't watch
the algorithm updates itself.
That's what a mistake is?
If it's showing the wrong video to the wrong person?
If it shows a video the viewer doesn't watch
or if they do watch it, they only watch it for a short period of time
or they give it a dislike
with billions of those examples
the algorithm will learn a lot faster
than us trying to manually identify a mistake
so the algorithm can be updated automatically
so it's getting better constantly.
How is it benefiting creators though?
I think it's because when we give viewers what they want to watch
then viewers spend more time on YouTube
and come back more often.
It grows the amount of opportunity for creators.
Let's say I post a video that does extremely well.
Does the algorithm then try to show other videos from my channel
because of that one video's performance?
Everything is based from the viewer perspective
so when a viewer shows up
we're trying to find the best videos for that viewer.
Whenever you have a video that does well
that shows up in that viewer's history
and so when that viewer comes back
one of the things we'll do is say "Hey, here's a recent video they watched.
"Let's find other videos from the same channel that they might want to watch as well."
When you have a well-performing video
there are a lot more viewers out there
that have that situation
so it makes it easier for us to target them
with another video from your channel.
The more you do well-performing videos
the more users there are out there that when they show up to the site
it's going to be likely that your next video will be a great choice for them.
Do you have any words of advice
or comforting words for creators who do stress over video performance?
Yes, I've seen a lot of examples where creators are worried
that if they do one bad video, their channel's just going to die forever.
Yes, me!
We hear that a lot.
I look at a lot of channels and what's happening
and I see so many examples
of creators having videos that just don't perform well
and then the next video, or two videos later, they have their best video ever.
Know that we're listening to what the audience wants
so if the audience isn't going to abandon you
over one bad video
then we're not going to abandon you either.
Do you have expectations for every video?
I notice you hit a million views almost every time
but a couple are below a million.
Are you bummed when that doesn't happen?
Yes, so, for me, I expect a million.
There's usually a certain time frame, like within a week it would hit a million.
I have these standards for myself, which does add stress.
So, when I upload a video, it's like
"Fingers crossed that this one does at least average!"
Are you in there in analytics looking at the videos
and which analytics are you looking at?
Views only? Or...
Yes, some creators look at the comments to see if viewers like the video or not.
For me, it's the like-to-dislike ratio and the views.
If there are more views and a lot of likes
I know that people like that video.
I've worked with many creators and top creators
and if their latest video's a failure, they just feel like a failure.
I say, "Don't live or die off your latest upload."
So, my recommendation is stay calm, don't freak out
look at the long-term game because this is a business you're running
so you want to compare year over year, or month over month
not necessarily just video to video.
Where do you feel like the stress comes from?
Do you feel like it's something you put on yourself?
Do you feel like it's coming from your audience?
Or is it just popularity?
It's popularity for me. I think it's relevancy and popularity.
Especially on YouTube, the reason video performance is so important
is because it determines your success, basically.
Have you seen the new YouTube Studio?
Yes, I think, yes, I have.
So, we tried to add an intelligence layer over your analytics
that gives you headlines about how your recent video performed.
It will show you a little chart of how your current video has performed
versus your others
because we've heard about this stress
and we want to try to make the process of understanding video performance easier.
Did anything surprise you about how the algorithm works?
Not surprise, but I do better understand it.
It's basically just whatever the viewer wants, the viewer gets.
That's the algorithm.
I think I've noticed recently my recommendations have been a lot better.
I've definitely found new creators that I hadn't found before
because of my recommendations
so, good job, Todd!
Well, we couldn't do anything without having great content
so keep uploading!
Elle, thanks so much for coming to YouTube headquarters.
It's been great to have you here.
I hope this conversation was helpful.
And Todd, thanks for your time as well.
- My pleasure. - Thank you.
Even though you both don't drink coffee!
– Oh, yes! – Creators love water!
– Cheers! – Yes!