My opinion about Youtube shorts and the short share culture in general on digital platforms - What does #alphabet
aka Youtube wrong mMn?
Hi guys,
today a bit out of line I would like to share my opinion on TikTok & especially Youtube Shorts in the financial sector. Of course, as some may have noticed, I am a Youtuber myself and rarely produce shorts.
Nevertheless, I can't help but notice a few essential things here that bother me massively and sometimes really annoy me. Before we start but as always my disclaimer.
DisclaimerThis is not an investment advice. It is also not an invitation to buy/sell financial products. I am merely stating my opinion here. You have your own responsibility towards your investments. So I also assume no liability.
Before now the obligatory "HURR DURR You are Youtuber yourself and make shorts HURR DURR" I would like to give a few examples that, from my point of view, separate my content from those of so-called "financial Youtuber" and make it increasingly uncomfortable for me to call myself a financial Influencer. For legal as well as privacy-related reasons, I will refrain from naming the authors of these posts. However, I will choose such striking examples, which are unfortunately frequent in their abundance on Youtube.
Let's start with me and my favorite example. On a boring weekend I started with Getquin, got an account and first observed how this platform works. Relatively quickly I realized that it either has to be "Try it out with your own analytics" or alternatively "Check in occasionally and forget the app completely in 3 months". At the latest until the phone deletes the app itself due to non-use.
I decided to disclose my first analysis on Getquin. I was aware that I would have to face open criticism in an anonymous forum (at least in a larger sense) and therefore tried to retrieve the highest standard of my stock analysis at that time. At that time, because of my work and student background, I understood business basics like:
- Reading balance sheets
- understand and vaguely interpret cash flow statements
- Valuing stocks via quantitative methods
- Assess dividend policies
- Make industry comparisons & illuminate niches
What I was less familiar with at the time were getquinler preferences as well as individual stocks. But it was worth it to me. I wrote my first article and got 95% support. The remaining 5% told me so openly that I could still deliver more and go into more parameters.
What does that have to do with the topic?
Plenty. On Youtube I see this development thread "I dare to write something new, analyze a topic and am out for discussion" unfortunately only in the videos. The short format with its maximum of 60 seconds is often too little from my point of view for a well-founded analysis.
Yes, but most Youtubers use this as advertising for their channel, don't they?
So often I observe serious errors in the thematic processing, the definition of the goals of the short as well as the statements in the video.
A simple example: "THIS IS WHY STOCK X BELONGS IN EVERY PORTFOLIO NOW!"
I could really scream when I read something like that. Germany has only recently developed a young share culture, and various media houses have already taken a shot at the share pension (which is too low in my opinion). See source (1) from Spiegel.
So what exactly drives people to the interest-free savings book instead of the capital market? It is quite easy: Fear, ignorance and worries about the future. People simply don't trust the concept of the stock market. When it does work out, you end up with YouTube shorts like the one above.
What happens?
Rows of Youtube shorts have been released a few days before a technology company releases its quarterly results. Many with lurid titles like "Turnaround", "Great Opportunity" etc. A clear edge or demarcation from investment advice was no longer recognizable to me in any case. Something that I see extremely critical.
Especially young and inexperienced investors often run the risk of clicking on such windy videos in the hope of not having to think for themselves. You simply can not or do not have the desire or time to deal with these issues.
And what was then?
It came as it had to come. The share suffered such a setback that many speculators who had bought the share the day before suddenly suffered huge losses. As a result, the great "opportunity" and the "turnaround" based on the quarterly figures were over.
Unfortunately, the examples don't stop there.
Another popular illustration is usually the "best ETF" or the "best stocks".
Why are they the best financial products of their kind? Why is the curiosity of the viewers being played with again, while there is an immense investment risk? In my opinion, this is irresponsible and shows the wrong focus of the channel.
The concept is always the same and quite simple: "The choffeur from the deputy CEO has stubbed his toe - Why you need to act now?"
I also dislike the fact that general suggestions are completely thrown around here, regardless of portfolio structure, coloring statements at the lowest level that are so untenable. I would NEVER buy a stock based on the information content of a Youtube short. At best, this would be an impetus for further discussion or engagement with the topic.
But definitely it would not be what the video promises: a simple and short solution. If you know the meme with "comforting Lie" and "unpleasant Truth", you can already think about the topic here.
Why does Youtube make shorts at all?
Youtube is currently challenged to become active against the competition around TikTok. Apparently, the younger viewers are more interested in short content. There are already around 1.5 billion active Youtube users watching shorts every month. This doesn't have to be a bad thing - a lot of content can be used to show parts of a meme collection again or to highlight short SIMPLE questions from a video.
It's just that at the end of 2022, Youtube faced the question of whether these shorts should also run on TV, as they do on mobile. That was called (see (2)):
- Short with a maximum of 60 seconds
- Short video is mirrored on TV despite different formats
- The user does not need to select the next video
- Automatic display of the next content
In principle, those responsible express themselves relatively clearly. It is "a trend" that is "here to stay". That in itself is completely legitimate - but I think it is appropriate to discuss quality control on a financial level as well (cf. ibid.).
For each upload, individual points must be checked for monetization, such as "The video contains depictions of violence", "The video contains political views", etc. (cf. (4)).
Not included are statements such as "The video falls under gray investment advice". In other words, a video on the borderline of investment advice, which can be punishable under certain circumstances (cf. (3), (4)). For such reasons, among others, it is always immensely important to keep one's content correct and legally harmless.
It's no secret: there are industries on Youtube that are very well remunerated (e-commerce, finance) and some that are hardly monetized (gaming & art). Therefore, I consider it my duty to contrast this benefit with my objective performance.
This time I will refrain from linking to my current 100th Youtube video, as this topic is very close to my heart.
Thank you all for your great support here on Getquin & Youtube! Here's to the next posts and videos!
Your Bass-T
No investment advice
#share #aktien
#youtube
#youtubeshort
#alphabet
Sources
(4) https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851?hl=de&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid
