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The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Martin Vassilev makes a good living selling fake views on YouTube videos. Working from home in Ottawa, he has sold about 15 million views so far this year, putting him on track to bring in more than $200,000, records show. Mr. Vassilev, 32, does not provide the views himself. His website, 500Views.com, connects customers with services that offer views, likes and dislikes generated by computers, not humans. When a supplier cannot fulfill an order, Mr. Vassilev -- like a modern switchboard operator -- quickly connects with another. "I can deliver an unlimited amount of views to a video," Mr. Vassilev said in an interview. "They've tried to stop it for so many years, but they can't stop it. There's always a way around."
[...] Just as other social media companies have been plagued by impostor accounts and artificial influence campaigns, YouTube has struggled with fake views for years. The fake-view ecosystem of which Mr. Vassilev is a part can undermine YouTube's credibility by manipulating the digital currency that signals value to users. While YouTube says fake views represent just a tiny fraction of the total, they still have a significant effect by misleading consumers and advertisers.
[...] Just as other social media companies have been plagued by impostor accounts and artificial influence campaigns, YouTube has struggled with fake views for years. The fake-view ecosystem of which Mr. Vassilev is a part can undermine YouTube's credibility by manipulating the digital currency that signals value to users. While YouTube says fake views represent just a tiny fraction of the total, they still have a significant effect by misleading consumers and advertisers.
Fake views are a thing since before YouTube or even Googke even existed. I remember guys at every big dotcom bubble era company setting up bots at their home computers in 1999.
Then ad companies started to demand beacons and track IP adresses. After which botnet services sprung up. Often owned by those very employees. (One was by a "friend" of mine, and used all CounterStrike servers, since he had a super-popular CS mod.)
I am not the least bit surprised that YT views are as fake all all reviews on all shopping sites and IMDB since forever.
(In the past, it helped to train an expert system / bayesian filter, to only count those who actually made real comments. Today, the bots make better comments than the so-called real humans.)
I am amazed the internet still values "views" and "clicks". Until advertisers stop placing value on such stupid metrics, this is going to be a problem. They should be focusing on actual sales and paying people based on that.
If you had a car dealership where instead of commission for sales, the sales people were paid based on how many people came in to look at cars, you bet there would be rampant fraud there as well.
You need to offer the same proof of identity and eligibility In order to work legally, as would be required to participate in elections. You've just debunked yourself, coward.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I'd be happy if Youtube just stopped paying for views. The quality of the videos would go up and we'd have fewer people making their careers from posting fluff and begging for subscriptions.