Despite having more users than Meta or even Google Search, YouTube's ad revenue per user rests at $39. That is one tenth what Meta garners ($385) and closer to much smaller platforms like Pinterest ($33), according to EMARKETER.

Common Claims

I hear three common claims to why spend is low on YouTube, from least to most plausible:

3. YouTube is unsafe for brands. But this is very solvable. Many partners curate publisher lists (Zefr, DoubleVerify, Channel Factory, Mobian, Sightly, etc.) and you can DIY it if you're willing to dig.

2. YouTube does not drive performance. I agree that it is not a click-y environment, but years of MMM and search lift studies show real sales contribution. Sometimes eye-popping contributions.

1. YouTube buys live inside search teams or programmatic teams. There is no YouTube buying practice at any company. Within search or programmatic teams, YouTube can't compete with real-time intent signals or cheaper OLV inventory.

The Real Ceiling

My bet: it's where YouTube sits on the org chart that's the real ceiling on spend. And the needed 3rd parties for added brand safety just dampen it even more.

Final Thoughts

YouTube has massive reach but ad spend doesn't match up. The platform's placement within org structures, not performance concerns, likely holds it back the most. Brand safety tools exist, and the data shows real results. It's an organizational problem, not a platform problem.

For brands looking to diversify their digital strategy, understanding where platforms sit in your buying structure matters. Meta's moves in the streaming space show how the big players are thinking about these dynamics.

What do you think is holding YouTube back?

Here are three fundamental reasons to stay optimistic about where AI is heading.

Aligned Incentives

ChatGPT wants advertisers to spend $100B/year on ads in three years from now. That means ChatGPT's incentives are highly aligned with a flourishing SMB economy. A "big brands only" dystopia won't get them there. When the business model depends on small and medium businesses thriving, that's a good sign for the broader economy.

Slop Backlash

AI slop proliferation appears to reduce people's time spent on the sloppiest platforms. Early warning signs might be flashing for Reddit and LinkedIn here. It's not too late for them to change course. "Dead internet" isn't inevitable. People are already voting with their attention, and platforms will have to adapt. This is similar to how TikTok's rapid growth forced other platforms to rethink their content strategies.

Self-Commodifying Power

"As we approach more powerful intelligence, the ability to train powerful models is self commodifying rather than building a huge and runaway advantage for a handful of recursive self improvers. This is one reason why you should expect almost all of the benefits of superintelligence to be captured by the public."

In other words, the technology isn't concentrating power in fewer hands. It's spreading out.

The Takeaway

There are always shadows on the horizon. But the reasons to be optimistic are fundamental and durable. Business incentives favor a thriving economy. Users are rejecting low-quality content. And the technology itself trends toward democratization rather than monopoly.

These aren't just hopeful wishes. They're structural features of how AI is developing right now.

Keep these in mind the next time the conversation turns pessimistic.

The Numbers

In the US, Reddit usage is nearly 50% larger than ChatGPT with a far higher average session length. And Reddit is growing while ChatGPT's historic growth era seemed to end about 6 months ago.

Authentic Voices

Reddit is the highest volume corpus of natural, authentic, human voice written content in history. I don't even think a future firehose of TikTok or Meta data could replace that applicability that comes from the unique back and forth of content and comments on Reddit. Those other platforms' give-and-take of feedback is far shallower.

Search Behavior

Looking at Google Trends, which is an imperfect barometer, shows that people still Google "reddit" far more than they Google "chatgpt" because real humans know that is where the content is.

Personal Experience

In short, ChatGPT would be diminished significantly without Reddit more than the other way around.

I recently switched from paying for ChatGPT and moved to Claude. But the thing I miss most about ChatGPT is its real sense of humor and pseudo-humanity, which undoubtedly comes from its Reddit access. Claude seriously lacks this.

Who Holds Power?

The party with the power here is Reddit. They are the firmer base to build and understand your business and voice. But of course that might not last forever either.

Kelsey is correct though. Deal terms change and we could find ourselves in a future where ChatGPT and Reddit part ways. But then I'm sure Claude or Google would happily pick it up.

Final Thoughts

Reddit holds the leverage in this relationship because it owns the most valuable asset: authentic human conversation at massive scale. ChatGPT's personality and usefulness depend heavily on that training data. And if the partnership ends, other AI players would be quick to step in.

The real question isn't whether AI needs social platforms. It's which platform owns the most genuine human voice. Right now, that's Reddit.

What do you think about the future of AI and social media partnerships?

The Results

I got 9 actual temperature answers and 22 dodges. That is a 70% failure rate at even generating an answer. When I ask the same question within Gemini itself, it gave me a temp for every date, but in Google Sheets it failed miserably.

The Pattern

This is my experience with AI most of the time. Occasional breakthroughs and depth, with something missing. It's the new uncanny valley. True agentic action feels just as far away today as it did a year ago. I am still stuck in sandbox mode here.

It reminds me of other platforms that promise seamless integration but fall short in practice. Even established tools like Pinterest have their own quirks when it comes to delivering consistent results across different use cases.

What's Next

Is there a tool or better approach here that could improve reliability? The gap between what AI can do in a standalone chat versus what it delivers inside productivity tools remains frustrating. Much like the disconnect we see in big tech integrations, the promise and the reality don't always match up.

Conclusion

AI in spreadsheets showed a 70% failure rate on a simple temperature query. The same question worked fine in Gemini's chat interface but broke down inside Google Sheets. True agentic AI still feels far away.

We keep seeing occasional breakthroughs mixed with fundamental gaps. Until these tools can deliver consistent results across platforms, we're stuck in sandbox mode.

Have you found a better approach to getting reliable AI results in spreadsheets? Share your experience with me by reaching out.

Kevin Kelly defines it as content created in the same medium it's consumed in. Think Minority Report-style AR/VR experiences.

But the concept extends far beyond science fiction, and it's reshaping how we think about digital advertising.

Platform-Native Ads

Now apply that to ads: Google, Meta, and TikTok increasingly "finish" creative inside the platform.

Auto-remixes, overlays, templates, effects. The platforms keep layering on enhancements until the original idea is barely recognizable.

Remember the True Classic "Grandma," anyone?

The Ingenic Lens

That's the ingenic lens at work. These enhancements aren't really made by creatives or experienced by humans. They're native to the platform, optimized for the platform, and most legible to the platform itself.

The creative you upload is just a starting point. What users actually see is something the algorithm has remixed and reassembled for maximum platform performance. Platforms like Meta are becoming co-creators whether marketers like it or not.

What This Means

Ingenic content represents a fundamental shift in creative control. Your ads aren't just distributed by platforms. They're transformed by them. Understanding this dynamic is essential for anyone creating content in today's digital landscape.

The platforms have their own creative agenda, and it's optimized for their metrics, not necessarily yours.

Keep "ingenic" in your vocabulary as you plan your next campaign. It might change how you think about what you're really uploading.

Authentic Content

People go to Reddit for real authentic human content. It's the last place on earth to find that at scale. That's why we've all learned to +Reddit into our Google and ChatGPT queries and why Reddit has grown so much these last two years.

The Real Power Dynamic

When Reddit comes out with new tools like Reddit Max or we learn about Reddit having deals with Google or ChatGPT, it feels like Reddit is an AI dependent, AI-coded company. But the reality is that Google and ChatGPT need Reddit, not the other way around.

This dynamic is quite different from how other platforms like Pinterest position themselves in the market.

Unlimited Growth

Reddit's future growth is unlimited because of this, as long as they don't let the AI dilute that core thing that makes Reddit special to begin with.

The Authenticity Question

It's correct to point out that there is a lot of inauthentic content on Reddit, and it's growing. The reality is that exists pretty much everywhere online, even LinkedIn. But Reddit also has the most authentic content online. Nowhere else even comes close.

While TikTok and other platforms compete for attention, Reddit's human-first content remains its strongest asset.

Conclusion

Reddit is positioned to become the most important US social platform by leveraging its authentic human content. The platform sits at the center of the Anti-AI economy, where Google and ChatGPT depend on Reddit's content rather than the reverse. The key to continued growth lies in protecting what makes Reddit special.

As AI-generated content floods other platforms, Reddit's value as a source of real human conversation only increases. This advantage compounds over time.

Watch Reddit's trajectory closely as authenticity becomes the internet's most valuable currency.

Keep reading below for more.

My Top 5

Here are my top 5 moments.

I've written more about this in I Tested AI in Google Sheets and Got a 70% Failure Rate.

1. Circle of Life” is the greatest single song achievement of any show of all time. Bring kids.
2. All of Operation Mincemeat.
3. Cole Escola in Oh, Mary.
4. The first half of Beetlejuice.
5. The rest of Lion King, Gracie and Clyde Lawrence in All Out, Ike Barinholtz in All Out (as Clobbo), Kaleigh Cronin as the understudy for Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her, and James Taylor Odom as Wadsworth in Clue at The New Theater.

Conclusion

The gap in quality between NYC and non-NYC productions is nonexistent. You can be amazed anywhere.

Looking back at these moments, live theater delivered some of the most memorable experiences of my year.

The key takeaway? Great theater isn't confined to one location. The talent, the creativity, and the unforgettable moments are waiting to be discovered in theaters everywhere.

The Numbers

On a current YouTube campaign, the 40% of my spend that went to TV screens drove 60% of my video views. That's not just efficiency. That's a massive gap between investment and return. Those TV CPMs are even cheaper than my mobile, desktop, and tablet CPMs. You're paying less and getting more.

The Impact

The average TV screen YouTube view is significantly more impactful, memorable than the same view on a mobile device. People lean back on the couch. They watch with focus. They're not scrolling through three other apps at the same time. The attention quality is completely different.

The Value

YouTube ads on TVs may be simultaneously the most valuable and undervalued place to run ads in 2025. YouTube is the dominant player in CTV advertising. They've already won this space. Meanwhile, there is no material way to deliver Meta ads on TV screens.

The Opportunity

Advertisers would likely seize the opportunity if Meta presented it. Brands already trust Meta's targeting and measurement. They already spend billions on the platform. If Meta could deliver that same power on TV screens, it would be an instant win. Roku gives them that path.

This connects to another shift I've been watching—the coming awakening of TikTok's ad revenue.

Conclusion

TV screens deliver better engagement, better recall, and better ROI than mobile devices. YouTube has already proven this with CTV advertising, dominating a space that's both high-value and underpriced. Meta, despite all its advertising power, has no meaningful presence on TV screens.

That's a massive gap. Advertisers want it. The performance data supports it. Roku could be the bridge that gets Meta into the living room and onto the screens where attention actually matters.

Meta should buy Roku before someone else does.

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The Vulnerability

Here's why Pinterest is uniquely vulnerable. Pinterest is the last major platform prioritizing static content, and static content is cheaper to fake than video. While other platforms lean into video, Pinterest has stayed committed to images and static posts. That makes it an easy target for AI-generated content.

No Shortcuts

There's another problem: no easy repurposing. Brands can't just reuse short-form videos from TikTok, Reels, or Snap. Authentic Pinterest content requires more time, cost, and effort. You have to create specifically for the platform, and that takes work.

The Temptation

Making excellent, original static content for Pinterest is hard. This makes AI-generated content too tempting for publishers to resist, leading to an overwhelming flood of artificial, uninspiring slop. When creating quality content is expensive and time-consuming, but AI can pump out thousands of pins in minutes, the choice becomes obvious for many publishers.

The Love

I love Pinterest. The people. The app. During peak COVID, it was my antidote to doomscrolling. It was a place to find real inspiration, real ideas, and real creativity. That's what makes this shift so disappointing.

The Future

I also believe Pinterest can stop this, but I'm not sure if they can see it. Revenue is up. Users are up. But not as much as its peers'. The numbers might look good enough to avoid urgent action, but the user experience is quietly degrading. The question is whether Pinterest will address the AI content problem before users start losing trust completely.

Conclusion

Pinterest faces a unique challenge. As the last major platform built on static content, it's become the easiest target for AI-generated slop. The lack of repurposing options from other platforms means creating authentic Pinterest content takes real effort, making the shortcut of AI too attractive to resist.

The platform still has loyal users and growing revenue, but the flood of artificial content is eroding what made Pinterest special in the first place. Pinterest has the power to fix this, but only if they recognize the problem before the damage becomes permanent.

If you love Pinterest like I do, now's the time to hope they take action before every pin becomes suspect.

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The Hesitation

TikTok has always had the audience. Users are engaged, scrolling, and ready to buy. But advertisers? They've been sitting on the sidelines. The hesitation comes from national security concerns and a general misunderstanding of how the platform works creatively.

Add in some political pressure, and you've got big brands playing it safe instead of going all in.

The Prediction

Here's what's coming: this new presidential administration will likely bring a moment of TikTok normalization that will basically end that suppressed state of TikTok spend.

When the floodgates of ad dollars open, putting TikTok on a more normal competitive footing with Meta, we'll see the fastest shift in ad spend ever.

The Numbers

The math tells the story. Meta has 21.5x more ad revenue than TikTok but Meta only has 3x as many users in the US than TikTok. That gap is enormous. When perception of TikTok shifts from risky to normal, ad budgets will follow fast. This is the scenario Meta has wanted to avoid.

The Shift

2025 might just be the year TikTok finally takes a meaningful bite out of Meta's share, and it won't be a small one. Once advertisers feel safe, the money will move quickly. The suppressed spending will catch up all at once, creating one of the fastest shifts in advertising history.

Conclusion

TikTok has been ready for advertiser dollars for years. The audience engagement is there, the platform works, but the perception hasn't caught up. Once that changes, and advertisers see TikTok as a normal part of their media mix instead of a risky bet, the spending will flood in fast.

Meta's massive revenue advantage isn't matched by an equally massive user advantage. That imbalance won't last once TikTok normalizes. The shift could reshape digital advertising faster than anything we've seen before.

Keep your eye on TikTok's ad revenue in 2025—it might be the year everything changes.

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As someone who sees theater as both entertainment and art, I discovered something profound this year—the gap in quality between NYC and non-NYC productions has essentially vanished. You can be amazed anywhere, and that democratization of theatrical excellence is something worth celebrating.

My Top 5 Theatrical Moments of 2025

1. "Circle of Life" - The Greatest Opening Number Ever Created

I'll say it without hesitation: "Circle of Life" from The Lion King is the greatest single song achievement of any show of all time. From the moment that first note echoes through the theater to the parade of spectacular puppetry flooding the aisles, it's transcendent. If you have children, this is non-negotiable viewing. If you don't have children, go anyway. This opening number alone justifies the ticket price and reminds you why live theater exists.

2. Operation Mincemeat - Complete Theatrical Brilliance

Sometimes a show just works on every conceivable level. Operation Mincemeat was that rare theatrical experience where I couldn't identify a single weak moment. The entire production—from concept to execution, from performance to pacing—was exceptional. It's proof that when creative teams are perfectly aligned and firing on all cylinders, magic happens on stage.

3. Cole Escola's Performance in Oh, Mary!

Cole Escola in Oh, Mary! delivered one of those performances that people will talk about for years. There's a particular alchemy that happens when an actor is so perfectly cast, so completely inhabiting a role, that you forget you're watching a performance at all. Escola achieved that rare feat, creating a theatrical moment that felt both hilarious and utterly authentic.

4. Beetlejuice's First Half - Comedy Timing Perfection

The first half of Beetlejuice reminded me why musical comedy is such a difficult art form to master. When it works, it's electric. The pacing, the performances, and the sheer audacity of bringing this bizarre property to the stage came together beautifully in those opening acts, creating genuine theatrical joy.

5. The Ensemble of Excellence

Sometimes it's not one moment but a collection of exceptional performances that define a theater year. For me, that included:

• The remainder of The Lion King (because one song can't contain all that show offers)
• Gracie and Clyde Lawrence in All Out
• Ike Barinholtz as Clobbo in All Out
• Kaleigh Cronin as the understudy for Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her (proving that understudies can be revelatory)
• James Taylor Odom as Wadsworth in Clue at The New Theater

The Democratization of Theatrical Excellence

Here's what struck me most profoundly this year: the quality gap between New York City productions and regional theater has effectively disappeared. James Taylor Odom's performance in Clue at The New Theater wasn't "good for a regional production"—it was simply excellent, period. No qualifiers needed.

This shift matters for several reasons. First, it means that theatrical excellence is accessible to more people in more places. You don't need to travel to Broadway to experience world-class performances. Second, it reflects the incredible depth of talent in the American theater community. And third, it suggests that regional theaters are investing in production values, direction, and casting in ways that rival the biggest stages.

Why "Unnecessary" Expenses Matter Most

I called theater my favorite "unnecessary" expense, but that framing deserves examination. In a strictly utilitarian sense, live theater is unnecessary—it doesn't provide food, shelter, or transportation. But in every meaningful human sense, it's essential.

Live theater offers something increasingly rare in our digital age: a shared, unrepeatable experience. Every performance is unique. The energy between audience and performers creates something that can never be exactly replicated. In a world of streaming, recording, and instant replay, that ephemerality is precious.

Moreover, investing in live arts supports entire ecosystems of creative professionals—actors, directors, designers, technicians, musicians, and countless others who dedicate their lives to creating these experiences. When we buy theater tickets, we're not just purchasing entertainment; we're sustaining an art form.

The Value of Cultural Investment

As we navigate financial decisions in an uncertain economy, it's tempting to cut discretionary spending first. But I'd argue that targeted cultural investments—whether theater, concerts, museums, or other arts—provide returns that compound in unexpected ways.

These experiences shape how we think, expand our empathy, introduce us to new perspectives, and connect us to our communities. They're conversations starters, memory makers, and sources of joy that extend far beyond the immediate experience.

The key word is "targeted." I'm not advocating reckless spending, but rather intentional allocation of resources toward experiences that genuinely enrich your life. For me, that's live theater. For you, it might be something different—but identifying those "unnecessary" expenses that provide disproportionate value is one of the most important financial decisions you can make.

Looking Ahead

As we move further into 2025 and beyond, I'm committed to continuing this particular "unnecessary" expense. The theatrical moments I experienced this year weren't just entertainment—they were reminders of what human creativity can achieve when given the resources, support, and audiences it deserves.

If you've been considering seeing a show but hesitating because it feels frivolous, I encourage you to reconsider. Find a production that interests you, whether it's in New York, your hometown, or anywhere in between. The gap in quality is nonexistent. You can be amazed anywhere. And that amazement? That's worth every penny.