YouTube CEO Neal Mohan is not worried about Netflix poaching his top creators. His argument: the most successful YouTubers built their identities on the platform and will not walk away from it.
The claim has a specific logic behind it. Mohan is betting that creator-platform co-dependence runs too deep to break. The audience, the algorithm, the monetization stack, all of it is YouTube-native. Moving to Netflix means starting over in a format that does not reward the same behaviors.
The piece is worth reading for what Mohan does not say. He gives no data on creator retention, no response to the deals Netflix has already signed, and no acknowledgment of what those deals are worth. His confidence may be justified. It may also be a CEO performing calm he does not feel.
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