Why YouTube Does Not Have a Download Button

There could be many reasons why you would want to download YouTube videos. It is possible that you may want to add some videos to your collection or you may want to watch it when you are offline. You may also have plans to edit and use the video in your own project. YouTube currently does not provide an option to download its videos, which is really intriguing to many people. The most common argument is that when one can watch the video for free on YouTube, then why it can’t be downloaded. Well, there are good reasons for this, which people are usually not aware. This is why they tend to complain. To view things in the right perspective, let’s take a look at some of the key reasons why YouTube does not have a download button.

Advertisement revenue

One of the top reasons why YouTube does not provide a download button is that it reduces the traffic to the website. For example, if you like a video, you will probably watch it multiple times on YouTube. In the future, you will come back and watch it again, may be in the next week, next month or in the years that follow. But if there’s a download feature, you would probably download the video and watch it directly on your computer or mobile device. This in turn will reduce traffic to YouTube and limit its advertising revenue.Now, just think about millions of users like you doing this every day and you can imagine the significant loss of advertising revenue that YouTube will have to face. It will majorly hurt YouTube’s business model and make it unprofitable. Most other video streaming websites such as Facebook, Vimeo, Metacafe, Dailymotion, etc. follow a similar business model and don’t allow video downloads.

Copyright issues

Not allowing users to download YouTube videos is also because of copyright issues. The creators of the videos are willing to allow people to watch and share their videos, but they may not be willing to allow people to download and edit such videos. If a download option is provided on YouTube, it can create major copyright issues. Since the downloaded videos could be edited and used in any manner possible, it would create copyright and legal issues. And there would be very little that creators could do since it would be extremely difficult to take action against the people who may have edited and misrepresented or misused the video.

Change of ownership

If YouTube provides a download button, a user can download several videos and upload these on their own website. They can claim ownership of the videos and start earning money through advertising revenues. This will again reduce YouTube’s traffic and its advertising revenue.

Despite the efforts made by YouTube to protect its content, videos and audio are still being downloaded via third party download service providers. For example, you can visit sites such as www.vdyoutube.com, www.keepdownloading.com, etc. to download any YouTube videos you want in just a few clicks. You can also use VLC Player to download YouTube videos. Such YouTube video download services are mostly free, which is good for users, but bad for YouTube’s business.

However, the average user will not know such things. Moreover, many users would not be comfortable with using free YouTube video download sites, as there’s always the risk of compromising the security of the computer when clicking on unverified links. This is why not providing a download button makes sense and helps YouTube to protect its advertising revenue and its business model.