The difference between YouTube, YouTube Red and RedTube

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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RedTube YouTube Red

YouTube is a well-known internet streaming service. It houses videos of all types that are free for you to watch in the privacy of your home. It’s one of the world’s most popular websites.

RedTube is a well-known internet streaming service. It has pornographic videos of all types, that you are free to watch in the privacy of your home. You can pay RedTube around $10 a month to get special member benefits. It’s one of the world’s most popular websites.

You probably don’t want to get YouTube and RedTube mixed up. It could be embarrassing.

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Meanwhile, YouTube Red is an internet streaming service. It’s a new part of YouTube, which requires you to pay around $10 a month to get special member benefits.

Now… what I want to know is:

What wombat in Google’s marketing department thought it was a good idea to call YouTube’s new service, YouTube Red?

It’s hard to ignore that YouTube appears to have named its new service after a porn site.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

14 comments on “The difference between YouTube, YouTube Red and RedTube”

  1. Gulraj

    I don't understand why you consider it so inappropriate. After all, what do you suppose the member "benefits" are going to be?

    1. coyote · in reply to Gulraj

      There is not a single thing in his post that suggests he think it is inappropriate. Questioning the logic behind it is another matter entirely, but that doesn't have to be about whether it is appropriate. Unless you mean appropriate naming, in which case I think the answer is obvious – it is something that many could mix up and this would matter even if redtube wasn't what it is (why add confusion for the user-base ?). It's sort of like government agencies that include intelligence in their names (MI5, CIA, etc.) – they could probably be better named.

      1. stooblox · in reply to coyote

        I kinda read what he said as a joke. You know, cause it's a video site with "benefits" *wink*

        Therefore the name would be totally appropriate in relation to anyone's mixing the two up, lol.

  2. Fred

    May be "Azure" on "Blue" wold be more appropriate

  3. JustinCredible

    Reminds me of the funny domain for Powergen in Italy. I'm not sure if they still don't get that www.powergenitalia.com could easily be misconstrued

    1. JustinCredible · in reply to JustinCredible

      Ah looks like that one's been taken down now :)

  4. Andy

    Maybe YouTube should allow porn on this new service. What do they have to lose? YouTube is a break even business. It could be all of the 60fps and live streaming porn you want and none of the malvertising that comes from xhamster, redtube, and xvideos. Porn is one of the few freemium models that actually gets people to pay. For the YouTube stars going behind this new paywall, I wonder what's going to happen to them? Are people going care about exclusive content and no ads? How many of Pew Die Pie's thong of 14 year old viewer are going to pony up $10/mo?

  5. coyote

    'What wombat in Google's marketing department thought it was a good idea to call YouTube's new service, YouTube Red?'

    I don't know but I suppose if they had to explain it, they could use the excuse that it was a Chinese (or Russian) cracker (since they have an affinity to red and since Google participates in blame games, why not?) that manipulated them. It might convince a few people.

    'It's hard to ignore that YouTube appears to have named its new service after a porn site.'

    Publicity stunt ? I'm not sure I want to know what Google is up to (as a general rule) but until they reveal what those things are, there is no since fussing over it (and even then there probably isn't because they don't care what others think).

  6. Peter

    Well, I suppose this is a deliberate marketing trick by Google. You can imagine how many people are discussing this now, and eventually it might become a viral marketing message.

    1. Graham CluleyGraham Cluley · in reply to Peter

      Yeah, because they need help getting high up in the search rankings and don't have access to an advertising platform to help them get the word out there. :)

      1. David L · in reply to Graham Cluley

        Commence the eye rolling (-; right?

        The answer to your ending question is…..
        One or more YouTube employee's moonlight at, and or, are consumers of RedTube.

        As for me, I needed to know the difference, (as stated in the title) because I had never heard of RedTube before today! So thanks for educating the innocent.

  7. Troy S.

    Here's a scenerio for you all,
    >Innocent Little Johnny ask his mother Can I watch a movie on umm what's that new site Redtube?

    >Sure Johnny…No wait… No Johnny! Turn off that TV!

    This could be played out at any household. Just in time for the Holidays.

    I really think Google new what they were doing.

  8. MIs4iru

    And what if they named it YouTube Red, because they have red logo, their website are all in red and white color and so on. Nobody thought??!!
    (Btw. sorry for my bad english…)

  9. Athena

    In that case, better name it YouTube Candy Cane because of the red and white stripes on a candy cane?

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