Aubrium Blog
YouTube by the numbers — revenue, reach, and the claims you cannot check
Alphabet reports over $60 billion in annual revenue. Pew finds 84% of US adults use it. YouTube claims 540,000 jobs. Here is what the filings actually say.
You are a cold item: what Instagram's own documents say about a new post
X by the numbers: what the platform will say, and what it will not
Where a clip travels furthest: Shorts vs Reels vs TikTok
What you cannot do when you don't post from the app
What actually travels
The largest study of its kind found false stories spread faster, farther and deeper than true ones. Not because of bots. Because people respond to novelty and emotion.
The watermark penalty: recycling your TikToks to Reels
Instagram has said three times, in public, that it will not recommend reels carrying a visible watermark. TikTok's version sits in a developer page almost nobody reads. Neither platform will tell you how big the penalty is.
Watch-time optimization rewired what gets made
When platforms started ranking by retention, content changed. The two-second hook. The split-screen sludge. The ban on slow starts. This is how one ranking signal reshaped the grammar of short video, and what the research says it cost.
Watch time is not one number — the system cards define it eight ways
Adam Mosseri calls watch time a top-three ranking signal. Meta's own system cards define it at least eight different ways, across three surfaces, with no published weights. The metric everyone optimizes for is not a single metric.
Does paying for verification actually boost your reach?
The platforms made big claims about what a checkmark does for you. We read what they actually published, found the one randomized test that ran, and isolated what nobody can verify.
Trial Reels is a free A/B test and nobody uses it as one
Instagram hands you a randomized exposure experiment with metrics at 24 hours. The internet treats it as a growth hack instead of the measurement tool it actually is.
Where to start
Every article sits in exactly one category, and every category has one place to start.Formats & Craft
What to make — reels, carousels, hooks, thumbnails, watch time, testing.
Evidence & Myths
Research and debunking — social-proof studies, “post daily”, predictability.
Platforms & Industry
Cross-platform dossiers, IG history, DMs and search as discovery, verification.
Distribution
How a post actually reaches people — ranking, reach, cold start, what travels.
Rules & Policy
Platform rules and law — shadowbans, engagement bait, AI labels, reposts.
Browse by category
Watch-time optimization rewired what gets made
When platforms started ranking by retention, content changed. The two-second hook. The split-screen sludge. The ban on slow starts. This is how one ranking signal reshaped the grammar of short video, and what the research says it cost.
Watch time is not one number — the system cards define it eight ways
Adam Mosseri calls watch time a top-three ranking signal. Meta's own system cards define it at least eight different ways, across three surfaces, with no published weights. The metric everyone optimizes for is not a single metric.
Trial Reels is a free A/B test and nobody uses it as one
Instagram hands you a randomized exposure experiment with metrics at 24 hours. The internet treats it as a growth hack instead of the measurement tool it actually is.
Does paying for verification actually boost your reach?
The platforms made big claims about what a checkmark does for you. We read what they actually published, found the one randomized test that ran, and isolated what nobody can verify.
Trending audio on Instagram: the most repeated myth in the creator economy
Every creator is told to chase trending sounds. The Reels system card lists audio signals, but they measure whether you engage with audio, not whether the audio itself is popular.
Who engages matters more than how many
A study of 54 million invitations found that five signals from five separate corners of your life beat five from one clique. The catch: it measured website sign-ups, not Instagram reach.
YouTube by the numbers — revenue, reach, and the claims you cannot check
Alphabet reports over $60 billion in annual revenue. Pew finds 84% of US adults use it. YouTube claims 540,000 jobs. Here is what the filings actually say.
X by the numbers: what the platform will say, and what it will not
The first audited user count in four years arrived in a rocket company's IPO filing. Here is what changed, what we can verify, and what still has no source.
Social media by the numbers: the master dossier
Every platform, every user count, every source checked. The one cross-platform reference built from primary documents, updated for 2025.
You are a cold item: what Instagram's own documents say about a new post
Everyone repeats that Instagram tests a new post on 500 people. That number is in no Meta document we could find. The 500 Meta does publish counts posts, not people.
Where a clip travels furthest: Shorts vs Reels vs TikTok
The same 30-second clip meets three different engines. One ignores your follower count, one ranks by it, and one publishes almost nothing. A comparison built only from what the platforms themselves publish.
What actually travels
The largest study of its kind found false stories spread faster, farther and deeper than true ones. Not because of bots. Because people respond to novelty and emotion.
What you cannot do when you don't post from the app
Publishing through Instagram's API is not penalized. It is limited. Shopping tags, story stickers, most of the music library and mid-flight collaborator changes do not work. Here is the documented list, taken off Meta's own pages.
The watermark penalty: recycling your TikToks to Reels
Instagram has said three times, in public, that it will not recommend reels carrying a visible watermark. TikTok's version sits in a developer page almost nobody reads. Neither platform will tell you how big the penalty is.
The shadowban you can actually check
Instagram publishes a recommendation eligibility status you can see right now. The folklore version of the shadowban has no evidence behind it.
Deep reads
18+ min read
Stories is not Feed, and almost nobody researches it
Every guide is about Reels and Feed. Stories runs on a different system with different signals, and it is the one surface built to reach people who already follow you.
The complete history of Instagram
How a chronological photo app for friends became an algorithmic video feed that mostly shows you strangers. Fifteen years of announcements, acquisitions and reversals, each one dated and sourced.
Carousels vs reels vs static: the format showdown, settled with mechanics
Instagram's Feed card documents a carousel-specific prediction that does not exist for a static post. Here is what Meta's own ranking documents, and two studies covering millions of posts, say about which format to reach for.
