YouTube is Huge - and a Few Creators Are Getting Rich (aol.com) 16
"Google-owned YouTube's revenue last year was estimated to be $54.2 billion," reports the Los Angeles Times, "which would make it the second-largest media company behind Walt Disney Co., according to a recent report from research firm MoffettNathanson, which called YouTube 'the new king of all media.'"
YouTube, run by Chief Executive Neal Mohan since 2023, accounted for 12% of U.S. TV viewing in March, more than other rival streaming platforms including Netflix and Tubi, according to Nielsen... More people are watching YouTube on TV sets rather than on smartphones and computer screens, consuming more than 1 billion hours on average of YouTube content on TV daily, the company said on its website.
When YouTube first started its founders envisioned it as a dating site, according to the article, "where people would upload videos and score them. When that didn't work, the founders decided to open up the platform for all sorts of videos." And since this was 20 years ago, "Users drove traffic to YouTube by sharing videos on MySpace."
But the article includes stories of people getting rich through YouTube's sharing of ad revenue: Patrick Starrr, who produces makeup tutorial videos, said he made his first $1 million through YouTube at the age of 25. He left his job at retailer MAC Cosmetics in Florida and moved to L.A...
[Video creator Dhar Mann] started posting videos on YouTube in 2018 with no film background. Mann previously had a business that sold supplies to grow weed. Today, his company, Burbank-based Dhar Mann Studios, operates on 125,000 square feet of production space, employs roughly 200 people and works with 2,000 actors a year on family friendly programs that touch on how students and families deal with topics such as bullying, narcolepsy, chronic inflammatory bowel disease and hoarding. Mann made $45 million last year, according to Forbes estimates. The majority of his company's revenue comes through YouTube.
He tells the Times "I don't think it's just the future of TV — it is TV, and the world is catching on."
And then there's this... "My mom would always give me so much crap about it — she would say, 'Why do you want to do YouTube?'" said Chucky Appleby, now an executive at MrBeast. His reply: "Mom, you can make a living from this." MrBeast's holding company, Beast Industries, which employs more than 400 people, made $473 million in revenue last year, according to Business Insider. In the last 28 days, MrBeast content — which includes challenges and stunt videos — received 3.6 billion views on YouTube, Appleby said.
Appleby, 28, said he's since bought a Jeep for his mom.
When YouTube first started its founders envisioned it as a dating site, according to the article, "where people would upload videos and score them. When that didn't work, the founders decided to open up the platform for all sorts of videos." And since this was 20 years ago, "Users drove traffic to YouTube by sharing videos on MySpace."
But the article includes stories of people getting rich through YouTube's sharing of ad revenue: Patrick Starrr, who produces makeup tutorial videos, said he made his first $1 million through YouTube at the age of 25. He left his job at retailer MAC Cosmetics in Florida and moved to L.A...
[Video creator Dhar Mann] started posting videos on YouTube in 2018 with no film background. Mann previously had a business that sold supplies to grow weed. Today, his company, Burbank-based Dhar Mann Studios, operates on 125,000 square feet of production space, employs roughly 200 people and works with 2,000 actors a year on family friendly programs that touch on how students and families deal with topics such as bullying, narcolepsy, chronic inflammatory bowel disease and hoarding. Mann made $45 million last year, according to Forbes estimates. The majority of his company's revenue comes through YouTube.
He tells the Times "I don't think it's just the future of TV — it is TV, and the world is catching on."
And then there's this... "My mom would always give me so much crap about it — she would say, 'Why do you want to do YouTube?'" said Chucky Appleby, now an executive at MrBeast. His reply: "Mom, you can make a living from this." MrBeast's holding company, Beast Industries, which employs more than 400 people, made $473 million in revenue last year, according to Business Insider. In the last 28 days, MrBeast content — which includes challenges and stunt videos — received 3.6 billion views on YouTube, Appleby said.
Appleby, 28, said he's since bought a Jeep for his mom.
Sounds Like An Ad (Score:2)
Always showing me old content (Score:1)
I don't know why but in the last year, i'm seeing old content, like old tv shows or old videos I've seen before. Between the old garbage and the shorts the home page seldom has my interests.
I love The University of Youtube! (Score:5, Interesting)
I can see expert craftspeople demonstrating their craft as well as graduate-level math and physics courses
Best education tool ever!
I suspect that the vast majority of stuff on youtube is crap, but the fact that a tiny bit is great is all that matters to me
Re: I love The University of Youtube! (Score:2)
AI generated crap interrupted by AI generated ads. But there are a few organizations that seem to have found a good niche with good content at a reasonable pace and they get enough eyeballs to keep doing it.
Sometimes it's their primary business. Sometimes it's the social media marketing of their bricks and mortar business but it's done with love rather than cynicism. And occasionally it's a side hustle that grows enough legs to keep going.
Do it because you enjoy it (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't do it as to get rich.
If you enjoy making videos and sharing them, go for it! You may develop a following and make enough money to pay for your equipment. Few will make a living at it. Most won't make anything.
Plan accordingly.
Re:Do it because you enjoy it (Score:4, Informative)
YT is great. It hosts my videos, operates a forum for comments, and provides all sorts of analytics, in return for which I don't have to pay a single sheckel. I have no interest in monetization (and would be resentful if it tried to do so), in return for which YT does not insert ads into my content. If YT makes billions in return, that OK by me. Just don't let it show up on my tax return.
MrBeast (Score:4, Informative)
He managed to bootstrap his YouTube empire before Google became incredibly stingy with their revenue sharing policies. Nowadays, you're even less likely to replicate that sort of success. We are probably talking odds on the order of winning a lottery here, where attempting to hit the jackpot requires substantially less effort than spending most of your free time trying to game YouTube's algorithm.
TFS is also rather hilarious with someone who works for MrBeast championing YouTube as if it's capitalism's great equalizer, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he's just as likely to be the next MrBeast as someone sweeping the floors at a Tesla showroom is to being the next Elon Musk.
Re: (Score:2)
True, and it was difficult even back then too. Thousands of people trying to "make it" on YouTube and only a few being successful relative to that. And they grew at a time where YouTube wasn't as strict about the content that can be monetized or promoted.
Yeah I know nobody cares (Score:2)
Re: Yeah I know nobody cares (Score:2)
Google figured out how to get people paid (Score:4, Interesting)
At an early point in the development of the Internet, I was called in as a software consultant to prepare a technical recommendation on how to stop people stealing music using the Internet. The Internet, I told them, is the world's largest digital copying machine, and the only way to stop it from being used to copy music would be to build an anti-Internet of equal size. Since that is entirely impossible and ridiculous, you need to stop trying to figure out how to constrain distribution, and instead use it to your advantage to make money *by* distribution.
I was not asked back to complete that project.
Thankfully, Google figured out how to do exactly that. It made deals with the major licensing agencies. It added a way to automatically identify content so copyright holders could be properly credited. It gave copyright holders the choice of either suppressing their content or taking the ad revenue. It took several decades, but eventually it became clear that it made much more sense -- and much more money! -- to let Google allow the content but redirect the revenue. This wasn't always perfect, but it's getting better. If you are a premium subscriber, part of your fee gets distributed to copyright holders in the same way (and that's one of the reasons the fee is so large, comparatively.) Google itself takes a rational administrative cut, similar to the cut that managers and agents have taken in the business. And, they're working on adding a content creator subscription model, so that directed subscriptions can be sent to creators, and not just ad revenue shares.
Again, this has not been an easy transition. Some copyright holders, especially music, continue to hold onto the belief that they can make more money working outside YouTube. It's still way too easy to game Google's copyright Content ID system.
But the people at Google are pretty smart. YouTube is a global phenomenon, for good reason.
Re: (Score:3)
Google/YouTube just figured out a way to reorganize the studio/theater model in their favor. Today's content creators may be getting rich, but not like the Louis B. Mayers of the old days. Meanwhile, YouTube, basically the delivery service, adds little value to the product compared to old brick and mortar theaters. But they have managed to scrape most of the revenue out of the system.
Theoretically, any "studio" or digital content creator should be able to post their work on a web server and sell directly t
What, something like 2/3 of kids these days (Score:2)
want to be influencers?
Kinda like back in the day they wanted to be one of about 50 or 60 starting quarterbacks or NBA centers?
But then the rich nerds (all dozen or so of them*) stole the show and now everyone wants to be one of them?
*Let me count off the top of my head. Criteria are being rich, because of software or web, and widely known for it in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
Gates
Zuckerberg
Bezos
Brin and Page
Jobs
Yang?
Ma?
Bloomberg?
I don't even have twelve here. And I'm not sure people even remember Jerry Yan
The lottery is huge -- and a few players are... (Score:1)