YouTubers

  How YouTube Shook Up TV and Created a New Generation of Stars


                                     By This Book: 

                 
         
About the Author

Chris Stokel-Walker is a British journalist and expert in digital culture.

_Summary

Google bought YouTube in 2006. It now has 1.9 billion registered users.

Google started developing a video streaming platform back in 2005, but start-up YouTube arrived first. YouTube focused initially on building “reach,” often to the detriment of copyright holders at the time. Clips of copyrighted material, quirky animations and home videos transfixed viewers, who watched vlogs – that is, video blogs – of their favorite “YouTubers” and interacted by liking the creators’ films, commenting and subscribing to their channels. Google bought YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion. By 2019, it’s worth grew to $140 billion.

“YouTube is like a video encyclopedia, the sum of human knowledge in easily digestible form.”

YouTube’s user content represents a paradigm shift for the production industry. In 2007, YouTube expanded globally and launched an ad revenue program that enabled YouTube broadcasters to make a living. Creators from 90 countries now receive revenue from YouTube. Being a YouTube “influencer,” a person who continually uploads video content that others want to see, is an enterprise many people aspire to join. Users already upload approximately 576,000 hours of content daily from all but three countries;: North Korea, China and Iran block YouTube.

YouTube’s algorithm drives the platform. Its recommend function dramatically increases viewing time.

YouTube’s algorithm entices viewers to watch the next video it recommends. This has

increased time spent on the platform by 20 times since 2015. But creators face a variety of issues. For instance, YouTube changes the rules often, which frustrates people trying to build a business on the channel. Tweaks to the code can throw videos out of the recommending algorithm, which means those creators lose money. In April 2018, a 38-year-old Iranian, Nasim Aghdam, shot at YouTube employees outside the company’s headquarters, claiming that its changes to the algorithms had discriminated against her. She wounded three workers before killing herself.

“It’s now too late to do much about YouTube’s worst legacy: the creation of a generation with a distrust of commonly held beliefs.”

To add to the confusion about finding and posting the content you want, creators sometimes remake similar content to replicate past success. Fringe content also thrives. For example, the David Zublick Channel reports that former US president George H.W. Bush was executed and that Hillary Clinton died in 2016. In response to advertisers who pulled ads when YouTube displayed conspiracy theories, it has removed jihadist content, child pornography and hate speech. As of January 2019, YouTube said it was tweaking its algorithm to avoid recommending conspiracy videos. But, in YouTube’s lexicon, this content isn’t false; it’s “borderline.”

YouTubers earn ad revenue based on video views, which video creators supplement with sponsorship and merchandising.

Advertisers track the hottest YouTubers who post the most viral content. The crucial metric is average views per video. Certain niche creators with dedicated fans are more appealing to advertisers than YouTube superstars who’ve grown too big to interact with fans. If your videos break the 1,000-viewer mark, you’re considered a “nano-influencer.” Beyond 10,000 views and  up to 25,000 views per video, you’re a “micro-influencer.” Greater than that, you become an “elite influencer” or “macro influencer.”

“Amazon statistics show that companies that connect videos to their account[s] get 30% more sales on their products; people are 10 times more likely to share a video online than anything else.”

Singer Dodie Clark announced her bisexuality with a vlog seen by more than a million viewers within 15 months. A year later, she posted a “coming out” song sponsored by candy maker Skittles, racking up more views in one month than her original announcement. Advertisers and creators sometimes collaborate to exploit such personal moments for revenue, a more successful strategy than traditional advertising and one that can assure significant income for creators.

Being internet-famous made some creators millionaires.

Jake Paul may be the most successful YouTuber, with 17 million subscribers. He annoys his neighbors, who threatened to sue him for disturbing the peace when he threw furniture into his mansion’s empty swimming pool and set it on fire. Yet his YouTube fans love these outrageous acts. Estimates of Jake’s income from YouTube advertising revenue and merchandise sales range between $350,000 and $5.6 million annually. Forbes magazine reported that he grossed $21.5 million in 2018, before paying management fees and taxes.

“YouTubers are 360-degree brands looking for opportunities and no longer just people playing with cameras.”

“Elite influencers” Joe Weller and Olajide William Olatunji (known as KSI on YouTube), brought their YouTube feud to a massively hyped, sold-out live boxing event at London’s Copper Box Arena in February 2018. KSI won and then challenged Jake Paul’s brother Logan Paul another YouTuber to a fight. The event filled a 20,000-seat arena. Millions viewed the live stream.

Because people’s “rank on the website and the amount of income they can derive from the platform depends on keeping their audience entertained, creators can sometimes feel trapped into making videos.”

Zoella, a top-tier YouTuber, proved that her fans are willing to cross over to other media with her first novel, Girl Online, a bestseller in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The highest earner on YouTube is Ryan Kaji, an eight-year-old who unboxes and plays with toys on his channel, Ryan ToysReview. He also sells his own line of branded toys through Walmart and Amazon. Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber’s mom launched his career when she posted a video of him singing when he was 12 years old. Matthew David Morris known on YouTube as pop singer MattyB started his YouTube career in 2014 at age 11. He believes that many parents have never heard of any YouTube celebrities because adults still watch TV while their kids watch YouTube.

Infrastructure and support for YouTube success is big business.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly teenagers, flock to California’s VidCon and other YouTube related events each year. Obsessive fans are a problem for YouTubers. Viewers feel they know their favorite video creators and expect to engage directly. This expectation turned deadly for 22-year old singer Christina Grimmie, who had millions of YouTube subscribers, when rabid fan Kevin James Loibl shot her dead at a meet and greet event.

With “the numerous scandals the site has been the subject of, YouTube’s response can be summed up in one simple sentence: Its actions are always too little, too late.”

YouTubers conceptualize and write their videos, shoot them to look great, perform in front of the camera, edit, post and market their videos. Celebrities who manage live events and sell merchandise need support staff. For example, talent agent Sarah Weichel represents Lilly Singh, a YouTube superstar with 14 million followers. Weichel heads “emerging platforms” at Anonymous Content, the entertainment company responsible for True Detective and Mr. Robot. In March 2019, Singh announced that she is succeeding Carson Daly to host an NBC talk show. PewDiePie is YouTube’s most popular creator, but T-Series, run by an Indian production company, is challenging him. In many ways, content providers are changing from independent creators to corporate entities.

Scandals plague the platform as YouTubers strive to become famous at all costs.

Prank videos play to YouTube’s algorithm, which prefers shocking, “click-baity” content. Monalisa Perez agreed to help her boyfriend Pedro Ruiz III with a daring stunt. He believed that if she shot him with a gun, a thick book would stop the bullet. But Perez’s shot killed Ruiz. She served 180 days for second-degree manslaughter and then launched a successful confessional YouTube channel.

“Authenticity” is an essential ingredient for successful YouTubers.

One of the first famous YouTubers was 16-year-old Bree Avery, known as LonelyGirl15. She complained about high school, parents and boys. Then she began talking about a secret group 'The Order' that was out to get her. It turned out Avery was a character played by an actress, created by filmmakers trying to prove that scripted drama could thrive on YouTube. They gained Hollywood representation, but LonelyGirl15 viewers regarded the truth as a betrayal.

Authenticity is important currency on YouTube.

“Within a few hours, YouTube’s algorithm can plant the germ of a seed that transforms a functioning member of society into a loner who trusts no one.”

Social media users turn every aspect of their lives into content. YouTubers film in their homes and often in their bedrooms. They speak in intimate tones, as if conversing with viewers. Fans form a “parasocial relationship”: They think they know the creators because they know the creators’ lives. Celebrities who post behind-the-scenes content, like Hollywood actor Jack Black playing video games, gives fans humanizing glimpses of themselves.

“YouTube has created a new dynamic between fans and stars. Creators involve fans in achieving their triumphs, and fans feel a sense of ownership of those successes.”

YouTubers can get overwhelmed chasing that algorithmic wave. Olga Karavayeva of OlgaKay shot every minute of her life for upload, posting 20 or more videos every week. She made about $100,000 yearly, but her time was no longer her own, and she became less a person than a personality. Unsurprisingly, she burned out.

Many creators feel YouTube doesn’t adequately value them, so they’re abandoning the platform.

Hank and John Green the novelists and producers of the educational YouTube channel Crash Course started a union for YouTubers called the Internet Creators Guild. They aim to create transparency about earning fair rates from advertisers and to establish beneficial contracts among YouTubers, multi-channel networks (MCNs) and agents. MCNs claim to support creators in navigating business opportunities, but they offer little value to smaller creators.

“The super-charged growth of production companies, video editors and agents in this new age of individual video makers makes Hollywood’s early years seem like a cottage industry.”

                         In YouTube’s early days, posting one video per week built a steady following; now it                                     takes  three posts that are three minutes long or longer. Creators like Shane Dawson                                      produce multi- part series, and he’s planning full-length documentaries. He satisfies                                   viewer demand for content, but producing so much volume is a creative challenge.

“YouTube…provides more meritocratic opportunities in the creative industries than traditional occupations.”

The crowdfunding platform Patreon allows artists to raise money directly from fans and patrons. Subscribers pay a set recurring sum that gives creators a predictable income. YouTube has copied Patreon, adding sponsorship choices, but it hasn’t caught on.

Facebook, with 2.3 billion–plus users, offers competition for streaming video. Disenchanted YouTubers find it easier to build viewership on Facebook because it rewards shorter, easier-to- produce “on the go” videos. Facebook Watch offers video content from major entertainment and sports outlets. It invests in original content and shares ad revenue with creators. Amazon’s gamer platform Twitch is moving into vlogging content. TikTok is another platform entering the video streaming fray.

YouTube is driving the change to more star-centric and original programming, hoping to compete more directly with Amazon and Netflix.

In spring 2018, YouTube previewed YouTube Originals to advertisers, hoping to reverse an advertising drop-off. The original programming offered longer formats, bigger budgets and name actors.

“Both fans and parents are beginning to recognize that, as YouTube matures, the creators they once thought of as friends are in fact just brands and successful ones at that.”

Actor Will Smith started his YouTube channel in mid-December 2017. He credits YouTube with helping him “find his voice” and promises entertaining segments and interviews with other celebrities. YouTube posted a video called “Rewind 2018,” a retrospective of the year’s video highlights, featuring Smith and leaving out PewDiePie, who had been a top creator for nearly a decade. In the video, corporate representatives discuss YouTube’s devotion to diversity and social responsibility.

“YouTubers are starting to act more like the businesses that are trying to replace them in order not to be left behind by the race toward safe harbors like Will Smith.”

The video drew 15 million dislikes – not because people disliked Smith, but because he destroyed the parasocial relationship between fans and creators. Will Smith was a major Hollywood star when he crashed onto the YouTube scene. He succeeds there because he seems to enjoy the YouTube aesthetic and remains open to his fans. Corporate YouTube loves the stability and respectability of vetted stars, since every YouTuber scandal drives more advertisers away.

YouTube can safely promote stars since they transform their platforms into a massive corporate presence. Hollywood stars also lure older viewers, which helps YouTube compete with Netflix.

Younger viewers resist what they see as polished, fake content. These fans like knowing that their support contributes to the success of people like Jake Paul, the kid from Ohio.

More kids and their parents watch YouTube videos on TV using apps. YouTube’s algorithm tailors its recommendations for them and offers endless hours of content. For a monthly fee, YouTube TV packages network content with its videos so viewers can watch on their own schedules. YouTube has a decade-long head-start on its rivals and a generation of viewers who grew up watching it. That makes YouTube a major force in entertainment that continues to grow daily.