Almost No One Is Making a Living on YouTube

[Turk]

One of the main attractions of YouTube is that anyone can become a star. There are no gatekeepers. No talent agents or television executives need to be won over. Stars can come from anywhere. And they do.

Forbes' recent list of the richest YouTubers is proof: It's filled with people who post clips about playing video games or kids playing with toys. The top spot went to Daniel Middleton, known as DanTDM. He's a 26-year-old British gamer - and he earned $16.5 million (approximately Rs. 100.7 crores) last year.

But a new study finds that the odds of striking it rich on Google-owned YouTube - or even making a modest living - are vanishingly small.

Reaching the top 3.5 percent of YouTube's most-viewed channels - hich means at least 1 million video views a month - is worth only about $12,000 (roughly Rs. 7.82 lakhs) to $16,000 (approximately Rs. 10.4 lakhs) a year in advertising revenue, according to Mathias Bartl, a professor at the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, whose study is one of the first to probe YouTube data for clues about how it works for creators.

Bartl found that it's gotten harder for new creators to reach the top, as YouTube alone adds 300 hours of video every minute and the biggest stars become more successful. The median views per video has plummeted to 89 in 2016 from 10,262 a decade earlier. At the same time, YouTube's biggest channels are gobbling up more eyeballs. The top three percent of channels got 64 percent of all views in 2006. A decade later, the top channels took 90 percent.

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the study.

What's happening on YouTube is occurring across the Internet, where creators are finding that long odds of success in the online world are not so different from IRL (Internet-speak for "in real life").

In fact, they might be worse.

Almost No One Is Making a Living on YouTube

The wave is over

 

[MikelArteta]

http://www.thecoli.com/threads/coli-brehs-im-becoming-a-youtube-star-this-year.613980/unread

 

[Kingshango]

Twitch streaming is the new wave.

I've seen a dude make over 50k in donations in under 1 hour and he streamed for 8 hours that day.

 

[thekingsmen]

Maybe people need to show Youtube its not about them anymore.

Google wants full control and that includes content they only agree with.

 

[satam55]

I always found it ridiculous when folks would quit their day job to focus on being a YouTuber fulltime.

 

[Biblical Goon]

Twitch, Patreon is where its at now

 

[RTF]

Think amazon copped Twitch

 

[CoochieMane]

It's almost as if only few can become rich of off YouTube

 

[KingTut]

There was too many people uploading controversial bullshyt like Nazis, conspiracy theorists, and Tommy Sotomayor. Then that pewdiepie fakkit couldnt keep the n word out his mouth and now here we are.

I used to make 200+ a month strictly off of views on my beats for about a year before my shyt got demonetized.

 

[4-Rin]

The title of the article is deceiving, based on what they wrote people still make bank but they started their channel before youtube starting censoring content. So it's harder for newer channels to break through and get the bag.

I still go by whatever socialblade says to estimate if a channel makes money or not

 

[Kiyoshi-Dono]

If you don’t have a real niche..
A one of a kind personality..
An untouched demographic that’s not represented in the major media..
You not getting them checks..
YouTube should always be a stepping stone to find an audience and then go for sponsors and hustling your own merch..

 

[Pyrexcup]

I always found it ridiculous when folks would quit their day job to focus on being a YouTuber fulltime.

back in the day shyt was possible now you cant youtube is over saturated hardly anyone making original content anymore .

 

[Big Simpin Losing Cheese]

They can make more working for churchs chicken

 

[Caribbean lover]

So icant become a millionaire with response or reacting to videos? Darn.

 

[At30wecashout]

If you weren't there for a few years with a decent audience, you ain't caking. There are exceptions who blow up like Peter McKinnon, but it seems your best bet is to get an audience and sell March or get advertisers directly paying you to plug. A lot of the channels I frequent plug Squarespace right in the videos.