As you tear yourself from your bed, day in and day out—Then battle to piece together some form of appropriate work attire, and by some miracle manage to slide into the office every morning, in the nick of time—all to earn your monthly pittance, did you know there is a 9-year-old child who earned a staggering $26 million by starring in a YouTube channel?
According to Forbes’ annual list, The Highest-Paid YouTube Stars of 2019: The Kids Are Killing It, Ryan Kaji, earned a jaw-dropping $26 million in 2019 through his YouTube Channel Ryan’s World.
This is up from the $22 million Kaji earned during 2018, after he became popular in the “unboxing” genre of opening and trying out toys.
His first channel “Ryan ToysReview” launched in 2015, later becoming “Ryan’s World,” now includes educational videos for kids, such as science experiments.
As one of the youngsters earning millions on YouTube, he is not the only social media star to make a mint off of the platform. In fact, there are scores of vloggers around the world generating exorbitant sums of money, simply by running their own YouTube channels.
We now look at some of the top-earning YouTube stars from South Africa and around the world.
Caspar Lee
Caspar started his YouTube channel’ dicasp’ in 2011, before renaming it to simply ‘Caspar’. As of May 2020, Caspar’s main YouTube channel has over 7 million subscribers and over 850 million video views.
His second channel “morecaspar” has nearly 2 million subscribers and over 116 million video views.
With millions of followers, Lee has an estimate net worth of over $3 million.
Julia Anastasopoulos
When it comes to YouTube success stories in South Africa, Julia is definitely the image of an internet sensation.
Julia became a local internet phenomenon in May 2014, with her do-it-yourself web series known as SuzelleDIY.
With over 156k subscribers on her channel and now a South African celebrity, she also started her own show “Ridiculousness with Suzelle DIY” on Comedy Central where’s she features with many South African stars as guests.
PewDiePie
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellber, or as he is known online as PewDiePie, is a Swedish YouTuber, comedian, gamer, and philanthropist, known primarily for his Let’s Play videos and comedic formatted shows.
After registering his YouTube channel in 2010, he primarily posted Let’s Play videos of horror and action video games.
As of 18 September 2020, his channel has received over 26 billion views, ranking as the 19th-most-viewed channel on the platform. Both his channel’s subscriber and view counts rank as the most among those operated by an individual.
Kjellberg’s popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage has made him one of the most noted online personalities and content creators.
His net worth is believed to be between $20 to $50 million.
Logan Paul
Logan Paul is an American YouTuber, internet personality, actor, and boxer. As well as posting on his own YouTube channel, he has run the Impaulsive podcast since November 2018, which currently has over 2.3 million followers.
Paul gained a following in 2013, posting sketches on the video-sharing application Vine. He registered his YouTube channel, TheOfficialLoganPaul, on October 18, 2013, where he started posting regularly following the closure of the Vine app.
He later created the Logan Paul Vlogs channel on August 29, 2015, which has since become his most subscribed YouTube channel.
As of September 2020, the channel has received over 22 million subscribers and 4.8 billion views, ranking as the 54th subscribed in the United States, and placing him among the top 140 subscribed channels on the platform.
Paul has been involved in several controversies, most notably concerning a visit to Japan, during which he filmed the corpse of a man who had hanged himself and posted the footage on his YouTube channel
His net worth is estimated to be in the region of $19 million.
With these four YouTube stars making a name for themselves, how easy is it actually to make a name for yourself on YouTube?
According to a survey conducted by Grapevine, a company which pairs creators with brands for ad campaigns, becoming a YouTube star is far from easy.
The company’s survey of 1,861 YouTube creators, showed that only 2% have more than 100,000 subscribers, and 9% have between 5,000 and 100,000 subscribers. The remaining 89% of creators had fewer than 5,000 subscribers.
Grapevine co-founder and community director, Kimberly Bond explains that YouTube creators are unquestionably not born overnight. In fact, she states it takes a lot of work to build one’s channel to celebrity status, which refers to the tier of YouTube creators with at least 100,000 subscribers.
According to Grapevine, 70% of creators with at least 100,000 subscribers, spend at least six hours working on each video they upload to YouTube, and one-third of those YouTube stars spend at least eight hours on each video.
Then one has to consider the pressure involved in keeping content fresh, which ensure viewers return.
Grapevine’s study shows that more than half of the creators surveyed who have at least 5,000 subscribers upload at least two videos a week. Over 75% of those with fewer than 5,000 subscribers upload at most one video a week.
Newcastillians, Stefan Walker and Iwan Dippenaar, attempted to create their own YouTube channel. A mission which did not pan out for them.
Stefan explains, “It was something we spoke about for years, we have opinions that we want to voice. One evening, I set up my camera and we recorded to see what came out. That video never made it online, as it was horrible. But after that, we were hooked.”
Stefan agrees with Grapevine’s findings in that it is far from easy to generate cash and become a superstar on YouTube.
He adds, “You should never start a YouTube channel as an income stream, unless you have strong sponsors, for example, the type that Suzelle DIY secured.”
With the digital era offering people the opportunity to earn millions through video platforms such as YouTube, one thing is for sure. Unless you are willing to put in hours of work and dedication, as well as finding a suitable product, as with other business ventures, success will be just outside of your grasp.
Author: Quinton Boucher
Edited: Calvin Swemmer
