Monetary Compensation of YouTubers
YouTube was launched, in 2005, as a platform for anyone to share videos in the United States. Due to the wide expanse of the internet, the website quickly grew and was bought by Google, for about 1.65 billion dollars. At this time, the site only reached the United States and was relatively small, compared to its reach today. In 2010, new types of ads surfaced, which allowed those who previously posted on YouTube for fun to now earn a living. The means of receiving monetary compensation of YouTubers relates to our class due to our new topic of the Search Industry. When talking about how Google makes its money off of ads, it sparked an interest in how YouTubers make so much money. The article cited to show that while there are many restrictions on what YouTubers can share, there is a large market for advertisements to be shared with the public. The targeting of certain demographics to share specified ads was also touched on in class.
Those who began to work for YouTube as their full-time job are now referred to as YouTubers. YouTubers mainly earn a living through ads. There are also YouTube sponsored activities that help YouTubers increase their salaries. Explicit sponsorships and affiliate links are the most obvious to viewers. After receiving, or agreeing to, explicit sponsorships YouTubers can create videos where the product or brand being advertised is explained or shown to viewers. Based on the number of views that video receives, the YouTuber is paid per view based on the amount specified in their contract. Often in videos, Youtubers show a specific product and offer their viewers a small discount on the product. These discounts are called affiliated links. Brands often target YouTubers with audiences that fit the demographic of their product. Another way of increasing a YouTuber’s profit is free product sampling. Brands can also contact YouTubers to send them free samples of products in hopes that they will review the product in front of their audience with positive feedback and increase the exposure of the product.
Over the years, YouTube has increased its advertising regulations. One of these regulations includes that videos must go through screening before being posted publicly. YouTubers are required to state when videos are being sponsored by certain videos, and often Youtubers will state that items they are using are either sponsored or not sponsored. YouTube requires videos to exclude explicit content with the penalty of not following this being a reduced revenue or no monetary compensation for videos.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/16/16899068/youtube-new-monetization-rules-announced-4000-hours