Google hosted its “Next Up” event, where talented YouTubers were invited to New York for tips and training and were awarded a check for $35,000. The purpose is to accelerate “the growth of the next big YouTube stars,” according to the YouTube blog.
There are hundreds of YouTube stars — such as Ray William Johnson, Mystery Guitar Man, Smosh, Michelle Phan, the ShayTards, Jenna Marbles, Freddie Wong and Philip DeFranco — whose videos attract millions of views, and a share of the resulting ad revenue that could amount to six figures or more.
The New York Times interviews a number of these stars to understand how they got into the business, what motivates them and how their lives have changed.
About half of the Next Up winners live in and around Los Angeles where a YouTube ecosystem has developed among YouTube pros, YouTube-focused production companies and agencies.
The bond between YouTube creator and audience has attracted interest among advertisers. Some brands are paying stars six figures to create an ad.
“Five years ago, ‘brands would not touch this stuff,’ says Barry Blumberg, the former president of Disney television animation who now runs Web sites and YouTube channels for Alloy Digital,” reports NYT. “‘The audience thinks they know them.’ And that, he says, can be monetized.”
Google is now expanding its efforts by identifying and seeding separate categories — including Next Chef, Next Comic, Next Vlogger.
“YouTube is doubling down on content creation as a core feature of its site,” Richard MacManus argues on ReadWriteWeb. “It is doing this across the whole spectrum of content creation: from amateur to professional, with a lot of gray in-between.”
Google hosted its “Next Up” event, where talented YouTubers were invited to New York for tips and training and were awarded a check for $35,000. The purpose is to accelerate “the growth of the next big YouTube stars,” according to the YouTube blog.
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