Demonetization of youtubers' videos and what that means for the future of youtube.

YouTube is rapidly changing to become more family friendly, to try and sustain their relationships with big brands. This is putting huge pressure on some of their biggest content creators. This creates the question for YouTube ‘what is more important the creators or the advertisers?’

Demonetization 

First of all let me explain what demonetization is. When you watch a YouTube video most of the time you are going to see an ad (unless you are using adblock). When people watch these ads they support the youtuber they are watching by providing them with ad revenue. But when YouTube decides that a video is not 'friendly' and therefore should not be associated with their advertisers they can choose to demonetize the video so that ads cannot be shown for that video.(https://www.recode.net/2016/9/4/12795214/youtube-demonetization-explainer)

Why is YouTube doing this?

Big brands have become wary of advertising on YouTube because of the possibility of their ads being shown before an ISIS beheading video or a racist hate speech video. YouTube knows it cannot limit what content is shared on their site, so in an attempt to protect their advertisers they created an automatic demonetization system which looks for content which is not advertiser friendly and quickly removes any ads from these videos.

CaseyNeistat-Demonetized Demonetized Demonetized https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZakJFqdpRY&t=195s

What does this mean for youtubers? 

This unstoppable algorithm has had a huge impact on the livelihood of many youtubers, forcing them to question if they can make a living off YouTube whilst creating their own content which may not be favoured by the family friendly algorithm enforce by YouTube. With youtubers being forced to find alternative revenue sources, crowdfunding sites such as Patreon have become more important to keep YouTube channels alive. Many youtubers  are providing  more content and even the ability to interact directly with their fans, to people who donate to their crowdfunding profile such as Patreon.

Another way youtubers are making significant revenue outside of advertisements on their videos, is by selling merchandise to their fans. youtubers are linking up with manufacturers to bring personalised goods to their fans, which viewers of the channel can wear to show their support for the channel. Merchandising has become a large source of income for some channels but at the same time has become a major ethical concern for YouTube channels which are primarily targeted at younger children and teens. Famous youtubers such as Jake Paul have been criticized for their immoral marketing of their merchandise to young children, as his all of his videos can be seen as never ending advertisements for his products. With most platforms such as print or television having set standards on how companies can market towards children, YouTube does not share these standards and has allowed major channels on YouTube such as Jake Paul's channel, become increasingly more powerful over the youth of today who are growing up watching YouTube over television(http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jake-paul-and-logan-paul-are-youtube-merch-monsters.html).

Nerd City- Parents' Worst Nightmare: Jake Paul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywcY8TvES6c

Effective advertising on YouTube

After the 'adpocalypse' the only channels that truly survived intact are those that are truly family friendly, meaning made for kids and even made by kids. A YouTube channel by the name of Ryan ToyReview has reported to be making $22 million dollars a year by reviewing toys on their channel. How does this 7 year old boy make all that money? The answer is sponsored content. Sponsored content is different to normal advertising as sponsored content can mean that the video you click on is the ad not the little video you try to skip before your actual video starts. Ryan is sponsored by major companies such as Walmart, who work with Ryan to create videos reviewing their new products which are watched by millions of young children who then want to play with these toys just like Ryan in the video did (https://www.businessinsider.com.au/ryan-toysreview-7-year-old-makes-22-million-per-year-youtube-2018-12?r=US&IR=T).

Ryan ToysReview- BIGGEST HOT WHEELS ULTIMATE GARAGE PLAYSET with Disney Cars Toys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciIHm8tsYUk

The future for YouTube?

With YouTube only becoming more family orientated, the future for creative content makers on YouTube is becoming more worrisome. Youtubers' are now forced to find alternative avenues for revenue but how ethical are they and at what point do they change from a video sharing platform to a platform for branded personalities to sell their products.

Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments. Thank you for reading.