YouTube doesn’t make any money
One of the biggest, most well-known video sharing websites since its 2005 release has yet to make a profit. According to CBS News, YouTube makes about $4 billion annually, has over a billion users and is owned by Google, yet it still spends as much as it makes.
Felix Kjellberg—a.k.a. Pewdiepie—is the most subscribed person, or “content creator,” on YouTube, with almost 50 million subs. While he made about $7.5 million in 2015, according to BBC News, he only made a small portion of that from YouTube itself through ad revenue—which is the money earned through the ads on YouTube videos. Most of his money is made from sponsors, donations and partnerships with game companies. He helped make three games in the past year, and all three grant him a share of the profits.
If even the most popular YouTuber only makes a small percentage of his money off ad revenue, how much would those channels with fewer subscribers make? The answer is even less than it was earlier this year, because in August, YouTube updated its Terms of Service.
The new policy made videos more advertiser-friendly. If a video is excessively flagged or has an inappropriate thumbnail, the video will no longer have ads or get ad revenue. This caused some turmoil in the YouTube community for a while because hundreds of videos no longer had ads, and channels were losing money.
What many people didn’t realize at the time is that this isn’t a new policy, only a more active enforcement. Content creators can appeal to YouTube—there’s a website dedicated to just that—and videos can receive money from ads again.
Of the money from ad revenue, YouTube keeps 45 percent, according to DailyDot. Even with that, a part the $4 billion yearly revenue YouTube alone earns Google, the video sharing site still breaks even. So with this “new” policy taking ads off millions of videos, will YouTube make even less? Will Google have to break its metaphorical piggy bank to keep this video sharing site in business?
Senior Loraine O'Brien is a reporter for The Advocate, and this is her first year on the staff. She is a member of Renaissance, and is also on the Tech...