In May 2007, Howard Davies-Carr posted a video of his one-year-old son Charlie biting the finger of his three-year-old son Harry. He uploaded the video to YouTube to show the boys’ godfather who lives in Colorado, but what he couldn’t possibly have known at the time was that the video would go on to become the single most-watched viral video of all time (as of this morning the view count stands at more than 475,000,000). He also couldn’t possibly have known how rich that video would make him and his family (you can read more about the success of “Charlie Bit My Finger” by CLICKING HERE).
YouTube revenue is a huge business, with thousands of people now generating 6-figure incomes from the content they upload. Bing Chen, head of YouTube’s Partner Program, which helps amateur video-makers become prosporous, says, “It’s enough for them to create a sustainable business.” Just one of Chen’s many of Chen’s prime examples is Michelle Phan, 25, whose videos instruct women how to shop for and use cosmetics. While Phan was still an art school student, Chen says, she began uploading videos as a hobby. Today she has more than two million YouTube subscribers. Her videos have earned 624,000,000 views. As ABC NEWS writes, “YouTube’s partners make money several ways, says Chen. Once their following grows above a certain threshold (the number differs according to each partner, Chen says), they start to get a percentage of the revenue YouTube owner Google gets from selling ads to run beside the partner’s video.”
The most fascinating part of this new industry is the fact that YouTube is still in its relative infancy, and will grow increasingly more gigantic in years to come. YouTube has certainly produced a few millionaires out there, and as the site continues to expand we will surely one day have our first YouTube billionaire. You can read the full story by visiting ABC NEWS.
