A YouTuber is a producer and creator of audiovisual content that uses YouTube as his communication platform. 3 Some YouTubers have corporate sponsors who pay for product placement in their videos or production of online ads.
Etymology
The term ” youtuber ” refers to those people whose main or only platform is YouTube channels, personalized sub-pages of the YouTube video-sharing platform. 4 In Spanish, the italicized form youtuber is admitted , as well as adaptations such as youtubero (plural yutuberos ), simplifying the spelling ou of the original to u , and yutúber, (plural yutuberes ) adaptation of English that corresponds to the general pronunciation. 5
History
YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim created the first YouTube channel, “jawed”, on April 23, 2005.
The Internet domain www.youtube.com name was activated on February 14, 2005 by Chad Hurley , Steve Chen , and Jawed Karim , while working at PayPal . 6 The first YouTube channel “jawed” was created on April 23, 2005 PDT (April 24, 2005 UTC ) by the YouTube co-founder of the same name. 7 8 In October 2005, YouTube introduced the ability to subscribe to YouTube channels. 9The New York Timeshe claims that most YouTube videos until 2006 were about different forms of talent, citing reverse action scenes, lip-synching , and other people’s talent being uploaded through clips from videos such as those on Saturday Night Live . 10 By June 2006, well-known firms from Hollywood and the music industry had begun to establish formal business ties with “local” YouTube talent. The first of these is believed to have been comedy blogger Brooke “Brookers” Brodack (via Carson Daly ), 11 followed by singer Justin Bieber (via Usher ), 12 and Bassem Youssef specialized in political satire (through an Egyptian television channel). 13 14 In 2007 , YouTube began its “Partner Program”, an ad revenue sharing agreement that allowed YouTube users to earn money from the videos they uploaded to the platform. 15
As of October 2015 , there were over 17,000 YouTube channels with over 100,000 subscribers and nearly 1,500 with over 1 million subscribers. 16
Influence
According to multiple studies, YouTubers have become a major source of information and entertainment for the millennial generation . The most influential YouTubers are often considered micro celebrities. Since YouTube is broadly conceived of as a bottom-up social media video platform, micro-celebrities do not appear to be involved with the established, commercial system of celebrity culture, but instead appear autonomous and independent. This appearance in turn makes YouTubers seen as more relatable and authentic, also fostered by the direct connection between the artist and the viewer using the YouTube channel.
In a 2014 survey conducted by the University of Southern California among Americans ages 13 to 18 on whether 10 YouTube celebrities or 10 traditional celebrities were more influential, YouTube personalities ranked in the top five, with Smosh as the top five . the most influential. In 2015 the survey was repeated and it resulted in six youtubers occupying the first rows, with KSI as the most influential. 17
Several prominent YouTubers and their influence have been the subject of scientific studies, such as Zoella and Mrbeast . 18 Due to this level of influence, Robert Hovden advocated for the creation of a new index similar to the g-index and h-index to assess a person’s production and impact on YouTube. 19
Underage YouTubers
Adolescents use YouTube as part of the construction of their identity, since it allows them to participate and integrate into the digital world, where they play the role of Prosumer ; some authors analyze the risks that this may represent for them, such as the lack of protection of their information online or the access and dissemination of inappropriate content for their age. 20
Commercial success
The success of their YouTube videos has made YouTubers the target of corporate sponsors who pay to be included in the videos. In 2015, Forbes reported that Felix Kjellberg, known on YouTube as PewDiePie , had earned $12 million in 2014 , more than some famous actors, such as Cameron Diaz or Gwyneth Paltrow . 21 In August 2018, it became known that Walmart , Nordstrom , and other companies were seeking to sponsor YouTubers. 22
YouTube Rewind
At the end of each year from 2010 to 2019, YouTube released a YouTube Rewind video featuring the most popular YouTubers of the year. The video featured the most popular videos, people, music, movies, memes , and moments of the year on YouTube and elsewhere. 23 24