A new digital trend is emerging and it is Vlogging. In this Social Media Analysis: ‘Vlogging’ for the future, we will be discussing about the success stories of the world’s most famous vloggers and the business perspective of vlogging.
Over the years, videos have shown more engagement rates on the Internet than any other media. The evolution first started with the launch of YouTube in 2005; however, the reason behind YouTube’s huge success is its acquisition by Google in 2006. It is now the third most visited website in the world just behind Google and Facebook respectively.
Sites such as YouTube help people to raise a voice in what they believe or passionate about. Video blogging is all about expressing personal thoughts and opinions in a way that is entertaining or educational to the viewer. Every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views. More surprisingly over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute from across the globe. So it is the obvious choice for Vloggers to meet their target audience and share what they believe in with them.
One of the most popular Vloggers on YouTube is Ryan Higa; his first video titled “How to be a Ninja” was uploaded on 2007, almost 8 years ago. By 2015, his YouTube channel has over 14 million subscribers. He claims that he never thought people would watch his videos and he says he still doesn’t know why people watch his videos. He addresses his day today activities in a very humorous way. Currently, he has an online store that sells his official merchandise along with Apple and Android app #TEEHEE. It is recorded that his videos are viewed over 2.2 billion times. His latest video was “The I Love You Dad Experiment” which was uploaded on June 20th, 2015.
Another famous Vlogger is Zoe Sugg, who calls herself “Zoella”. She has over 8 million subscribers on her YouTube channel. Her genres are Beauty, Fashion and lifestyle. She’s extremely famous in Britain and in 2014 she won the Teen Choice award for Choice Web Star: Fashion/Beauty. After rising to fame through fashion Vlogging; she launched her first book in 2014 called “Girl Online”, which broke a record for the highest first-week sales for a debut author. On June 21st, 2015, she released a video on her personal Vlog channel MoreZoella announcing that she will be adding another set of beauty products to her brand “Zoella Beauty” which she launched on 2014.
She’s also the digital ambassador for ‘Mind, mental health’ charity.Her road to success began when she uploaded her first video on YouTube titled as “60 Things In My Bedroom” in 2009.
Another super Vlogger is Tyler Oakley, who uploaded his first video in 2007 where he talked about his Freshman year. From that humble start to hosting the YouTube Music Awards in 2015, this star has achieved the unthinkable over the past 8 years. He had the utmost privilege of interviewing the current first lady of the US, Michelle Obama, which has gotten almost 2 million views on YouTube. He is a very enthusiastic individual and passionately driven in creating his videos; his excitement is consistent with his each video, which is maybe the reason why people adore him.
There are few vloggers from Asia, specifically from India living away from their countries. They talk about their cultures and life in their home countries in a humorous yet entertaining manner which many people find interesting. One of the top Asian vloggers is Jasmeet Singh a.k.a JusReign, he has over five-hundred thousand YouTube subscribers. He’s a Sikh Canadian vlogger whose first video was about “25 random things in my room” uploaded on 2009.
Another famous Indian Vlogger is Lily Singh a.k.a SuperWoman, she’s an Indo-Canadian living in Canada. She has over 5 million YouTube Subscribers on her main channel and another eight-hundred thousand subscribers on her daily Vlog YouTube account. She has grown into becoming a comedian who recently finished her debut world tour “Unicorn Island” which was highly successful.
While we weren’t able to find a Sri Lankan who has reached such prominence, we did discover Harry Pereira who is a Sri Lankan living in England, he has over Twelve- thousand YouTube subscribers for his channel. He mostly makes videos that revolves around his personal life, he has created few motivational videos as the following which are appreciated by many people if referred to its comments section.
There are few famous Sri Lankan YouTubers such as Gappiya and JehanR who have become famous on YouTube, however their content focuses on comedy skits as opposed to vlogging.
But how do these stars earn through their Vlogs?
If the channel has a total of 75,000 cumulative watch hours over the last 90 days, then he/she can become a YouTube Partner. Through this program, Vloggers can monetize their content by allowing google TrueView ads on their videos. After a Vlogger registers its YouTube account with the YouTube Partner program, the account automatically enters into the GDN (Google Display Network). It is the largest contextual advertising network available reaching over 90% of internet users worldwide. GDN consists over million sites, blogs and YouTube channels registered with Google where marketers can advertise their ads.
Due to these Vloggers popularity, they attract various advertisers. Where they’re asked to feature various merchandise or just to talk about something on their videos which they get paid for. Recently Lily Singh promoted the upcoming and the most anticipated movie of 2015, the Terminator Genisys on her YouTube channel SuperWoman through a short film which she created with few other YouTubers. Watch it below;