YouTube's Video Blogging Millionaires

• published: 29 Oct 2014
• views: 172

YouTube is creating a new breed of media moguls. Known as video bloggers, they're young, rich and famous, with some already building an empire stretching far beyond the realms of the internet. Full Story: The chances are you've never heard of Alfie Deyes. He's 21 years old and talks, essentially, about nothing. But doing just that has made him arguably one of Britain's biggest celebrities. [Ivor Bennett, Reuters Reporter]: "Alfie is part of a social media phenomenon known as video blogging or vlogging for short. The concept is simple. Pick a topic, film yourself talking about it, and then upload the video onto Youtube." For Alfie, the topic is pointless. Here he is smearing nutella on his face for example. Despite their banality, his videos have been watched nearly 150 million times. He's also just written a book. Again called Pointless - it went to the top of Amazon's best-sellers list. Ian Maude is a digital media analyst. He says the popularity is largely down to the platform. [Ian Maude, Digital Media Analyst, Enders Analysis]: "On Youtube you can have a relationship with these people. They have fan bases and they post messages onto their Youtube channels and they reply. Zoella, Alfie, and all these others. they actually reply to their fans they actually engage with them. I think that's something very new." It's also very lucrative. Take Felix Kjellberg for example, aka PewDiePie. He's thought to be earning up to 10 million pounds a year through adverts and endorsements. The vbloggers though are careful not to brag. Retaining the next-door neighbour look is key. [Alfie Deyes, PointlessBlog]: "People will often just be like: 'How much money do you make?' And I'm like 'Guys...'. Number one, you just wouldn't ask somebody how much money they make; number 2, that's not important; and number three, it's got nothing to do with them at all how much money I make. And it's not like a make a crazy amount, it's just enough to like pay the bills." No doubt it is, if your bills are in the 6 figures. They may not look like it, but these are the media moguls of tomorrow. For more news and videos visit ☛ http://ntd.tv Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision Add us on Facebook ☛ http://on.fb.me/s5KV2C