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With Instagram, Twitter, Vine (R.I.P.), and TikTok all taking turns as the social media trump card, it seems like content creation has ebbed away from YouTube’s quintessential library format. And yet, 24-year-old MrBeast–already YouTube’s highest earner, Forbes estimates– is on track to out-earn most social media influencers next year.
His advice? “Just focus on making a company that is dope.”
Could MrBeast Be The First YouTuber Billionaire?
ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES
Jimmy Donaldson, a sweet-faced 24-year-old YouTuber, is dressed up as Willy Wonka, complete with a purple velvet topcoat, oversize gold bow tie and orange top hat. The 6-foot-4 creator known as “MrBeast” is making a video to promote Feastables, the candy bar brand he launched last winter. He has lured ten fans who found “golden tickets” in one of his MrBeast Bars to a warehouse in eastern North Carolina that Donaldson built.
There they find a faux chocolate factory with huge gummy bears hanging off tree branches in a lollipop forest and, just like in the movie, a real chocolate river flowing into a waterfall. In a room lined with bouncy marshmallows the contestants stand on spinning peppermints. First one to fall loses. The winner takes home $500,000, a new car and a bite-size piece of Donaldson’s fame.
It’s silly, G-rated fun—and wildly profitable. That one 17-minute video has racked up 121 million views in the last six months, and MrBeast has made thousands more. He earned $54 million last year, including $32 million from ads across his dozen-plus channels and $9 million from sponsored content. He’s the most-subscribed-to YouTube personality in the world, with 112 million. His earnings, already the highest of any social media creator, are set to double in 2022 to as much as $110 million. “A lot of people still see YouTubers as a subclass of influencers,” he says. “They still just don’t truly understand the influence a lot of creators have.”
On Our Radars:
Under 30 lister Joel Embiid signed a five-year contract with the Philadelphia 76ers that, with incentives, could be worth as much as $178 million.
In addition to healthy additions like artichoke powder, the secret ingredient in new Under 30 member Jake Karls' vegan chocolate brand, Mid-Day Squares, is viral content. In addition to documenting the daily drama of entrepreneurship, Mid-Day Squares is out to be your favorite afternoon snack, and it seems to have caught on: sales are on track to hit $17 million this year, more than double 2021's total.
Ham Serunjogi, who was featured on the Under 30 Finance list, made an app to help transfer money among nations across Africa, Europe and North America. Now, some five million people use Chipper Cash and the company reached a peak valuation of $2.2 billion in November 2021.
