41–50 of 55 posts
Kjellberg maybe the biggest personality, but there is a significant group of people who make a decent living out of doing this.
I do strongly believe that this will become a major genre in reality television/entertainment. And I am not taking into account the other universe called DOTA here.
What makes me really sad is people who think this is the height of Let's Play video quality. There are quite a few higher-quality channels out there. http://lparchive.org/ is a good place to start. A few recommendations: Frankomatic (adventure games), Bobbin Threadbare (adventures and others), SimplySimon (Mega Man games), Deceased Crab (indie and lesser-known games), retsupurae (specifically their adventure game MST…
Just a guess... you were born before 1982, right? I think most of this really is just an age gap. I don't think that PewDiePie is the height of Let's Play quality (and definitely not any of those you listed) - that honour might as well go to Scott Manley playing Kerbal Space Program - but he's not as terrible by a long, long stretch as some in here make him out to be. > "content quality black hole", "I intensely disl…
Nope; I'm in my 20s, not 30s.
> And sure, 80% of his output aren't going to match your quality filter. But the remaining 20% will.
Quantity has a quality all its own, but no, even 20% seems unlikely.
> And, if nothing else, he's a cultural influence.
Which brings me back to "What makes me really sad".
> Turn off your brain
No. I'm not a fan of "mindless" entertainment when there's so much that I don't have to turn off my brain to enjoy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reddit setup fake accounts/content. RapGenius seems to have had a guy doing some underhanded promotion. LinkedIn still does this stuff (or maybe it just started). Safe to assume there are others.
None of these examples are unqualified successes. Neither Reddit nor RapGenius have business models yet that are making any money. LinkedIn made roughly $5,200 per employee last year.
Ditto for reddit. Not sure how well the RapGenius people have made out but it seems they're doing well.
Remember, being a viable business is different than being successful. Twitter hasn't turned a profit, but the people that started it made off quite well. Splunk still loses cash left-and-right, yet is considered solid.
If I came up with a money-losing idea that got millions of users, never made a dime, and I sold it for even $10M, I'd be very happy with my "failure".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The 24-year-old Mr. Kjellberg, who created PewDiePie five years ago, has parlayed his persona into a brand name that pulls in the equivalent of $4 million in ad sales a year, most of it pure profit. If it's $4 million "mostly profit" I would take that as what he gets before taxes. If he pays his taxes in Sweden I think closer to 70% of that would disappear.
What do you mean, 'disappear'? I'm pretty sure taxes charged on income doesn't just flow into government and then suddenly vanish without a trace. > The 24-year-old Mr. Kjellberg, who created PewDiePie five years ago, has parlayed his persona into a brand name that pulls in the equivalent of $4 million in ad sales a year, most of it pure profit. And I'm pretty sure the title isn't misleading - it's $4 million after Y…
There are different levels taxation in Sweden if I recall correctly the upper level takes out 70% of the income, that is income earned after $200.000. So if I understand it correctly that would mean he needs to pay $2.660.000 in taxes on those $4 million.
I could be wrong though, but that is my understanding of it. If he's got a corporation where the money goes, that's an entirely different thing. My assumptions are it's a sole proprietorship or equal to that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just a guess... you were born before 1982, right? I think most of this really is just an age gap. I don't think that PewDiePie is the height of Let's Play quality (and definitely not any of those you listed) - that honour might as well go to Scott Manley playing Kerbal Space Program - but he's not as terrible by a long, long stretch as some in here make him out to be. > "content quality black hole", "I intensely disl…
> Just a guess... you were born before 1982, right? Nope; I'm in my 20s, not 30s. > And sure, 80% of his output aren't going to match your quality filter. But the remaining 20% will. Quantity has a quality all its own, but no, even 20% seems unlikely. > And, if nothing else, he's a cultural influence. Which brings me back to "What makes me really sad". > Turn off your brain No. I'm not a fan of "mindless" entertainme…
I don't mean it in the sense of being mindless entertainment, it's more off the get rid of your preconceived ideas of what constitutes entertainment and at some point you may well hit on a hook of some sort. Even if it's not with PewDiePie.
At some point the chasm between what's popular and what you have trained yourself to enjoy becomes so large that you'll be in a bubble and miss out on a shared global cultural experience. I think spending 2 or 4 hours a week just to keep up with pop culture from around the world is pretty damn important, and PewDiePie is a part of that. As is at least knowing about 非诚勿扰, stupid as it is. As is following the world cup in Brazil.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean, 'disappear'? I'm pretty sure taxes charged on income doesn't just flow into government and then suddenly vanish without a trace. > The 24-year-old Mr. Kjellberg, who created PewDiePie five years ago, has parlayed his persona into a brand name that pulls in the equivalent of $4 million in ad sales a year, most of it pure profit. And I'm pretty sure the title isn't misleading - it's $4 million after Y…
'disappear' was probably a wrongly used word. It's money that will never be his, the income tax is paid to the government and they use it like any other tax money. There are different levels taxation in Sweden if I recall correctly the upper level takes out 70% of the income, that is income earned after $200.000. So if I understand it correctly that would mean he needs to pay $2.660.000 in taxes on those $4 million.…
Not to take anything away from this young man (and Maker Studios) success here, but I thought it might be a good time to point out how YouTube math works. If his channel generates $4 million in ad revenue, Google/YouTube keeps about 45% and issues a check to Maker for the remaining $2.2m. Maker then takes another 10-30%. Still a substantial sum in the end, but I felt the title may potentially be misleading.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
'disappear' was probably a wrongly used word. It's money that will never be his, the income tax is paid to the government and they use it like any other tax money. There are different levels taxation in Sweden if I recall correctly the upper level takes out 70% of the income, that is income earned after $200.000. So if I understand it correctly that would mean he needs to pay $2.660.000 in taxes on those $4 million.…
Wikipedia says 57%. And apparently he lives in the UK these days.
I know nothing about taxation in UK, but I guess it also depends on where he has his company (if any) registered. Either way, it's a lot of money even if a lot of it is tax.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
'disappear' was probably a wrongly used word. It's money that will never be his, the income tax is paid to the government and they use it like any other tax money. There are different levels taxation in Sweden if I recall correctly the upper level takes out 70% of the income, that is income earned after $200.000. So if I understand it correctly that would mean he needs to pay $2.660.000 in taxes on those $4 million.…
Wikipedia says 57%. And apparently he lives in the UK these days.