YouTube is Finally Shutting Down

The impending crisis in the content creator economy

It’s rare that I get the early scoop on tech stories, but in this case a former co-worker, now working at Google, dropped a bomb on me a few days ago.

After debating for 5 years before, during, and after the pandemic, I finally decided that I would dip my toe into YouTube content creation. Yes, I know I’m extremely late, but I’ve dabbled with blogs, websites, and other online ventures for the past twenty years. The “appearing on camera” and “my voice is blah” were always the two main reasons for putting YouTube off.

Whenever my dad would miss a big sale at the store, he would say, “Always a day late and a dollar short.” That’s the feeling I have now about the creator economy.

I’m not a pretty female, no one wants to see me do try-on hauls.

I don’t want to talk about controversial topics… I have a day job to keep (or at least I did).

I’m not going to walk around my city annoying people with my camera.

I’m too old to be doing stupid pranks and living out “what if” experiments for the sake of likes.

Podcasts are way oversaturated now with every athlete and celebrity launching one.

So, my channel was going to focus on financial freedom and covering the basics of investing. That was until this news dropped about YouTube rolling up shop.

Or is it?

What Would You Do if YouTube Really Shutdown Tomorrow?

So, YouTube is not shutting down, but I have been thinking about this question a lot, considering I truly am about to launch my investing channel. Given the competition in the space today, I am years away from making any substantial money, but it got me thinking about all the YouTube influencers that have “made it” on the platform and are in many ways, now dependent on it.

If you’re heavily involved in writing on Medium, then you know the top writers. If you’re heavily involved in YouTube, you know the top channels. It can be easy to dismiss the edge cases and say, “Well, that person makes $1 million USD per month, but that’s the one percent of one percent.”

YouTube paid out roughly $30 billion USD to its 50 million content creators in 2023. That’s staggering.

I personally know people making well over $600 per year if you were just to divide these numbers. So, while the top 10% of YouTube creators garner 80% of all views, there are still tens of thousands of people who make several thousand dollars per month on this platform. That’s enough to make it a full-time job for many. And now, too many people are caught in the trap of producing content daily to stay financially afloat if that’s their only source of income. So, then creators move to sponsorships, and swag, and other streams to hedge their financial bets.

A recent episode on HINDZ put it best.

There’s points where I felt like I put my creativity on a manufacturing belt…

Content creation really is the new 9-to-5. But in this marathon to pull as much dollars from YouTube as possible, no one asks, “What if YouTube just went away?”

Could you pay your bills as a full-time content creator if the platform just simply unplugged its servers on Monday?

It’s scary to think there is only two scenarios that most people follow today to survive:

Scenario 1 has existed for decades — get a job (either after college or high school), work for someone else, get at least some benefits, and your company can let you go any time they feel like it. If you make it to the end, hopefully you retire with a pension or some type of retirement fund so you don’t have to work until you’re 90.

Scenario 2 has been the movement over the past several years — start a side hustle that’s online (offline hustles are too inefficient), build an audience, make money from ads and sponsors, you’ll pay for your own healthcare, but if you stop creating even for a week, your views will plummet along with your income. And how long you’ll do this hustle is still unknown. Will we see Mr. Beast doing videos at 90? He’s far enough ahead to truly have his work live on through others, but what about the content creator “only” making $3,000 USD per month? It pays their bills, but will they be 80 years old still doing makeup tutorials?

This second scenario has made a lot of people, a lot of money. My wife and I personally know a guy who started from zero subscribers just last year, and now does YouTube full-time discussing topics on dating and relationships, easily making more than we do now with our multiple degrees. This person wasn’t a celebrity, but they worked consistently to build their channel and picked a topic that seems to have a limitless audience.

In both scenarios 1 and 2, we have become slaves to a schedule: one is owned by my manager at a company, the other is owned by a computer program and adoring followers.

I fear what the creator economy will become in the next 10–20 years. Will people be more salacious to get more views? The popular influencers will only get more of the pie, leaving little scraps for everyone else. Will we see an influx of people back into the workforce (at lower wages) who quit their jobs to write and make YouTube videos that are no longer converting like before.

After two corporate layoffs and seeing the “nasty work” of becoming a YouTube influencer, I am more convinced than ever of the beauty in building passive income. It is the only viable solution to living a complete life — one that you own (as much as possible), in a world that will have its way with you otherwise.

The million-dollar podcasters will be okay — just like our athletes and entertainers. I’m talking to those influencers making less than $50,000 a year. I hope they are funneling some of their money into passive investments for when the next shift occurs in social media. Passive income is like Basic Income for those who fall through the cracks on Scenario 1 and 2. It’s slow and boring work to build wealth, but necessary.

So, while I wait for my first 500 subscribers, I’ll keep saving and keep hoping YouTube will be up next week.

Visit my site UNEarned Inc. to join our community and learn how to build passive income.

View my profile to read more thoughts and stories from me!