South African YouTube personalities are among the top in the world, and some have made a legitimate career out of it.
Barriers to entry to the platform have declined in recent years, and more South Africans now have access to the Internet and the tools to create videos; all you need is a smartphone.
The Google-owned company last week announced the introduction of mobile live-streaming, giving anyone, anywhere, the ability to broadcast a video at any time.
"YouTube has democratised broadcasting; as long as you have a video camera and an Internet connection, you're in," says Google SA.
"And, while some YouTubers do it just for fun, others are making careers out of it by making money out of their YouTube channels, either by running ads (with revenue shared between the platform and creator) or through working with brands to create sponsored content."
Tips and tricks
Not everyone with a YouTube channel will make it big.
Local YouTuber, Jonas Lekganyane, creator of Ramscomics, says: "Consistency is the key to building a reputable YouTube channel." This means a channel has to post videos routinely, so audiences know when to expect another, or all the videos have to have a similar concept running through out.
"The only way to achieve that is through hard work and dedication, and that means producing as much content as you can. I am not consistent with my uploads, because I always get side-tracked by real work; however, I am consistent with my concepts," says Lekganyane.
Good Looking and Cooking creator Claire Winstanley agrees: "In order to create relevant and consistently good quality content, creating and maintaining a successful YouTube channel is a full-time job - the big difference to many other jobs is that you get to be the boss."
Lindi Ngulube from The Snatched Show suggests YouTube personalities "kill their darlings".
"As creative individuals, we are so attached to our projects and there is a big element of vulnerability to sharing our content. Back in the day, having your own channel was unheard of, unless you were affiliated with a major broadcasting network. With the state of mobile technology nowadays, it's easy to film a clip on your phone and upload it in real-time, so the opportunities are endless."
Other recommendations include understanding target audiences, experimenting, engaging with audiences and listening to what they want to see on the channel. This gives potential subscribers and subscribers a sense of belonging, says Lekganyane.
To set up a YouTube channel, users first need to have a Google account. Using those details, they set up a YouTube account and then create their channel by uploading a cover image, avatar and information in the 'About' section. They can then upload their first video and share the link across social media channels.
To monetise the channel, users must sign up for YouTube's partner programme.
Local landscape
According to research firm, Social Bakers, the top 10 YouTube channels in SA are:
Channel | Subscribers | Total uploaded video views | |
1 | Caspar Lee | 6 386 491 | 575 643 597 |
2 | Kruger Sightings | 286 531 | 327 166 115 |
3 | Die Antwoord | 784 967 | 241 803 873 |
4 | Cobus Potgieter | 662 034 | 195 885 351 |
5 | News24 | 60 339 | 43 519 409 |
6 | Trevor Noah | 343 590 | 38 809 384 |
7 | TheSupaStrikas | 48 889 | 33 442 477 |
8 | MCPEMike | 189 891 | 33 214 737 |
9 | DHL Africa | 5 941 | 29 950 745 |
10 | About Hyundai | 0 | 25 846 324 |
However, if you take out the brands and media outlets and just look at YouTube personalities and celebrities, the top 10 are:
Channel | Subscribers | Total uploaded video views | |
1 | 6 386 491 | 575 643 597 | |
2 | 784 967 | 241 803 873 | |
3 | 662 034 | 195 885 351 | |
4 | 343 590 | 38 809 384 | |
5 | 189 891 | 33 214 737 | |
6 | 92 595 | 17 022 114 | |
7 | 22 209 | 7 617 223 | |
8 | 4510 | 1 505 374 | |
9 | 29 064 | 1 421 759 | |
10 | 5105 | 1 393 324 |
Last week it was reported South African YouTube personality Suzelle DIY topped the YouTube Ads Leaderboard for May, with over 400 000 views on her video: "How to make the ultimate burger".
This means the video was the most watched clip in SA during that month.
She recently signed a deal with Comedy Central to have her most popular videos aired on the channel every weekday at 8:05pm.
Live introduction
YouTube has offered live-streaming on the platform since 2011, but it has only been available within the mobile app since last week.
"YouTube mobile live streaming will be baked right into the core YouTube mobile app," explains Kurt Wilms, Immersive Experiences product lead at YouTube, in a blog post.
"You won't need to open anything else, just hit the big red capture button right there in the corner, take or select a photo to use as a thumbnail, and you can broadcast live to your fans and chat in near real-time."
Because it is built in, the live videos will have all the features regular videos have. This means they will be searchable, be found through recommendations, and can be curated in playlists, among other things.
YouTube was slow to the mobile live-streaming game. Periscope, owned by Twitter, was launched a year ago and has become one of the more popular live-broadcasting apps. Within four months, it had over 10 million accounts on the platform.
Earlier this year, Facebook opened its live-broadcasting feature to all users and rearranged its algorithm to ensure live videos appear at the top of users' news feeds.
Facebook has 1.59 billion people now using the social network each month, and 90% of users do so via mobile devices. It said recently that 100 million hours of video are being watched daily on the platform.
In contrast, YouTube has over a billion users, and every day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of video on the platform.
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