People making a living off YouTube has become a well known job now - YouTubers have launched
their whole careers off the back of it.
Some YouTubers though have gone even further and used their platform, money and influence
to start their own companies.
Youll recognise all these faces, but do you know about the companies they founded?
Lets find out.
My name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 YouTubers That Started Companies.
Starting off at number 10 we have Casey Neistat.
Vlogger and filmmaker Casey Neistat founded Beme in 2014, along with his colleague Matt
Hackett.
Beme was an app that allowed users to produce unedited 2 to 8 second videos which are shared
with the users subscribers.
They then respond by sending reaction pictures back to the uploader.
The company was bought by CNN in November 2016.
A year later, Casey and Matt announced that they were leaving Beme and that it would become
a part of CNN Digital Studios.
Coming in at number 9 we have Lily Singh.
Before now, Lilys biggest departure from YouTube has probably been her roles in Fahrenheit
451 and the upcoming Bright Futures.
Now though, Lily us using her platform to start her own production company called Unicorn
Island Productions.
The studio will produce comedy, animation, horror and unscripted projects for film, television
and digital distribution.
She took the name from her previous tours and documentaries that were called -Unicorn
Island- … she said the name symbolizes her happy place.
Next up at number 8 we have Hank and John Green.
The Vlogbrothers are a piece of YouTube history and their channel used to be one of the biggest
on YouTube in the early days.
Since then, theyve explored different projects and founded a number of things - two that
they have in common are Crash Course and Vidcon.
Crashcourse is a project they made aimed to educate high school students.
The company was initially funded by Google and produces short educational videos on school
topics ranging from World history to chemistry, psychology to computer science.
They also founded Vidcon in 2010, the largest multi genre online video conference in the
world.
Vidcon was sold to Viacom in February 2018.
Moving on to number 7 we have PewdiePie.
In March 2018, PewdiePie, the most subscribed YouTuber in the world, started his own clothing
line company called Tsuki.
He founded it along with his girlfriend Marzia.
The clothing company sells a limited edition range of unisex apparel based on PewDiePies
love of Japanese culture.
The word Tsuki translates to moon.
The colour scheme of the clothes often revolves around a pink and black aesthetic.
Next up at number 6 we have Ryan Higa.
He was the most subscribed YouTuber in the world between 2009 - 2011.
He started out in 2006 making short comedy skits and lip syncing videos and his channel
grew incredibly fast from there.
In 2012, he started the Ryan Higa Production with some friends that work together to make
content for his main channel.
Moving on to number 5 now we have Cassey Ho.
Shes a YouTube fitness and pilates instructor who started her channel in 2009 and has since
amassed over 2.5 million subscribers.
Her channel and company is called Blogilates.
They sell pilates apparel and accessories and also produce healthy lifestyle articles
and videos.
At number 4 now we have Shay Carl.
Real name Shay Carl Butler, hes been a famous name within the YouTube community for a number
of years now although hes now taken an indefinite hiatus after his much publicised marital scandal.
Long before that though, in 2009, Shay was one of the founding members of Maker Studios.
He founded it along with a number of well known YouTubers including Lisa Nova, Kassem
G and Philip DeFranco.
Maker was started as a studio divided into the 4 networks of Men, Women, Family and Entertainment.
The company was sold to Disney in 2014 for 500 million dollars.
Next up at number 3 we have BeautyCrush.
Real name Samantha Maria, Beautycrush started her own clothing company called Common Culture
in 2014.
She founded it along with her partner Jason Davis based on their shared love of fashion.
In the years since then, the company has also branched out into premium coffee and undiscovered
music talent.
Next up at number 2 we have The Fine Brothers.
You may know them as the guys behind the reaction videos on YouTube, Kids react, Elders react,
YouTubers react - all those ones - well you pay also remember when they founded the React
World program.
It was a media franchise that would lincest the format of their react shows to creators.
The YouTube community reacted badly to this and felt they were trying to copyright the
whole reaction format, setting a dangerous precedent for copywriting on YouTube.
After a few bad attempts at an apology and explanation, the Fine Brothers decided to
pull the plug on the whole thing.
And finally at number 1 we have Philip DeFranco.
Weve already spoken about Philip DeFranco being involved in the founding of another
company but that was with other people.
In 2017 though, he became the sole founder and CEO of The Philip DeFranco Network.
The aim is for it to become an independent news network which Philip says, in his own
words, will cover domestic and international news and pride itself on exposing fake news
while properly researching and explaining all sides of an argument.
A large portion of the Network is being set up through his patreon, where fans are encouraged
to pledge money and become part of the -DeFranco Elite-, receiving exclusive content for their
help in starting his news network.
Those were YouTubers who started their own companies - what do you think?
Is this something thats going to happen more in the future?
Should I start my own company right now?
What should it be?
Let me know all your thoughts - my name is Danny Burke, thanks as always for watching
and Ill see you all in the next video.