Move over, television. There are some new kids in town
There are many things one can, in teenspeak, ‘hate on’ Justin Bieber for. But it’s only fair to say that he showed the world the power of online video as a star-maker. A prodigy who had taught himself piano, drums, guitar and trumpet, the then-12-year-old Canadian also had that certain something that makes for stardom. Perhaps it’s what the New York Times in 2010 called “his charisma, high energy and sweet gawkiness”. Even so, he might have gone undiscovered. But his proud mother first posted videos of him singing covers of popular songs on YouTube (YT), the online video channel, where an agent saw them, tracked him down and signed him to a record deal. Bieber assiduously built up a larger YT following, launched a debut album in 2009, and is today, at 20 and still too young to drink alcohol in some parts of the world, a wealthy celebrity: Our colleagues at Forbes ranked him among the 10 most powerful celebrities in 2010, ’11 and ’12, and though his rank slipped into the 30s in what was a rather rocky 2014 (he got arrested twice, among other things) he’s still sitting on earnings of around $80 million for the year.
Channel: scherezadeshroff
Subscribers: 37,011
Views: 5,696,546
Videos: 149
After 10 years as a model, Scherezade Shroff dabbled in fashion blogging for a bit. Soon, an MCN got in touch to ask her to start a YT channel on the same subject. She tried it out and, after a few months, decided she liked it enough to leave the channel and start on her own, in 2013. She loves the connect she feels with video. “It’s so direct. You can tell if a person is being real or not. The moment I discovered video, I stopped writing, pretty much.”
In some ways she had an easy start, with the MCN she worked for providing support, plus an early mover advantage, and that channel quickly went to number one in its category in India. But it was different when she went solo: “It was tough to leave those 25,000 viewers and start again on my own. But it started getting better.” Upgrades in equipment, editing skills getting better, all helped, she says, plus “YouTube India’s support with events and creating awareness helped grow viewership quicker than if it had just been organic growth”.
While she’s “a full-time YouTuber”—she quit modelling two years ago—what she makes from Google is just a part of her income; a bigger chunk comes from ‘brand associations’, where she is paid to demonstrate and showcase products by their manufacturers. She emphasises that her associations are only for products she would use anyway, and she is careful to make those collaborations clear to her viewers, because she needs their trust for her regular reviews.
She gets mails by the hundreds from subscribers telling her about their new channels; while India was slower to start, she says, “We’re going to see a lot more YouTubers soon!”
Channel: NishaMadhulika
Subscribers: 219,765
Views: 66,878,987
Videos: 967
Nisha Madhulika doesn’t quite fit the stereotype of the brash young new economy creator. She is in her mid-50s, cheerfully denies understanding technology and is uncomfortable with English. She used to work with her husband, in a family-owned software business in Delhi, which she enjoyed, she says. But when they bought a home in Noida, she found the commute to Delhi too tiring. She chafed at the idea of doing only housework, but hadn’t a clue about what else she wanted to do, except that it must be something that was both useful to others and that she liked. In the mid-2000s, her husband began reading blogs; she would browse occasionally too, and thought this was something she would like to do, except, what would she write about? Which is when she discovered recipe blogs. She told her husband, “Other topics don’t interest me, but I can write recipes.” He told her that that was what she should write then, and promptly bought her a digital camera. This was in 2007.
She would cook, take photos of the food, type out recipes and post. Her blog quickly gained readers, who encouraged her to post more. She was delighted: “I always liked cooking, but never thought it could be useful for others!” Along the way, her son made her a proper web site, and by 2011, she had around 600 recipes up. Her devoted following—in India and the desi diaspora—had been urging her to post videos, to make it even easier to follow her recipes. Her kitchen wasn’t ideal for a shooting set, so she hadn’t taken it seriously. Her husband, ever supportive, set up a studio for her in an upstairs room (nothing fancy, a hob, cameras, lights), and she began her career as a video star.
A few months in, with a 100 recipes online, Google got in touch and invited her to be a YouTube Partner and monetise her videos. She’s quite pleased with her income—“I make a lot, and get fame, both more than I had ever hoped for!”—but says her Google terms do not permit her to disclose exactly how much she makes. And she’s refused all offers from MCNs thus far: “I like independence more.” She does traditional recipes, but in her own style, as well as researching and inventing her own. It’s a full time job, 11 am to 5.30 pm, six days a week, much the same as when she worked with her husband. Two days are for shooting, the other four for developing and writing recipes, and replying to fans.
She’s having the time of her life, she says. “I had dreamt, from childhood, that whatever I would do, I would be the best: If medicine, I’d be the best doctor, if teaching, the best lecturer; people would know my name. Those things didn’t happen, for many reasons,” she says, laughing, “but with what I’m doing now, I’m fulfilling my ambitions!”
Multi-channel networks: Powering the new creators
(This story appears in the 06 March, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)