How do YouTubers make money? A lesson learned from the most subscribed YouTuber channels Online publication date: Mon, 03-Feb-2020
by Bo Han
International Journal of Business Information Systems (IJBIS), Vol. 33, No. 1, 2020
Abstract: How to make money is getting an increasing interest from YouTubers. This study develops a new model to investigate how factors such as the number of views of a YouTuber's videos, the number of subscriptions to a YouTuber's channel, the after-view comment rate and the after-view attitude expression rate of a YouTuber's video, and the age of a YouTuber's channel can influence the YouTuber's yearly revenues. Data of 57 most subscribed YouTuber channels were collected. The data analysis shows that the number of views, the after-view comment rate, and the after-view attitude expression rate all have significant positive effects on a YouTuber's yearly revenues; however, the number of subscriptions to a YouTuber's channel does not have a significant effect on his/her yearly revenues. In addition, a YouTuber's yearly revenues decrease as his/her channel gets older. This study does not only contribute a new YouTube monetisation model to the video sharing research community, but also provides several practical implications to entrepreneurial YouTubers.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Business Information Systems (IJBIS):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook