Perks of Being a YouTuber: Money, Happiness, and Popularity

A recent survey showed that around 85% of people worldwide use YouTube. With this many people on this platform, people can only imagine how many videos with different types of content are being circulated in all parts of the world on a daily basis.

In South Korea alone, YouTube is one of the most used video-streaming apps. As a matter of fact, being a YouTuber (content creator) emerged as a new dream career hyper-competitive job market.

In line with this, this Real Research survey results reveal the South Koreans perception of YouTubers — what makes the profession attractive and are they actually interested in becoming professional content creators.

Highlights

• Money, happiness, and popularity are the top reasons why a YouTuber’s career looks attractive.
• On the other hand, respondents think that content creation, instability, and privacy are the top disadvantages for YouTubers.
• Those who want to be YouTubers are most likely to run a channel about travel, daily life, and their hobbies.
• Interestingly, the majority of this survey’s demographics are male and married Generation X and Baby Boomers (49-60 years old).

YouTuber Career: Money, Happiness, and Popularity

The leading response to what people think makes a YouTuber attractive as a profession is money (~38%) — making lots of them specific. In detail, the amount of money a YouTuber can make per video depends on a variety of factors, such as the number of views they accumulate and how many Google ads are displayed throughout their videos.

But as a rough estimate, a YouTube video with 1,000,000 views can make around $5,000, making a modern-day influencer a pretty lucrative job! What is more, South Korea’s top YouTube creators make an average of 9.33 million won ($8,010) a month — more than triple the average Korean salary.

In addition, almost 30% of the respondents think that feeling happy to see people enjoy self-made videos is what makes a YouTuber’s career good. This is evident as many YouTubers aim to have many subscribers who will engage with their content.

Moreover, with money and happiness combined, a YouTuber can definitely become popular. This is also one of the reasons why being a digital influencer can be appealing for many.

Cons of Being a YouTuber

Looking at the other side, being a YouTuber can have its drawbacks as well. For the respondents, the burden of constantly creating content (39%) is the main disadvantage. To be able to sustain the interest of avid subscribers, a YouTuber must post content regularly.

Aside from that, the job’s instability is also a concern for almost 25% of the respondents. Keeping in mind the consistency of content creation, if a YouTuber fails to produce high-quality content, he/she won’t be able to generate revenue.

Moreover, privacy issues can also be troublesome for YouTubers. As they require to show authenticity and individuality to gain attention, most often than not, their life becomes put into the spotlight as well. This can cause problems that can be detrimental to all aspects of a YouTuber’s life — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Channels of Aspiring YouTubers: Travel, Daily Life, Hobbies

As of August 2020, more than 4,300 YouTubers are said to be based in Korea. These channels have more than 100,000 subscribers. According to the results of this Real Research survey, if people are given a chance to be a YouTuber, they will most likely run a channel about travel (31%),  daily life (~16%), and hobbies (~16%).

Many famous vloggers nowadays have content under these categories. People typically watch YouTubers as they aspire to experience what they have, learn from what they know, and understand how their life can be similar to a normal person one. This brings a certain boost to YouTuber’s connection to their audience.

Besides, doing Mukbang (13%) can also be considered by aspiring YouTubers. This South Korean trend has been known worldwide as people enjoy watching other people eat tons of food. Other possible channels can be business/economy (13%), beauty (~3%), and language/culture (2%).

Older Generation Supports the YouTuber Career of Koreans

In general, most YouTube users are between 19 to 29 years old. Surprisingly, among the South Korean respondents of this survey, the majority comes from the older generation. Generation X and Baby Boomers comprise over 800 of the total responses.

Due to this, most of the respondents have never run their own YouTube channel (73%) and actually have no interest in becoming professional YouTubers. As most of them are married (62%) as well, they rather spend time with their families than provide content for other people.

Nonetheless, adults have shown great interest in the emerging profession of YouTubers by answering this survey. They may not be willing to be one themselves, but over 65% of them will favor their kids or any family member to pursue the digital career path.