As far as I know, Mr Beast is the first who tried this model. I wonder what happens when people notice that this model works, and suddenly he will have a lot of competition? Maybe Moloch will find a way to eat all the money. Like, maybe the most meme-y donations will turn out to be quite useless, but if you keep optimizing for usefulness you will lose the audience.
Other creators are trying videos like “I paid for my friend’s art supplies”. I think Mr. Beast currently has a moat as the person who’s willing to spend the most and therefore get the craziest videos. I hope do-nice-things becomes a content genre that displaces some of the stunts, pranks, reaction videos, mean takedowns etc. common on popular youtube.
People put up with the ads because they want to watch the video. They want to watch the video because it makes them feel warm and happy. Therefore, it is the warm fuzzies, the feeling of caring, love, and empathy, that pays for the philanthropy in the first place. You help the people in the video, ever so slightly, just by wanting them to be helped, and thus clicking the video to see them be helped. It’s altruism and wholesomeness at scale. If this eats 20% of the media economy, I will be glad.
The counterfactual is not that people donate more money or attention to a more effective cause. The counterfactual is people watching other media, or watching less and doing something else.
Yes, Make-a-Wish tier ineffectiveness “I helped this kid with cancer” might be just as compelling content as “1000 blind people see for the first time.” I don’t think that by default the altruism genre has a high impact. Mr Beast just happens to be nerdy and entrepreneurial in effective ways, so far.
I do think there’s an opportunity to shape this genre, contribute to it, and make it have a high impact.
As far as I know, Mr Beast is the first who tried this model. I wonder what happens when people notice that this model works, and suddenly he will have a lot of competition? Maybe Moloch will find a way to eat all the money. Like, maybe the most meme-y donations will turn out to be quite useless, but if you keep optimizing for usefulness you will lose the audience.
Other creators are trying videos like “I paid for my friend’s art supplies”. I think Mr. Beast currently has a moat as the person who’s willing to spend the most and therefore get the craziest videos.
I hope do-nice-things becomes a content genre that displaces some of the stunts, pranks, reaction videos, mean takedowns etc. common on popular youtube.
People put up with the ads because they want to watch the video. They want to watch the video because it makes them feel warm and happy. Therefore, it is the warm fuzzies, the feeling of caring, love, and empathy, that pays for the philanthropy in the first place. You help the people in the video, ever so slightly, just by wanting them to be helped, and thus clicking the video to see them be helped. It’s altruism and wholesomeness at scale. If this eats 20% of the media economy, I will be glad.
The counterfactual is not that people donate more money or attention to a more effective cause.
The counterfactual is people watching other media, or watching less and doing something else.
Yes, Make-a-Wish tier ineffectiveness “I helped this kid with cancer” might be just as compelling content as “1000 blind people see for the first time.” I don’t think that by default the altruism genre has a high impact. Mr Beast just happens to be nerdy and entrepreneurial in effective ways, so far.
I do think there’s an opportunity to shape this genre, contribute to it, and make it have a high impact.