Video bloggers

The main articles are:

• YouTube
• YouTube in Russia
• Bloggers

2024

A new criminal case was opened against the Chekalin bloggers

On October 2, 2024, it became known that the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a new criminal case against blogger Valeria Chekalina, also known under the pseudonym Lercek, and her former wife Artem Chekalin. They are suspected of performing transactions to transfer currency to non-resident accounts using falsified documents. Read more here

Russian video blogger received 5.5 years in prison for lying about the Russian army

Russian video blogger Anna Bazhutova, better known under the pseudonym YokoBovich, was sentenced to 5.5 years in a general regime colony. The Ostankino District Court of the capital issued such a verdict on June 05, 2024 on charges of publicly disseminating deliberately inaccurate information about the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In addition, the blogger was banned from administering websites for a period of 3 years. Read more here.

2023

Named Russian bloggers with the highest advertising revenues on Instagram

In 2023, Russian advertisers spent more than 900 million rubles to promote goods and services on the Instagram social network (owned by Meta, which was recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). This was reported on March 12, 2024 by Vedomosti with reference to Roskomnadzor, which is the operator of the Unified Register of Internet Advertising (ERIR). Read more here.

Advertising revenues of opinion leaders in Russia doubled over the year

Advertising revenues of opinion leaders in Russia in 2023 doubled and reached 30 billion rubles against 15 billion rubles in 2022, when this market sank by 5%. Such data are provided in a study conducted by the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA) and the eLama Internet advertising management platform. Read more here.

The famous Russian blogger with 663 thousand subscribers died at the age of 37. He drank a lot of power engineers and did not sleep much

Tyumen trucker Nikolai Galenko, known in social networks under the pseudonym Kalyan86, died at the age of 38. The Telegram channel ^[1] written about this in its Telegram^[2] on November 20, 2023. Read more here.

Bloggers Chekalina paid the FTS debt of 0.5 billion rubles

Blogger Valeria Chekalina (Lerchek) and her husband Artem Chekalin paid a total of 0.5 billion rubles to the Federal Tax Inspectorate (FTS) and paid off all debts to the state. This was told by the Chekalin's lawyer Konstantin Tretyakov. Read more here.

Attackers steal blogger Telegram accounts under the guise of representatives of the partner program

Attackers steal blogger Telegram accounts under the guise of representatives of the partner program. This was announced on September 28, 2023 by Kaspersky Lab. Read more here.

For the first time, the United States passed a law prohibiting parents from taking away the income of child bloggers. Money will be kept in a special account

In August 2023, the US state of Illinois for the first time in the United States passed the first law to protect the money of child influencers. Their income on social networks will be transferred to a special trust account, where they will be stored until the child comes of age. The measure is directed against parents who earn on content with children. At the same time, they will be entitled to a certain percentage of income. In case of refusal to transfer part of the income to them, child influencers can sue.

The Illinois law covers content that earns at least 10 cents per view. At the same time, children should appear in at least 30% of photos and videos published within 30 days.

The first law on the protection of money of child influencers was passed in the United States

The law on the protection of child stars on social networks was advocated by 15-year-old Shreya Nallamotu, she turned to state senator David Koehler, and he prepared a bill.

I realized that there can be many cases of exploitation in the world of child influencing. And I realized that there is absolutely no law to protect them, "the girl said.

In her opinion, Illinois will not be the only state to pass this law. By mid-August 2023, a similar law is under consideration in Washington.

The new initiative was developed by analogy with the "Coogan Bill" of 1939. Silent film actor Jackie Coogan has sued his parents after they squandered what he earned on the set. Lawmakers, after the rising resonance, obliged the parents of child actors to transfer 15% of the child's fee to a bank account before reaching adulthood. The Coogan Bill is in effect in several states by August 2023, and legislation in defense of child influencers is preparing to pass in Washington.^[3]

The court arrested 100 million rubles and 21 real estate objects of blogger Blinovskaya, accused of non-payment of 1 billion rubles in taxes

In July 2023, a court in Moscow, as part of a criminal case on non-payment by blogger Elena Blinovskaya and her husband of almost 1 billion rubles of taxes, imposed interim measures on her 50 bank accounts and collectible gold coins. In addition, about 100 million rubles in various currencies and 21 real estate objects were arrested. Read more here.

The head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation revealed the schemes of bloggers for tax evasion

Bloggers mainly use artificial business splitting schemes to evade taxes. This was announced in an interview with TASS in May 2023 by the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin.

He explained that the essence of this method of minimizing tax obligations is to create the appearance of conducting any economic activity by several business entities that are on preferential tax regimes in order to obtain unreasonable tax benefits. Such methods are resorted to when income from entrepreneurial activity does not allow the use of special tax regimes for which preferential tax rates have been established, the head of the TFR noted.

Head of the TFR Alexander Bastrykin

Bastrykin explained that with such a scheme, the entrepreneur distributes the proceeds to his relatives or friends so as not to pay taxes under the general taxation system. They, in turn, create the appearance of real activity. Thus, the recorded earnings allow bloggers to apply a preferential tax regime and pay taxes in a smaller amount.

Receiving income from the implementation of training courses and training marathons, from which taxes were to be paid according to the generally established taxation system, they distributed it to the settlement accounts of interdependent and controlled organizations and individual entrepreneurs using preferential taxation regimes, - said the head of the Investigative Committee.

Bastrykin wonders how competent those who sell such courses are. According to him, unlike senior formations or coaches, bloggers do not always have enough competence to educate other people.

Or maybe they believe that showing a luxurious life on their pages is already a confirmation of such skills? In my opinion, this is not so, - said the chairman of the UK.[4]

Initiation of a criminal case on non-payment of 120 million rubles in taxes against blogger Alexandra Mitroshina

The IC Office in Moscow opened a case against blogger Alexandra Mitroshina on suspicion of tax evasion from an individual on an especially large scale (part 2 of article 198 of the Criminal Code; the maximum punishment is imprisonment for up to three years). The press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced this on March 21, 2023. Read more here.

Bloggers from the top 5 in Russia - Valery and Artem Chekalin - opened a case of tax evasion for 300 million rubles

Investigators, with the forceful support of riot police, searched the house of blogger spouses Valeria and Artem Chekalin, accused of tax evasion for 300 million rubles. The operational video on March 7, 2023 was published by the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR). Read more here.

2022

The revenue of blogging agencies in Russia for the year sank by 5% to 8 billion rubles

The total revenue of the 20 largest blogging agencies in Russia in 2022 amounted to 8 billion rubles, which is 5% less than a year earlier. Such data in June 2023 was presented by Smart Ranking analysts.

As stated in the study cited by Forbes, the blogging market was able to minimize losses thanks to the influx of new advertisers. In 2022, the number of advertising tools in the business arsenal decreased. For example, in March 2022, Russian companies lost access to advertising on Facebook (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia), TikTok, YouTube and the Google advertising network. This increased the demand for advertising from bloggers from the business.

The total revenue of the 20 largest blogging agencies amounted to 8 billion rubles

Advertisers began looking for universal bloggers who could immediately reach several groups of buyers, such as families and young people. Although until 2022, brands chose niche influencers with different audiences.

In addition, according to experts, in 2022, companies have changed their approach to advertising integrations. The business used to do several campaigns with different creatives. But now brands have begun to focus on one universal ad. Also in 2022, the demand for image campaigns with media faces fell. In conditions of tight budgets, 90-95% of brands prefer integrations that attract buyers and pay for themselves.

At the same time, as advertising integrations on new platforms grow, "banner blindness" is growing, says Evgenia Kazakova, operating director of the Perfluence agency. For example, the coverage of posts on Telegram has already fallen by about 10-15%, according to Smart Ranking. However, experts call the trend "uncritical." You can still stand out on the platform by choosing "relatively free from endless advertising channels" and "non-standard integration formats."^[5]

The largest TikTok bloggers lost 72% of their income in a year

By the end of March 2023, Russian million-plus bloggers posting short videos on TikTok lost an average of 72% of their income compared to the same period in 2022. Such data are provided by the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA). Read more here.

Revenues of Russian bloggers selling trainings increased by 24%

The earnings of the largest nine Russian coach bloggers in 2022 increased by 24% compared to 2021 and reached 948 million rubles. At the same time, the total income of bloggers reached 4.2 billion rubles. This is evidenced by the data released in April 2023 by the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA) and the LiveDune analytics and social network management service.

The most earned in 2022:

• Valeria Chekalina (more than 1 billion rubles),
• Alexandra Mitroshina (650 million),
• Ayaz Shabudtinov (600 million),
• Oksana Samoilova (500 million),
• Goar Avetisyan (500 million),
• Elena Blinovskaya (450 million),
• Victoria Bonya (250 million),
• Inna Tliashinova (200 million)
• Nadine Serovskaya (150 million).

The success of bloggers selling various trainings may be due to the fact that their courses promote a real miracle - personal, financial, social, says the founder of the Lamp agency Evgenia Lampadova. People give money for believing that everything will be fine in their lives, added Kristina Petrova, founder of the PR Perfect communication agency.

All bloggers who receive high incomes are required to pay taxes. They must register themselves as individual entrepreneurs, explained Galina Semenova, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of State and Municipal Finance of the PRUE named after G.V. Plekhanova.

The main violation that has recently been imputed to bloggers is the use of a simplified taxation system with a permissible limit of 150 million rubles, Andrei News Moscow Misarov, chairman of the Bar Association, recalled in an interview with "."

But the amount of income they received significantly exceeded this figure, in connection with which they had to switch to a general taxation system, which entails a much greater burden. Bloggers deliberately avoided this, building schemes for hiding the income they received, "outweighing" part of the income to acquaintances and relatives, the lawyer said.[6]

Revenues of the top 10 Russian video bloggers on YouTube fell by 12.5% to 1.1 billion rubles

The total advertising revenues of the top 10 Russian video bloggers on YouTube in 2022 reached 1.1 billion rubles, which is 12.45%, or 155.9 million rubles, less than a year earlier, when earnings were measured at 1.25 billion rubles. This is evidenced by the data of the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA), which were released in early March 2023.

As they write Sheets"" with reference to the representative of the ABA, the study was carried out on the basis of counting visible integrations in the materials of bloggers. Hidden types of advertising, such as product placement, were not taken into account, experts say.

Ida Galich

According to the ABA, Ida Galich had the largest drop in advertising revenues in 2022. The creator of the Galich Ida channel (1.75 million subscribers on YouTube) earned 10 million rubles last year, which is 52.4%, or 11 million rubles lower than in 2021. Ilya Varlamov's income (varlamov channel, 4.1 million subscribers) decreased by 31.6%, or 21.5 million rubles, to 46.5 million rubles. The income of journalist Alexei Pivovarov (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) decreased by 25.7%, or 73.5 million rubles: the author of the Editors channel (3.69 million subscribers) earned 213 million rubles.

In addition to income, the top 10 video bloggers in the aggregate decreased the number of videos, as well as the number of advertising integrations - by 16.2% to 772. Some of them increase the number of advertising integrations while reducing the number of videos to optimize costs, explained ABA President Tatyana Ivanova.

The drop in the income of popular video bloggers in Content + (included in the Group4Media) was due to the fact that even those advertisers who remained in Russia were cautious about advertising on YouTube. In addition, the assignment of the status of a foreign agent also negatively affects income.^[7]

The advertising market for bloggers in Russia decreased by 40%

The volume of Russian advertising among bloggers in 2022 reached 6.6 billion rubles, a decrease of 40% compared to the indicator of a year ago in 11 billion rubles. Such data at the end of December 2022 were cited by digital producer, founder of the music publishing house DNK Music and the Didenok Team communication agency Kirill Didenok. Read more here.

YouTube channels in Africa with the highest incomes

As of the end of 2022

Instagram star gets 11 years in prison for $300 million online fraud

On November 7, 2022, the US Department of Justice announced that Nigerian blogger Ramon Olorunwa Abbas was sentenced to 135 months (more than 11 years) in federal prison. He was found guilty of fraud on the Internet and money laundering on a large scale. Read more here.

How Russian bloggers earn in the new conditions

After the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, bloggers in the Russian Federation actually lost their income, since TikTok banned Russians from downloading content, YouTube turned off the monetization of advertising, and advertisers left Instagram (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist and banned in Russia) themselves. On September 5, 2022, Kommersant Money magazine reported on how Russian bloggers earn in the new conditions.

As the representative of the creative communications agency Blacklight Yulia Elistratova said, bloggers tried to preserve their type of content and the usual formats of publications, so many from Instagram moved to Telegram, and those accustomed to shooting video content on TikTok tested platforms with similar functionality. However, not everyone managed to repeat the previous success - many turned out to be difficult to adapt in the new conditions.

How bloggers of the Russian Federation earn in the new conditions

According to Elistratova, bloggers from TikTok switched to wholesale content for two social networks at once - VK and TikTok (they began to bypass the ban on downloading videos using VPN and various services). YouTube bloggers, in turn, after blocking monetization (which brought profit to them) and media advertising on the site (which brought profit to brands) began to integrate the commercial immediately into their video.

Blogger Daria Zhgileva said that after falling income by 80% in March 2022, she began to conduct all available social networks in order to simply stay afloat. But incomes sank a lot: if earlier the girl earned 600-700 thousand rubles a month, then by September 2022 - 150-200 thousand rubles.

Financial YouTube bloggers, says Yan Art, a representative of this segment, after blocking ads on the site, found other ways to monetize content, for example, premium subscriptions, promoting their own training courses, etc.

In addition, bloggers began to master Yandex. Zen. " On this site, articles or videos are published in which advertising materials are placed. Zen itself pays a reward to bloggers for advertising. According to the service's own data, over the past six months, by the beginning of September 2022, the number of authors who publish content daily in Zen has doubled.^[8]

Russian bloggers lost up to 90% of their income in six months

In six months, Russian bloggers lost up to 90% of their income on Instagram (owned by Meta, a recognized extremist organization in the Russian Federation, its activities are prohibited in the country) and YouTube. Izvestia writes about this on July 18, 2022 with reference to the founder of the LAMPA communication agency, Evgenia Lampadova.

One of the gaming bloggers with more than 100 thousand subscribers on YouTube told the publication that his monthly income from monetizing the channel on this particular site decreased from $800 to $120 per month.

According to the community manager of 2L PR Nina Zinchenko, bloggers with millions of subscribers in social networks have lost up to 70% of their previous income. Popular among young people TikTok in March 2022, it turned off the function of downloading new videos for users from, Russia which also provoked a drop in income.

According to experts interviewed by the publication, only users who watch videos from other states or using VPNs bring income to YouTube bloggers by mid-July 2022.

Bloggers' income is formed from several sources: monetization of the site, advertising contracts, additional projects, Tatyana Ivanova, head of the Hello blogger agency, explained to the newspaper.

In connection with the shutdown of monetization on YouTube, Russian bloggers are forced to look for alternatives. Most often, content authors migrate to Telegram and VK, interviewed communications specialists told Izvestia. To make up for lost earnings, they have two ways to go. The first is to place more ads. But her excess irritates the audience and lowers loyalty. The second is to raise prices. The vast majority of bloggers follow the latter path.

Market participants noted another important trend: bloggers began to bypass the agencies through which they mainly worked with brands and directly go to advertisers. They are also looking for new ways of accommodation. Thus, advertising integrations have largely replaced prerolls - a demonstration of short advertising in front of videos.^[9]

In China, influential video bloggers without specialized education were banned from speaking out on topics of medicine and finance

On June 23, 2022, China issued legislation regarding the live broadcast industry, which lists 31 topics prohibited from discussion, on which influential video bloggers will not be able to discuss or express their opinion. Read more here.

2021

TikTok star earnings

On January 7, 2022, Forbes magazine published a rating of highly paid TikTok stars who collectively earned $55.5 million in 2021, up 200% from a year earlier. Read more here.

YouTube vlogger revenues

Chinese blogger fined a record $210 million for tax evasion

On December 20, 2021, the Tax Bureau of the Chinese e-commerce center Hangzhou fined the blogger a record 1.34 billion yuan ($210 million) for tax evasion, which is the largest fine against celebrities. Read more here.

China bans brokers from working with bloggers to attract customers

In early November 2021, Chinese supervisors banned brokerage companies from hiring influence agents and organizing live broadcasts to attract new customers. China's securities regulatory commission has notified companies that they will not be able to use the methods to attract new customers, according to the report.

The notice, which the Securities Regulatory Commission of the Middle Kingdom (CSRC) sent to brokers on October 29, 2021, says that some rules will have to be followed. In particular, it is now impossible to work with social media influencers who are not licensed brokers. The regulator noted that brokerage companies should maintain a level of professionalism and objectivity when offering their financial products, avoiding the use of sensational formulations or bizarre outfits and all that is used by influence agents on social networks. The regulator has banned making recommendations on investing money on the Internet. In fact, the Chinese government has launched a large-scale campaign to maintain a healthy environment for safer development of society and the economy, and this step is only one of the few.

China bans brokers from working with bloggers to attract customers

The latest move could have a much bigger impact on securities firms with strong internet capabilities or aggressive strategies to expand their customer base. Many of the influencers do not have working qualifications and use exaggerated words to attract the attention of customers, and this can lead to irrational investment behavior, said Shanghai Securities analyst Liu Yiqian.

Companies such as Huatai Securities and East Money Information are known to use influence agents to attract more retail customers and encourage them to use their portfolio, implying the direct impact of the measure on them and small brokerages. China is tightening scrutiny of how brokers work with retail customers, hence Chinese online brokers that are licensed outside the country are reportedly facing such regulatory uncertainty, according to Finance Magnates. An official at China's central bank said all such platforms were operating illegally.

Several Chinese trading platforms operate with overseas licenses and provide services to Chinese citizens. These brokers primarily provide stock services to trade registered Hong Kong in or to USA domestic Chinese investors. In addition, many foreign trading platforms accept mainland Chinese customers without a local license.

Many experts believe that such bans will harm Chinese business. Although they should protect inexperienced investors who buy into catchy tricks, famous personalities and loud slogans, there are many such people, and they will stop investing in companies they like.^[10]

China banned children under 16 from streaming

In July 2021, the PRC supervisory authority in the field of Internet control issued fines to the country's leading Internet services and ordered them to solve seven problems related to children's Internet. These problems include:

• participation of minors in online broadcasts, as well as the use of children on social networks in order to promote wealth and extravagance;
• distribution of pornographic material and content containing violent scenes in the children's segment of the Internet;
• distribution of cartoons of erotic and aggressive content;
• disseminating forums encouraging behavior related to suicide or participation in the filming of child pornography;
• online distribution of fan clubs with children in fundraising events;
• "Negative social behaviour" towards minors, such as online intimidation;
• ineffectiveness of measures to combat the Internet addiction of Chinese youth.

Chinese authorities banned online broadcasts to people under 16

The Chinese authorities have banned online broadcasts (streams), as well as, participation in them for persons under 16 years old, the exploitation of minors in order to receive income on the Internet. In addition, the supervisory authority in the field of Internet control demanded that representatives of online services prevent the distribution of content demonstrating "wealth and worship of money" and "extravagant delights" in the children's segment of the Internet. This is stated in a statement by the State Administration of the People's Republic of China on Cyberspace, published on the agency's website.

Among the fined companies were such large Chinese media concerns as Tencent and Alibaba. The Chinese supervisory authority in the field of Internet control has set a deadline for online service specialists to remove inappropriate content that violates the established rules, although the regulator's statement did not disclose either the time frame for the companies to eliminate the identified violations or the amount of fines.

Major Chinese internet companies have come under increasing scrutiny from watchdogs this year as Beijing tightens its grip on the tech space.^[11][12]

Norway passed a law obliging bloggers to indicate "photoshop" in their photos

In early July 2021, Norway passed a law that obliges all bloggers and influencers with a large number of subscribers to mark photos that have been changed by filters or using snapshot editing software, including Adobe Photoshop.

The new requirements for the publication of photographs are part of amendments to the law on advertising, the date of entry into force of the amendments will be determined by the King of Norway. The official website of the government says that bloggers in paid posts are obliged to put a special mark signaling a change in the photo of the proportions of the face or body, skin condition. The law also covers various social media filters and digital editors. The rationale for the law is that covert photo editing affects "social insecurity, unclean conscience, low self-esteem, or contributes to physical pressure."

Norway passed a law that obliges bloggers to indicate "photoshop" in their photos

We hope that this measure will make a significant contribution to containing the negative impact of such advertising, especially on children and young people, the publication notes.

The law covers advertisers as well as social media influencers and content creators, The Hill reported. Photographers who shoot for photojournals, as well as people who create other advertising works, will also adhere to the new requirements.

In a survey conducted in the UK, a majority of children under the age of 18 said images on social media "extremely affected" their perception of the body. Only 5% of them said they were not going to consider diets or surgeries for any change in their appearance. Other research has shown that social media can positively influence body perception, particularly when people post body positivity-oriented content, but much of the impact of social media does have a negative impact. ^[13]

2020

The earnings of Russian Instagram bloggers reached 5.8 billion rubles, 204 thousand advertising publications were posted - ADinBlog

In 2020, Russian bloggers earned about 5.77 billion rubles from advertising on Instagram, posting more than 204 thousand advertisements. This is stated in a study by ADinBlog, which offers search and analysis services for Instagram accounts for advertising. Read more here.

Top 10 Russians who earned the most on Instagram in a year

At the end of August 2020, Forbes magazine presented a rating of 15 Russian Instagram bloggers with the largest advertising revenues in this service. The first place in the list was taken by TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak, who earned $1.48 million in a year (from May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020). Sobchak was the leader in advertising earnings on Instagram and in the previous ranking. Read more here.

2019

Largest by revenue interviewers on Youtube in Russia

In February 2020, at the request of Kommersant, the SALO advertising agency, which cooperates with many bloggers, calculated the revenue of the largest channels operating mainly in this genre^[14] up^[14].

The most popular channels by the number of subscribers and views were considered. In an attempt to estimate their advertising revenues, SALO took into account the number of advertising integrations on each channel for 2019 and the average cost of placement by price list.

Other income of bloggers (the cost of using their image, other agreements with advertisers, seasonal price fluctuations), as well as monetization from YouTube (videos that interrupt videos) were not taken into account - as a rule, such advertising is sold according to an auction scheme, taking into account contact with the audience, and its share in the revenue of bloggers is extremely small. The market is opaque, but there are no other methods yet, warns Alexander Kuksa.

The spending part of the bloggers' budgets was calculated by the Players agency. It tried to estimate the cost of producing one issue, based on the minimum costs of the film crew, editor and producer, post-production and equipment, but excluding logistics. The work of the team takes 20-60% of the channel's revenues, estimated in SALO.

As a result, Yuri Dud took the first place in the ranking with a revenue of 57.5 million rubles. and the average cost of producing one video is 225 thousand rubles. Only Ksenia Sobchak spends more than him, and Regina Todorenko turned out to be the second in terms of revenue by a wide margin. Her show "Friday with Regina" was released in the summer of 2018 on the channel "Friday," and then moved to YouTube.

Closes the top three of Irina Shikhman's show "And Talk?," Owned by Moscow Media. The press service of Moscow Media told Kommersant that the holding is no longer engaged in the production and production of the project.

Until recently, no one thought to perceive YouTube as a serious alternative to television with original content. The online platform was rather entertainment for schoolchildren who subscribed to popular peers and watched videos, for example, about how blogger Iwangai went to a hairdresser.

But the situation is beginning to change. In just a couple of years, several dozen projects have appeared online, made according to the canons of television shows - with professional video packaging, scripts, editors and fact-checking. The content has become more serious, complex and structured, entire television genres have moved to YouTube, and well-known viewers Leonid Parfenov, Alexey Pivovarov or Ksenia Sobchak have become able to develop them on a regular basis.

Freedom remains the main trump card of YouTube before TV, says Tatyana Stolyarchuk, optimization manager of the Yoola media network working with video bloggers. Although the platform has its own rules, it at least allows you to "ask the uncomfortable." "The interviewer may ask about politics, faith, censorship, personal and much more that virtually all programs on TV cannot afford. Often questions are very uncomfortable for the guest. Sometimes they cross the line of business ethics and standards of decency. But, as we have already seen, this is what the audience wants, "she states. There is no editorial policy on YouTube, authors can choose their own questions and express a personal opinion, so part of journalism moves there from television, agrees Evgenia Panova, director of social media at Media Direction Group.

YouTube channels of Russian-speaking children have become one of the main trends in 2019

At the end of December 2019, Business Insider compiled a list of the fastest growing YouTube channels, on which, according to the social media analytics site Social Blade, more than 10 million subscribers were registered. This year, the projects of several Russian-speaking children got into the top YouTube. Diana's channel from Kyiv Kids Diana Show is in fourth place on the top (40 million subscribers), and Nastya Radzinskaya with two channels takes third and 15th positions.

Five-year-old Kyiv girl Diana hosts the Kids Diana Show. She has already gained 41 million subscribers, and the increase in 2019 amounted to 25 million users. Kids Diana Show allows users to follow the tricks of Diana and her brother Roma. On the channel, parents of children show Diana and Roma unpacking gifts, playing and making fantastic adventures.

YouTube star Anastasia Radzinskaya, runs two channels at once - English-language Stacy Toys and Russian-language Like Nastya Blog and earns about $18 million a year

Another YouTube star, Anastasia Radzinskaya, runs two channels at once - the English-language Stacy Toys and the Russian-language Like Nastya Blog. According to Forbes, the five-year-old star, who was born in Russia and now lives in Florida, earns about $18 million a year thanks to his success on the Internet. Forbes reports that the Radzinskaya family plans to expand its influence on YouTube by releasing a special line of toys, mobile games and even books. In the meantime, they are posting videos of Nastya playing, travelling with her family and revealing gifts.

In 2019, both channels were ranked among the top fastest growing YouTube channels. Stacy Toys has 23.1 million subscribers by the end of December, of which 13 million appeared in 2019. Like Nastya Blog has 27 million subscribers in 2019, so the total number of viewers is almost 42 million. Anastasia Radzinskaya ranks third in the ranking of the highest paid bloggers.^[15]

5-year-old Russian woman entered the top three highest paid YouTube bloggers in the world

Anastasia Radzinskaya took third place in the updated ranking of the highest paid YouTube- in the bloggers world, which in December 2019 compiled a magazine. Forbes The annual income of a 5-year-old Russian woman was estimated at $18 million. Brands like and cooperate with her Lego. Danone More. here

Forbes first calculated the earnings of Russian bloggers

On July 25, 2019, the Russian division of Forbes published an updated rating of the most successful Russian celebrities under 40 years old. For the first time, it included video bloggers of Runet with the highest incomes.

Among them, Ksenia Sobchak is in the lead (12th place in the overall ranking) with an income of $1 million. On Instagram, 6.5 million users subscribed to Sobchak, on YouTube her video was watched more than 55.8 million times (at the time of publication of the rating).

In July 2019, Russian Forbes named Runet vloggers with the highest incomes

The five most successful Russian bloggers also included the following persons:

• Nastya Ivleeva, 14th place - income of $0.9 million, 12.4 million subscribers on Instagram, more than 175.7 million views on YouTube;

• Yuri Dud, 18th place - income of $1.4 million, 2.2 million subscribers on Instagram, more than 665.6 million views on YouTube;

• Wylsacom (Valentin Petukhov), 21st place - income of $2.7 million, 1.7 million followers on Instagram, 1.6 billion views on YouTube. An important source of his earnings is a contract with Sberbank: the blogger has been his ambassador since 2017;

• Kate Clapp (Ekaterina Trofimova), 27th place - income of $0.5 million, 7.2 million followers on Instagram, more than 790.8 million views on YouTube.

Blogger Sasha Spielberg earned $0.7 million and took 30th  place in the ranking. Musician Ilya Prusikin, founder of the Little Big group, earned $1 million in a year and received 35th place in the ranking of stars. According to the calculations of the publication, Maxim Golopolosov, known as Max + 100500, earned $0.7 million over the year (36th place in the ranking). Former KVN and Instagram blogger Ida Galich took 39th place in the ranking with an income of $0.8 million.

Forbes notes that YouTube in recent years not only gives birth to young stars, but also opens the second wind in established journalists. At the same time, the second most important platform for Russian bloggers is the Instagram photo service.^[16]

2018

The richest YouTube bloggers in Russia - RIAB

The Russian Bloggers Research Agency (RIAB) conducted a study and compiled a rating, which included 15 YouTube bloggers in the Russian Federation with the highest incomes in 2018.

According to experts, during the calculations, it was the income that was taken into account, and not the total profit of bloggers. Approximate revenues were calculated based on market prices for advertising. The list contains only those bloggers for whom YouTube is the main platform in social networks.

The richest blogger was Wylsacom (technoblogger Valentin Petukhov), whose income amounted to 82 million rubles in 2018. In second place is Yuri Dud (78.2 million rubles), which, according to experts, is actively increasing its audience. The journalist's number of views in his video interview fell below 3 million only once when the video about Oleg Tabakov was published.

The top three richest Russian YouTube bloggers included the food blogger Oblomoff, who earned 52.5 million rubles on advertising. Almost every day, it publishes reviews of restaurants, food delivery services and recipes for original meals. The entire list is presented below:

15 richest YouTube bloggers in Russia in 2018

The total volume of the advertising market in social networks RIAB estimated at 5-7 billion rubles, of which most of it falls on YouTube.

This rating is not a demonstration of the wealth of certain bloggers, but an indicator of the growth and development of the industry that appeared around YouTube as a platform, the authors of the study warn.

The report also notes that by 2018, many major YouTube channels have not one person recording video on a home camera, but full-fledged production companies that release a large amount of high-quality and expensive content every day. Most of the revenue they earn is spent producing new videos.^[17]

Earlier in December 2018, the American edition of The Daily Dot determined the worst blogger of the outgoing year. It was Logan Paul, whose blog is built on insults and bullying.

Forbes named the 10 highest paid YouTube bloggers

In early December 2018, Forbes magazine named the 10 highest paid YouTube bloggers. When compiling the rating, the publication calculated revenues from June 1, 2017 to June 1, 2018, before paying taxes and excluding spending on agents, managers and lawyers.

The top ten is a 7-year-old U.S. resident named Ryan posting online toy reviews on his Ryan ToysReview YouTube channel. According to the publication, Ryan earned $22 million from videos. As of December 2018, Ryan ToysReview has more than 17.3 million subscribers.

Forbes magazine presented a list of YouTube bloggers with the highest earnings for 2018

In second place is the popular American blogger Jake Paul, whose annual income, according to Forbes, is $21.5 million. His videos with rap compositions and pranks are watched by over 17.6 million people.

The top three also included the Dude Perfect channel, which is hosted by a team of five. In their videos, young people show off clever and funny tricks. The total earnings of Dude Perfect in Forbes were estimated at $20 million. The audience of the channel is more than 36.8 million.

In 4th place is a fan of the popular computer game Minecraft Daniel Middleton from the UK, who has 20.7 million subscribers. On video game reviews, the Briton earned $18.5 million.

Closed the top 5 American makeup artist and model Jeffrey Star (Jeffree Star), whose video blog is devoted to makeup lessons and reviews of cosmetics. Thanks to more than 11 million subscribers, the shocking artist enriched himself by $18 million.

Further in the ranking are several gamers and commentators of computer games at once. Among them - the owner of the YouTube channel Markiplier Mark Edward Fischbach (Mark Edward Fischbach) with an annual income of $17.5 million; Canadian Evan Fong and his VanossGaming channel ($17 million); Irishman Sean McLoughlin, leading channel Jacksepticeye ($16 million), and Swede Felix Kjellberg, known under the pseudonym PewDiePie ($15.5 million). Blogger Logan Paul is on the 10th line with an income of $14.5 million.

Together, YouTube stars earned more than $180 million, improving last year's result by 42%, Forbes calculated.^[18]

How much video bloggers earn

Such a huge amount of money is made by video bloggers on their channels YouTube from advertising? A study by Mathias Bärtl, a professor at the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, commissioned by Bloomberg, showed that almost 97% of professional YouTubers receive less than the living wage in. USA This was reported in early March 2018 by the New York Post.

The expert found out that 3% of the most popular YouTube channels, the number of views in which exceeds 1.4 million per month, bring their creators $16,800 advertising revenue per year. This is slightly more than the $12,140 per person poverty line in the United States, and is comparable to the $16,460 living wage for two-person households^[19]

As a rule, owners of YouTube channels receive money from sponsorship brands, for showing products in their videos and displaying ads. When counting, Matthias Bertl proceeded from the standard rate of $1 per 1000 views, which advertisers on average pay video bloggers.

3% of the most viewed YouTube channels attract more than 1.4 million views per month

Of course, young people who dream of a career in YouTube want to become megastars, but only a few succeed. According to the researcher, only 1% of the most successful video bloggers had views in 2016 ranging from 2.2 to 42.1 million per month. Data on the earnings of such YouTubers are not given: they receive additional bonuses from sponsors and from other sources, so it is more difficult to calculate their income, the specialist explained.

Another scenario is more common.

We never managed to earn more than $1,000 a month, and for some months we received only $600 by shooting 4 videos. This activity can only be profitable if you are among the 2% of the most popular video bloggers, "said Nick Buongiovanni, 25, from New Jersey, who began with YouTube videos, in an interview with the New York Post.

However, the experience was not in vain: the young man took advantage of the skills gained and in 2017 created his own business to help companies promote content on social networks.^[20]

Notes