By Marie Lora-Mungai
Despite the growing popularity of other platforms such as TikTok, YouTube is still king when it comes to reach and revenue for creators.
With 14.3 billion visits per month, it is the 2nd most-visited website in the world after Google (which owns YouTube).
694,000 hours of video are streamed on the platform every minute compared to 452,000 for Netflix.
CashNetUSA looked at the top YouTubers in every country to compile a “YouTube Rich List”
What we derived from the data:
- Africa is far, far behind other continents when it comes to revenue. Africa’s “richest” channel is Egypt’s Creative Crafts in 5 Minutes, which generated close to $9M.
- It may seem like a lot, but all other continents have channels above $40M.
- 4 out of the only 8 African channels that generated above $1M are located in North Africa. Special shout out to Nigeria’s Mark Angel ($4m) and Uganda’s Masaka Kids ($1.3M). Search the Kenyan top channel at your own peril. Africa’s digital creators are held back by persistent issues with connectivity.
- The article puts internet penetration in Africa at 22% but it’s actually 43% (at least). Still, it’s not enough. YouTube in Africa also suffers from a lack of advertising inventory.
- Also, ads are cheaper in Africa than elsewhere, which means less revenue for creators. But of course, as you all know, where there is a challenge, there is an opportunity.
- American kids’ channel Cocomelon is the highest-earning YouTube channel of all time, with an estimated $282.8M amassed since its creation in 2006.
- In fact, channels with content made for children were the most profitable in 5 of the 6 continents.
- Africa has the youngest population in the world. Case made. Some African creators have recognized this opportunity.
- Nigerian kids channel OmoBerry by Limitless Studios has reached 53.6M views, and is clocking an additional 250,000 views every day.
