Influencers live a pandemic-free fantasy, Quibi dismisses 'YouTuber ideas,' and what's happening with Shane Dawson
Happy Thursday!
This is Amanda Perelli and welcome back to Influencer Dashboard, our weekly rundown of what's new in the influencer and creator economy.
Before we get started, I want to first introduce a new reporter on BI's business of influencers team: Sydney Bradley! You can reach Sydney and say hi at sbradley@businessinsider.com and on Twitter @SydneyKBradley. She will be covering Instagram, TikTok, and all things related to the business of internet creators and influencers.
And now to the news.
This week, Dan Whateley and I wrote a piece on the influencers who are ignoring the coronavirus pandemic on social media, and how Los Angeles health officials want these creators to stop living a dangerous, mask-free fantasy.
LA is bracing for a potentially devastating wave of coronavirus cases as COVID-19 transmissions and hospitalizations both spiked this week.
But for many of LA's celebrities and influencers, it appears life has returned to normal, with some choosing to collaborate without masks in videos, host parties, and in some cases travel out of the country.
Here are some examples:
Influencer and MTV star Tana Mongeau threw a two-day birthday bash at a Beverly Hills mansion last week and documented the event on Instagram.
Music artist Jason Derulo, who has over 25 million followers on TikTok, has been appearing in group videos with other TikTok stars throughout June.
A Capitol Records exec hosted a birthday party over the weekend in Los Angeles. TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling (48 million followers), musician Madison Beer, along with Netflix's "Too Hot to Handle" star Harry Jowsey and others were seen in photos of the party without masks and in close proximity to other guests. It was also sponsored.
For marketers who are trying to keep up with varying guidelines across the country, this is "a challenging issue."
"Unfortunately, it seems like over the last few weeks we've become victims to 'Caution Fatigue' and reverted back to the behavior that caused our new cases to spike in the first place," YouTube star Doctor Mikhail (Mike) Varshavski wrote recently.
But LA health officials are urging influencers to be social-distancing role models instead.
"If you're an influencer or have the ability to influence people in any space whether you're a celebrity or on the internet — whatever your sphere of influence — please take that responsibility seriously," Dr. Christina Ghaly, LA County's director of health services, said on Monday.
Some have been. Influencers like Doctor Mike and Tyler Oakley have expressed to their followers why it's important to still wear a mask and stay six feet apart from someone.
Read our analysis on the influencers ignoring the coronavirus, here.
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Quibi dismissed 'YouTuber ideas' in favor of familiar TV formats
"How would you fix Quibi?"
Earlier this month, New Yorker staff writer Emily Nussbaum raised that question on Twitter.
One person who tweeted in response was Ludlow Ventures partner Blake Robbins, who recommended that Quibi invest in digital creators like David Dobrik and Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) who bring in millions of views on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
It turns out some top creators had tried to pitch Quibi but came away disappointed.
Ashley Rodriguez and I spoke to influencer industry insiders who said that Quibi rejected ideas that it felt were too close to what would appear on the creators' own social-media channels, and gravitated toward familiar TV formats instead.
"It was super frustrating because we thought that we had a few good ideas and they were automatically shut down because they were quote unquote 'YouTuber ideas,' which I thought was very strange," said a YouTube talent manager, who asked not to be named to protect future deal prospects.
Read more about how Quibi pursued digital creators, here.
YouTube money stats: creators share earnings per view and other monetization metrics
Revenue from Google ads is a big chunk of many YouTube stars' incomes.
So, how much do they make?
Over the last few months, I have spoken with dozens of YouTube creators about how much each of them earn on average per 1,000 views (their CPMs), and on videos with 100,000, 1 million, and even 150 million views.
Some also shared with me their monthly and yearly incomes from YouTube, as well as their highest-earning videos of all time.
Here are some highlights:
A video with 100,000 views earned creators we spoke with anywhere between $500 and $2,500.
1 million views varied significantly, between $3,600 and $40,000.
The most amount of money YouTube had paid them for a single video ran as high as $97,000.
This is a part of a new series we started called YouTube money logs, where top creators reveal how much they earn.
Check out the comprehensive breakdown of what they said, here.
What else happened on BI this week:
The talent firms racing to sign TikTok stars: Talent managers and agents from both upstart companies and legacy Hollywood talent firms are at war to sign the next generation of digital stars.
Introducing: Ask an influencer
We are adding a new feature to the newsletter: Ask an influencer. Submit your questions about the industry or for creators by replying to this email. We'll answer your questions in an upcoming issue of Influencer Dashboard. Stay tuned!
This week from Insider's digital culture team:
This week, beauty YouTuber Tati Westbrook dropped a new video claiming that Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star "manipulated" her into starting the 2019 beauty-guru war.
Insider covered the drama, dubbed "Karmageddon."
- Westbrook apologized for her feud with James Charles: Kat Tenbarge wrote an explainer on the video Westbrook released, where she said other YouTubers manipulated her into attacking beauty influencer James Charles last year. She also said that YouTube asked her to private her video slamming James Charles because it was a "bad look."
Dawson streamed his live reaction: Lindsay Dodgson wrote that Dawson went live on Instagram and recorded his reaction, in which he said Westbrook was "fake crying." His fiancé Ryland Adams also responded, calling her a "two-faced liar."
How the internet turned against Dawson and Star: Kat broke down a timeline of the history behind the controversial creators.
YouTube suspended monetization on Dawson's channels: Earlier this week, after growing backlash online against his old content (which includes him wearing blackface, and using racist stereotypes and slurs) YouTube demonetized all three of Dawson's channels.
Morphe removed Dawson's makeup range: Lindsay wrote that the makeup brand Morphe removed all of Dawson's collection from its website. (And Target is removing his books from stores.)
Star is not a co-owner of Morphe: Westbrook said that she believed Star was a co-owner of Morphe Cosmetics. But Rachel Greenspan reported that the claim was untrue.
Here's what else we're reading:
YouTube bans creators for hate speech: Julia Alexander from The Verge wrote that the platform banned several prominent white supremacist channels, including Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer.
Claudia Conway's anti-Trump and pro-BLM TikToks: Connor Perrett from Insider spoke with Kellyanne Conway's 15-year-old daughter who said her father, prominent Trump critic George Conway, supports her speaking her mind, but her mother has asked her to delete the videos.
Ingrid Nilsen (missglamorazzi) is leaving YouTube after 11 years: Geoff Weiss from Tubefilter wrote about the announcement Nilsen uploaded to YouTube, where she has 3.6 million subscribers.
BI digital event: 'Planning for the Future in Uncertain Times'
Business Insider's Master Your Money series, which is designed to help millennials take charge of their financial future, is hosting a digital event "Planning for the Future in Uncertain Times," on July 8 at 12 pm ET. Presented by Fidelity, the event will explore components of a strong financial plan and how to adjust it given recent events. Click here to register.
Thanks for reading! Send me your tips, comments, or questions: aperelli@businessinsider.com.