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YouTube star MrBeast buys youth-focused financial services app Step (www.cnbc.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 75 points 9 months ago (13 children)

This guy is creepy AF. I must be too old to understand the appeal of YouTubers.

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  • [+] 19 points 9 months ago* (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago*

    I prefer watching YouTube videos where no one talks, they just do, building things, working on cars, etc. These kids screaming into a mic "LETS GOOOOO!!" about every little thing and pranking and all that shit is just obnoxious.

    I also enjoy those Police Activity videos too, so I suppose I just don't follow the typical "influencer" hype either. Other than that, YouTube is great for various content.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    I see millions of followers but their streams don’t give off a vibe of someone with charisma worthy of that type of obsession.

    At some point, Youtube customers only watch the videos to get some kind of personal relationship with the YouTuber.

    Lock Picking Lawyer explains why he is anonymous, and just how weird/dangerous youtube fans can get.

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  • [–] 38 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (8 children)

    to understand the appeal of YouTubers.

    Come on, are you really putting all the Youtubers in the same boat as MrBeast ?

    Take a look at channels like :

    • Veritasium
    • Technology connections

    They only share a platform with MrBeast but it's not fair to compare them to that prominent idiot.

    It's akin to saying all books are bad because you didn't like your last book..

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I watch a lot of YouTuber myself. Answers with Joe being one of my favorites.

    I can’t help but feel like there’s something off about him. Like years from they’ll find a bunch of dead homeless guys in his garage or something.

    It might just be that smile, or the over enthusiastic way he talks. Like all preformers are fake. Joe from answers with Joe is also putting on a performance but Mr beast it just like an alien pretending to be a human.

    And games just feel problematic and exploitative, on the other hand poor people have done far more degrading things for lesser domes of money.

    Anyway long story short there’s just something about him that creeps me out

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    There was a former employee for MrBeast (Donaldson) who posted 2 very long videos about his time working for him:

    Allegations from DogPack404 On July 24, 2024, former employee DogPack404 posted a YouTube video accusing Donaldson of staging contests, running illegal lotteries, falsifying signatures, and misleading viewers.[172][173][174] He followed with an interview of former staffer Jake Weddle, who described being denied sleep during productions, said the team employed Jake Franklin's brother-in-law despite his status as a registered sex offender, and alleged that a cameraman tried to intoxicate female participants with paint fumes.[174] Weddle identified the cameraman as "Delaware", claiming Donaldson knew about his conviction, which stemmed from an incident when Delaware was 16 and the victim was 11.[175]

    https://wikipedia.org/wiki/DogPack404#cite_ref-173

    The videos he posted are long (~51 and 54 min), but he does comment a lot on MrBeast's character while making his case against him. His second video focuses a lot more on this and he brings in another former employee while showing off some screenshots of others who wanted to remain more anonymous.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHFvR0ArXPs

    He mentioned a part 3 video, but never posted it.

    On the other side, Legal Eagle offers a shorter video, focused only on the legal aspects of the DogPack's allegations in the first video. Basically, MrBeast is likely protected by whatever waivers he has his employees/contestants sign.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4CePWWN1Xs

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago* (3 children)

    I will say it's a little ironic you mentioned Veritasium considering the channel was literally bought into by a corporation focused and maximizing revenue of YouTube channels. Good content, sure, but I think it's indicative of exactly what's wrong with the platform as a whole.

    Also, to everyone and no one, if you like the content from Technology Connections, Veritasium, etc., AlphaPhoenix is likely your speed, too.

    E. Fixed channel name

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    If the content is still good, and it allows hiring more people and produce more of the good content, then what's the problem with the channel being bought? Sure, it may enshittify in the future, but let's not judge them for things that haven't happened.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    Capitalism is caustic. A company positioning itself to ride the success of others to maximize their own profits is too reminiscent of the music industry for my tastes. Secondarily, I've gone through this so many times with so many other platforms. The "maximally grow the user base" phase is the beginning of the enshitification process. It's much easier in my mind to abandon ship at this phase, rather than help them build a bigger mouse trap with my ad revenue, to ensnare the next hapless fool.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (1 child)

    Come on, are you really putting all the Youtubers in the same boat as MrBeast ?

    465 million followers.

    Veritasium

    20 million followers. Now owned by a private equity.

    Technology connections

    3 million followers

    Jake Paul

    21 million followers

    I rest my case about YouTube users.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago*

    I think you just contradicted yourself.

    I rest my case about generalization.

    Also what does their audience has to do with the fact that you equate a Veritasium channel to a MrBeast channel ?

    It's weird because you started by saying you didn't understand Youtubers and now you are comparing the audience of entirely different channel.

    It's fine you had a stereotypical conception of Youtubers, you dont need to change the subject.

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    • [–] 23 points 9 months ago

    Youth focused what now? Fucking hell

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    [–] 10 points 9 months ago

    What could possibly go wrong?

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    [–] 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I'm so glad my kids are grown up now.

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    • [–] 7 points 9 months ago

    This dude had his 15 minutes of fame. Can he just fade into obscurity now.

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    [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    He'll be making that big interest money from all of that credit debt, but for a younger crowd.

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    [–] 4 points 9 months ago*

    The other day we were at my SIL's and all the nephews and nieces were unsupervised watching AI slop on youtube (they seldom are, but it was one of those mornings) then one of them changes channel and it's MrBeast, auto-dubbed by youtube... doing a show where he locks up a guy in a fake store and.... the premise made no sense at all, the show was essentially a typical dumb TV game/show from 20 years ago : gratuitous premise, vacuous talk and lots of money involved (the guy made like 100 grand from putting items in carts and living inside the fake store for a month). And once in a while the MrBeast itself appeared and gave the camera this creepy smile, saying "I gotta go now, I have a shoot planned in Africa!" I rolled my eyes. "In Africa". It could be anywhere... That guy is ignorant to top it off

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