Cape Town - Video-sharing site YouTube is the most watched video source worldwide. With over a billion users and some 400 hours of video content uploaded every minute (according to YouTube statistics), the social media platform that turned 10 last year is fast becoming a cash cow for people who post videos that generate views.
YouTubers or YouTube personalities have huge fanbases and are becoming as big as celebrities.
They have profitable careers without leaving their homes, and the video content or vlogs (video blogs) they produce vary from lifestyle to do-it-yourself (DIY) videos. Celebrated YouTube superstars include American beauty guru vlogger Michelle Phan who has made a name for herself by recreating the makeup looks of celebrities and characters from Game of Thrones. Another is UK-based Alfie Deyes of the Pointless Vlog who has made a career of making funny videos, often featuring his girlfriend Zoella.
Deyes’s fame later led to the release of his debut book, The Pointless Book.
Teju Ajani, responsible for YouTube content partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa, says this product of Google Inc is active in eight African countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Senegal.
Independent content producers give Google permission to run ads on their channels and earn revenue from this advertising.
Google SA recently brought together local YouTube influencers and selected brands for an afternoon of networking at the Woodstock Exchange. A similar event was held in Joburg last year.
The event was attended by some of the country’s most popular YouTubers, including gaming guru Grant Hinds, comedian Anne Hirsch, web developer Quentin Watt, actress Theodora Lee, comic siblings Maya and Kahlil, lifestyle vlogger Simply Refilwe, radio personality Mark Fitzgibbon, social commentator Sibu Mpanza and three-year-old DJ Arch junior.
Although most of them are not yet generating revenue from their vlogs, they are the country’s most followed YouTubers.
Young DJ Arch is the most interesting of the group. The toddler, whose real name is Oratilwe Hlongwane, lives in Alexandra in Joburg and has won a number of fans with his DJ skills.
Watching him play a game on his portable game console at the event, he seems oblivious of the fame that surrounds him as the youngest person to win the recent SA’s Got Talent title.
With 65 800 Instagram followers and 158 000 Facebook fans, he spends most of his time performing in various parts of Africa.
His father Glen Hlongwane says that while other children were playing with toys, Oratilwe would be busy with his DJ equipment.
“He is a kid who spends a lot of time with his parents. I would allow him to mess around with my equipment while I was practising. Even though we could see that he had a natural talent for it, we didn’t take it seriously – until this video I sent to a friend went viral.
“From then people started asking about him. Things happened so quickly after that. We opened a Facebook page and within two weeks he had over 10 000 followers,” says Hlongwane.
Despite the fame, DJ Arch lives a normal life, which includes going to day care and playing with children his age, his father explains.
“What you see on social media is not what is happening in real time. A lot of people think he has this busy life and they don’t realise that some of his posts are things he did a long time ago.
“From 8am until 5pm he is at creche and doesn’t practice until the weekend.
“When he has a gig I allow him to practice the day before. He is so easy to manage because he has the talent and he loves the attention he gets from the crowd.”
The Visser siblings Maya and Kahlil from Cape Town make funny movies about a range of things, including “How to eat an Oreo without making a mess”.
Their lives haven’t changed since they began filming parody videos in September, says Maya.
“We first started with a parody of Suzelle DIY (a SA YouTube star) and it got 50 000 views. The content is mostly our ideas, things that kids like us are interested in,” says Kahlil.
Social commentator and UCT student Sibu Mpanza enjoys ruffling feathers and getting people to talk about sensitive topics such as racism and perceptions of masculinity in fashion.
“I had a lot of wi-fi and a lot of time at UCT to watch a lot of random videos. One day I came across a number of videos of people in their homes talking about nothing in particular. I realised that there is this whole community, people that I can identify with who talk to cameras and it feels very homely because you are in their rooms,” says Mpanza.
“Using a friend’s camera I made my first YouTube video. At first I made the mistake of thinking you have to be funny to survive on YouTube… I tried very hard to be funny and to be a comedian, it got the views but I realised this wasn’t me.
“After a while the content become more me and more and more people started watching. When I started talking about social issues it blew up… I think people like the opinion of a middle class black guy talking about issues of racism, gender and current affairs.
“I am much happier since I started my YouTube channel. As difficult as varsity may be, I love being on the internet. I have become someone I am proud of. My channel has opened a lot of doors for me,” he adds.