Do your children dream of YouTube stardom? Crush that ambition now

'Success' on YouTube still means a life of poverty

Do your children dream of YouTube stardom? Do them a favour: Crush that ambition now.

New research out of Germany billed as among the first to review the chances of making it in the new Hollywood shows a vanishingly small number will ever break through—just like in the old Hollywood.

In fact, 96.5 percent of all of those trying to become YouTubers won’t make enough money from advertising to crack the US poverty line, according to research by Mathias Bärtl, a professor at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg.

Breaking into the top three percent of most-viewed channels could bring in advertising revenue of about $16,800 a year, Bärtl found in an analysis for Bloomberg News. That’s a bit more than the US federal poverty line of $12,140 for a single person. (The guideline for a two-person household is $16,460.) The top three percent of video creators of all time in Bärtl’s sample attracted more than 1.4 million views per month.

“If you’re a series regular on a network TV show, you’re getting a good amount of money,” said Alice Marwick, an assistant professor of communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Yet you can have half a million followers on YouTube and still be working at Starbucks.”

Children born after YouTube was created in 2005 have grown up surrounded by videos churned out by performers such as Jake Paul, PewDiePie and Zoella, whose clips about their daily lives, video gaming and fashion, respectively, have turned YouTuber into a popular career goal.

One in three British children age 6 to 17 told pollsters last year that they wanted to become a full-time YouTuber. That’s three times as many as those who wanted to become a doctor or a nurse.