THROUGHOUT all these so many years, well-meaning government officials, politicians and other concerned citizens have been making plans or designing policies that they say will help “expand” the workforce. Meanwhile, their intended “beneficiaries” continue to make their own plans and their own decisions about their future careers, and that’s just how it is, and how it should be anyway in the land of the free.
And right now, more and more individuals — the young, the very young, the not so old and the quite old — are learning about new and lucrative career opportunities that require only two things: internet connection and a smartphone or laptop.
From the Wall Street Journal:
“Jakey Boehm has more than a million online followers…. Every night at 10 p.m., the 28-year-old puts on PJs, climbs into bed, and tosses and turns to an international audience watching on TikTok Live. His monthly take from online fans, he said, averages $35,000 a month.” Or about $420,000 a year. He sleeps for a living.
Boehm, who lives on Australia’s Gold Coast, said he is “using his earnings to save up for a house and to support mental-health charities.”
On YouTube, the Wall Street Journal said, the three most popular live-action kids channels in the world are “Vlad and Niki,” “Like Nastya” and “Kids Diana Show.” The kids, who are not even 10 years old, have nearly 300 million YouTube subscribers between them. “Across the three channels, the videos play like live-action cartoons in a suburban fantasy land. Kids dress up like superheroes, crawl over giant vegetables and drive around in motorized toy cars. Mom and dad are sidekicks.” They’re now “expanding into everything from streaming shows to branded toys to licensing deals, all worth tens of millions of dollars.”
According to the Journal, toy makers “pay the young celebrities to play with their products. Rates can range anywhere from $75,000 to more than $300,000…. ‘You can create a global franchise without a major studio,’ says Dan Weinstein, who represents ‘Vlad and Niki’ under the banner of his company Underscore Talent and has helped other internet sensations cross over to traditional media channels. ‘I think that’s pretty mind-blowing to think about.’ ”
Citing Credit Suisse estimates, the Journal said advertisers were expected to spend $29.5 billion on YouTube in 2022.
Another YouTube content creator, Justin Watkins, is known for “making videos of himself playing and commenting on games such as Roblox, for an audience of mostly young children,” the Journal said. Recently, a startup offered him more than $2 million in exchange for the advertising revenues from his thousands of old videos.
“Investment firms for years have sought to lock up income streams from assets such as mineral rights and songwriter catalogs, with classic-rockers Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen cashing in for hundreds of millions of dollars. Now YouTube videos are becoming their own asset class.”
Think and grow rich? It’s now post and grow rich.
On TikTok, one of the biggest stars is Charli D’Amelio who started posting dance videos when she was 14. With over 144 million followers, she has earned $17.5 million from 2021 to 2022 alone. She’s 18 now with a net worth of $20 million. Some say she’s on track to becoming a billionaire by 2033 when she’s 29.
As for many younger kids nowadays, cash is no longer king.
“Like many parents,” the Journal reported, “Greg and Selena Robleto offered to pay their kids for doing household chores. The couple quickly learned their money was no good.
“The girls wanted to be paid in Robux — the online currency in videogames from Roblox Corp. — and turned up their noses at the crinkled, paper dollars the couple was offering.
“ ‘They were handing it right back to me and saying, “Can you convert this to Robux?” ’ said Mr. Robleto, a 46-year-old web designer in Rockville, Md. ‘I don’t even need to have cash in the house. I can just go online and put $5 into their accounts.’ ”
According to the Journal, “The Robleto girls are part of a massive cohort of tech-savvy youngsters who are learning to flex their financial independence through Roblox, one of the most popular kids’ online hangouts and a place where brands are increasingly setting up shop to reach them. About half of Roblox’s 60 million daily users are under the age of 13.”
Spending virtual money is second nature for generations who have grown up with the internet, Titania Jordan told the Journal. She’s the chief parent officer at Bark Technologies Inc., a service for monitoring children’s online activity. “The concept of a piggy bank or even cash is really archaic,” she said.
Happy New Year!
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