One
of the special things about YouTube is the fact that content is user generated.
This means that no matter who you are, where you’re from, what religion, gender
or race you are, as long as you have internet access you can be a content
creator. It’s a completely equal platform; no-one gets an automatic head start
because of their social situation.
So
why is then that men are more successful than women on YouTube? Don’t judge,
hear me out. I’m not saying this in a disapproving or angry way, more just in a
‘this is a thing’ way. Men do better. I’m not saying that there aren’t any
successful women on YouTube, look at JennaMarbles, DailyGrace and Hannah from
My Drunk Kitchen, but there are just more
men.
My
main theory as to why this happens is because most of the people who subscribe
and watch videos are young girls and they’re more likely to subscribe to guys-
I, myself, am probably subscribed to more men than women. But I don’t have a
problem with that, I love all the people I’m subscribed to. I just think this
topic is really interesting and I’m not having a go at anybody.
Seriously,
Bing?! Harsh. What exactly is ‘that person’ anyway?
A
thing that I find quite frustrating is when a woman makes a comment along the
lines of gender and a man takes this as a personal attack. We don’t hate you!
In fact, Bing, I fucking love you, I think you’re amazing. And the same goes to
everyone else in that video: Jack, Tom, Khyan, Tim, Jamie, Matt – seriously,
you’re all awesome. I have no problem with you all being successful YouTubers,
you’re talented and you all deserve it. So Bing, please know that I wasn’t
attacking you so don’t get all defensive. I was actually hoping for it to spark
an interesting discussion and I know you’re good at them, but not when you
dismiss what I said with a rude comment like that.
So,
I’d really like to just have an open discussion. Why do you think men are more
successful on YouTube? Or do you think that it’s actually pretty equal? And
what do you think about how men and women react to comments made about gender?
Let’s
not be mean and attack each other, let’s have an interesting open debate.
Hannah
I think you are right, the sheer number of active users of YouTube are female. Although having said that...recently my Analytics have told me I'm being watched by more male's than females...which makes no sense to me...surely the guys should be watching girls like you? Not hairy men :\ haha
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily, my demographic is about 60/70% girls.
DeleteAs someone who owns their own Partnering Network on YouTube, I can tell you that it is actually pretty equal (total YouTube Demographic = 55% male, 45% female).
ReplyDeleteAs for Popularity, again it depends which Category the person is a part of.
eg. You will not find many popular guys who do Makeup or Beauty, just like Gaming isn't the biggest category for women.
Just like you said that lots of younger girls follow male youtubers.
However the same could be said for guys, who follow good looking girls on YouTube (happens more than you probably think).
Vlogging and Music host a huge competition between Male and Female Content Creators and my guess is due to the fact you follow a lot of male directors that you see more of their friends, who are mainly also male, thus you think there are more successful males then females.
Please correct me if you think i'm wrong :)
Stefan K.
That totally makes sense about men and women being successful in different fields (beauty, gaming, vlogging etc...).
DeleteI do agree with you to some extent about guys subscribing to girls but in my case and a lot of my friends' cases (who are female YouTubers), the majority of our audiences are also female. Mine is something like 70/30 which is quite a big difference.
And yes I follow and am friends with a lot of male directors who, like I said, are all fantastic, but I've never really heard of any good, successful female directors... Maybe because I'm in the bubble of a certain crowd (if this is the case and you know of any good female comedians/directors then point them my way) or maybe because that's the general pattern that occurs.
Also, out of curiosity. You said you own a partnering network, which one and how did you find my blog?
Hannah
I will admit that personally I do not follow a lot of Female Directors on YouTube (which doesn't back up my arguement too well).
DeleteMy job consists of mainly running the Network, always expanding it, forming Teams to take care of Recruiting, etc..
I do the more managerial tasks.
Another reason I do not follow a lot of Vloggers in general is due to the fact that my network, for the most part, was formed for Gamers.
Did you know that Gaming is the only category on YouTube that you can't get a normal Google Adsense Partnership with?
I profited on that knowledge and thus am partnering those who otherwise wouldn't be granted such privileges.
However, I am starting to expand to new Categories and want to focus on Vloggers a lot.
I found your blog through you YouTube Channel via your Facebook Fanpage.
I've been scouting for people close to Partnership and seeing if they are interested in joining and helping.
I know you just got your Partnership (congrats!).
My Network is called: MreGamersTV (although as it has the word "gamers" in it we are abbreviating it to MreTV for other Categories)
We've been around a little over a year as a Community and only started being an official network about 2 months ago due to our main sponsor BroadbandTV.
We are mainly run by quite young people, I'm only 22 and just out of Uni.
We also offer a full YouTube/Marketing/Advertising/Copyright training for anyone interested, i.e to help everyone get the most out of their videos, titles, tags, descriptions, ads, promotion, etc..
Furthermore we offer Tier 3 YouTube Partnership.
This is the highest level of YouTube Partnership and has all the awesome features on a normal partnership plus many more! (such as Livestreaming directly on YouTube).
If you want to talk more about our Network or want to help in any way to expand towards the vlogging category on YouTube, please add me on Skype and i'd gladly be up for telling you more: stefankomlos
Thanks,
Stefan
I've definitely seen the male youtubers I subscribe to mention that most of their subscribers were teenage girls, which suggests a fairly large female population. There's probably somewhere to find more stats like that, but I'm too busy procrastinating.
ReplyDeleteAs for responses to gender, I've seen my guy friends occasionally shut down when the conversation goes anything near anything serious (I don't personally know Bing, so I wouldn't know if he does this.), then again I usually do the same.
*This is all half-thought out, because I should be doing something productive instead.
With guys I expect more humor I can relate too. Girls is more, "I have to search to see if they are they funny, vulgur, unexpected, etc."
ReplyDeleteI do wonder if girls care what girls think. Do they want to hear everything they already go through? Us men are both interested and easily entertained lol
I think men are more successful on Youtube probably because it seems as though majority of content creators are men? Another thing is that from what I have seen of Youtube, is that those men who are successful and viewed a lot, each have diverse angles as to how they approach it. By this I mean that the styles of videos they make are individually different. This is not to say that women are not individually different, but it seems as though majority of Youtube women are mostly vloggers. Unlike men in Youtube, where there are not only vloggers, but also, animators, film makers, comedians, sketch shows, etc. Again, not saying there is not women doing these things, I just think that they are in fewer numbers.
ReplyDeleteHopefully that makes sense haha :)
So weird - Had this discussion with some mates the other day. I suppose it's a lot of factors really. I remember back in 2005/06 when the community was just beginning to establish itself (before youtube was even moderately recognizable to the general public), content was majority male produced because guys simply showed more interest in an undeveloped, unpopular video site. By the time a half decent group of female producers came along, through a lack of competition, many guys had already become most subscribed - and through that exposure still possess dominance today.
ReplyDeleteI think more guys have attempted to cater to a wide variety of niché audiences than girls to date, and so despite immense female talent, if a girl is outnumbered 20 to 1 in any given category, the odds of her making it to the top are dramatically reduced.
Also, I'd be willing to bet comedy plays a big role in the sites more popular content, which probably plays to a males advantage. Btw I assure anybody reading this that I'm in no way sexist, but I think it can be argued that (in general at least) guys find it easier be comfortable on camera playing the role of comic.
That said, I firmly believe things are changing. This past year especially, I've stumbled upon countless wonderfully produced content from funny, confident and truly interesting women (including yourself! :) ) If content is good enough, it will transcend any gender boundary and find an audience with time.
Can't say I noticed, I follow mostly girls because I relate mostly to girls. As long as people are happy with themselves and enjoy doing the Youtube thing then notoriety, gender regardless, shouldn't fuss them.
ReplyDeleteI love your channel and blog. x
First of all, Bing's response (while in jest) is irritating. People don't like to talk about gender bc they assume it's all crazy feminist rants/complaints. Talking about gender is just talking about human beings in society. So why can't we talk about it without getting put down?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think the amount of successful male and female youtubers is probably pretty even. I think you are noticing a different bc of the "fangirl" effect. There are plenty of female youtubers with tons of subscribers, but they don't tend to get as many obnoxious "fangirls" or "fanboys". I think this is a side-effect of the whole youtube-celebrity culture that has started. There are a number of attractive male content creators have a lot loud "fangirls" so it seems like they are more successful than their female counterparts. There are probably just as many successful female youtubers but I just don't see as many "fans" fawning over them.
I think it could also be related to the "girly" stigma that you see in the publishing industry. Girls can read any book even if it has a boy protagonists and constantly read male authors for school. But boys can't possibly read a "girly" book (high school reading lists are still overwhelming dominated by male authors and protagonists, btw).
So a lot of the successful male youtubers could have more of a balanced audience, whereas female youtubers probably have more girls watching them than boys. Bing probably has a pretty even viewership, but I bet Kristina Horner's (italktosnake) audience is mainly female.
And then there's the whole "hotness" issue, importance of physical attractiveness for male vs. female youtubers etc...but that's a different topic for a different day. Someone needs to write a thesis on this topic and get into all the specifics of demographics on youtube - I'd read it!
P. S. Sorry for the novel!
ReplyDeleteI watch quite a lot more women than men on YouTube, but it is true that the guys I watch have far more people watching them than the female content creators. I assume that this is mostly a social construct - I'm no psychologist, but most of the people involved in the offline entertainment industry (film making etc.) seem to be male, so I figure there's probably some unconscious assumption that if you're looking for entertainment online, a male will be more qualified.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to know the figures behind who's making more content on YouTube, as well. In my experience women are more nervous about creating content than guys, which I guess is a result of our generally more-judgemental-towards-women culture. So I suppose that'd have an effect on female success as creators.
As for the gender debate... judging by some of the comments I saw being thrown around on International Women's Day, it seems to me people's reactions to this conversation are basically a kneejerk response concerning a) the negative connotations around feminism and b) being uncomfortable/feelings of being attacked. Whenever see a conversation about gender pop up, these are always the kinds of responses that happen - which makes it really hard to get any proper discussion done. :c
There just seem to be more men making videos on YouTube, and I think it's a confidence thing. Many girls will contemplate whether or not they want to start making videos for ages whereas guys will just turn on the camera and go for it. This obviously varies on a case by case basis but I think that confidence has something to do with it. Also, lots of girls don't want to make videos because they think they're going to get harassed in the comments by men (and other women), which is often the case. The sexual harassment on YouTube really needs to end.
ReplyDeleteI think it's mainly because internet culture is more of a male thing, as it's considered geeky. That's not to say that social stigma it has is correct, and it certainly is changing. But the majority of people who hear that someone spends their time making internet videos who aren't interested in it themselves consider it to be a geek/nerd thing.
ReplyDeleteI find the opposite but that may be because 1) im a guy so bias 2) im talking about my level. Most big youtubers are male but where i am i know more girls than boys. Again that maybe because the majority of male vloggers annoy me so much
ReplyDeleteI was, at first, confused by your claim, as I'm mostly subscribed to females on Youtube (I'm female, too). But as I read on, I was intrigued. I think it might not be that males are more 'successful', it might be that females are more prone to 'drama' on their channels. Females do tend to be catty on comments, while males can be more troll-y and trolls are dealt with more easily than 'bitchy' comments.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I think it's a lot of different things. I think it has to do with the fact that a lot of people who watch youtube videos are young girls (and, to be honest, consistent youtube-watchers might tend to be the people who spend a lot of time on the internet and who are - not to stereotype, just speaking from my observations - generally socially awkward) who might not know/talk to a lot of boys and who consequently like watching boys vlog. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the only factor. I think there is still a lot of gender bias in general. Men are seen as having more power, more influence, and even more intelligence. We look at successful women and we praise them, but we shouldn't have to praise them. They should be just as much the norm as successful men, but unfortunately they're not. And societal mindsets like this spill over into things like youtube. A lot (most, maybe) of successful female vloggers on youtube post comedic content. It's great, entertaining, and just as legitimate as more serious content, but I feel like most of the well-known people posting thought-provoking, serious, substantial content are generally males. That being said, there are tons of women and girls on youtube posting amazing, intelligent, thoughtful videos, they are just not "youtube famous." I honestly think this is a result of the cultural mindset that men are the ones with the strongest opinions, the most influence, and the most knowledge when it comes to serious issues.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. I think part of it definitely is that a large portion of vlog viewers is young girls and they want to watch mostly men. I think another part of it may involve standards for things like comedy. I don't know if this is necessarily true, but it seems like women have to be REALLY funny in order to be considered as funny as guys. Women have to be funnier to be considered the same level of funny--if that makes any sense. That's just my perception--I don't know if that's true. I think that's also why there tend to be more male comedians than female comedians.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think its more that males are generally better at escaping reality.
ReplyDeleteThis may sound like i'm taking a very different and somewhat surreal look on this but i think its interesting and there is probably something in it.
From an early age males (including my self) prance around the playground fighting off zombies, aliens, ninja llamas...etc in many different scenarios and battle scenes. As males get older we turn this escape from reality into humor, or at least attempt to. The whole reason we find humor funny is that it goes against what we expect in reality and the natural order of things ... 'vsauce' uploaded a video today which explains this pretty well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddV6jyDeCKA
With this in mind, one of the main reasons people watch films, go to a comedy club or go to the internet is to escape reality, and because males tend to be better at this their production is usually better, which is why we find mostly successful male comedians, directors and youtube vloggers.
I'm not saying that girls cant do well at these things, there are an abundant amount that flourish. Females also have biological dispositions which makes them on average better than males on a host of other things. I'm simply suggesting why there just tends to be more males in these particular industries.
To be honest, my subscriptions are mostly female. The make-up side of Youtube is a never-ending abyss of female social interaction. Overall, there are more male comedians than female, however there are other platforms where female youtubers are more famous than male. My congratz to you for being part of Youtube. You'd make a hell of a content creator that many people all over the world would watch.
ReplyDeleteP.S: You remind me of Emma Watson. :D (I bet you get that a lot)
Haha xx
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ReplyDelete