Publisher's Synopsis
'You should read this book' - YouTuber Simon Clark
'A must-read book for anyone who wants to understand the future of media' - MEL Magazine
More than 100 insiders laid bare their lives for this first in-depth independent book on YouTube. It charts the platform's rise from single home video to global industry while getting the facts on brand deals, burnout and authenticity.
It is an ideal guide for anyone in media or marketing who needs to understand YouTube professionally. It will also help anyone who wants to become a YouTuber.
Reviews
'No one understands the intricacies of YouTube like Chris Stokel-Walker. His reporting on the platform and its creators has been groundbreaking and unparalleled.' - Taylor Lorenz, The Atlantic
'For anyone trying to understand the bonkers world of YouTube, this is essential reading. Full of entertaining dispatches from the front line of streaming, Stokel-Walker has written the preeminent guide to the new celebrity world - and what it means for the rest of us.' - Sam Parker, Esquire
'Brilliant, witty and extraordinary... This is a must-read book for anyone who wants to truly understand the future of media, as well as the internet itself.' - Hussein Kesvani, MEL Magazine
If you want to understand the inner workings of your favourite YouTube influencers, or perhaps if you want to understand why your children are always talking about them, you should read this book. It is smart, sweeping, and significant. - Simon Clark, YouTuber
About the Author
Chris Stokel-Walker is a British journalist whose work regularly appears in WIRED, The Economist and Newsweek.
He is known for breaking major news about social media and often reports on YouTube and TikTok for television, radio and podcasts.
For YouTubers he travelled around the world, speaking to behind-the-camera producers and powerbrokers, including creators KSI, Hank and John Green and Emma Blackery.
His follow-up books are TikTok Boom and How AI Ate the World, both published by Canbury Press.
First Chapter ExtractJake Paul: cars, money and a burning swimming pool
Make your way the 100 metres or so up the gated driveway of a mountainside home in California and your eye is drawn to the rust-coloured statue in the middle of the front yard. Cast in metal, a stick man holds up four large boxes that appear to be toppling out of reach. Look left and you'll see a newly installed skate ramp on the front lawn. To the right of that you'll see the dirt ramp where the owner jumps his luxury cars, among them a Lamborghini Huracán Performante, a Tesla Model X P-100 D (nicknamed Bloodshark), and a tie-dyed Ford Focus RS called Rainbro.
But don't get distracted by the flashy motors and the general hullabaloo taking place in the grounds of this three-and-a-half acre property. Otherwise you'll miss the 15,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom mansion, which has a custom-designed fish tank in the master bedroom and a 'merchandise shop' (which the public can't visit) showcasing a custom line of T-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts.
The owner of this $6.9 million mansion is a high school dropout with a short attention span. A decade ago Jake Paul might have been consigned to a low-wage future scanning groceries in a supermarket in his native Ohio. Instead he is the modern face of YouTube; a boisterous millionaire with a frenetic lifestyle and a booming business. His story shows how YouTube is throwing jokers into the pack of modern media...
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