YouTube’s most popular content creator will ditch the video juggernaut in favor of crypto-based DLive in a massive win for blockchain awareness and adoption.
With 93 million subscribers (and counting) Felix Kjellberg AKA PewDiePie is without question YouTube’s biggest, most successful creator, with an estimated net worth of between $30-$50 million.
His “work” as a vlogger, entertainer and gamer is recognized the world over and has spawned a million imitators and helped propel the platform’s popularity, but he is leaving the site with the hope of being treated as a “real partner” at DLive.
Ouch!
The move to the decentralized platform which is built on the Lino blockchain (Livestream Now) and uses tokens to reward content creators for their work is a severe blow to Google-owned YouTube, as he’ll be taking his loyal subscribers with him.
Kjellberg said:
I’m excited to start live-streaming again regularly. DLive is great for me because I’m treated like a real partner just like all of the other streamers on their unique platform.”
In a video yesterday (April 9), PewDiePie announced the partnership and his reasons behind the move.
To date, the video has been watched more than 4.3 million times by PewDiePie’s legion of fans and has already generated 36,000 comments.
PewDiePie ditches YouTube. PewDiePie AKA Felix Kjellberg announces his partnership with blockchain-based DLive. Source: YouTube
YouTube and Twitch have helped grow an army of streamers and vloggers but at the same time often take a huge cut from their earnings. For example, Amazon’s Twitch service reportedly keeps 50% of channel subscription revenue.
Sharing the wealth
It’s not been disclosed just how much Lino is paying the star, but founder Wilson Wei said they were excited to be working with him. He says DLive pledges it will never take a cut from content creators’ work through subscriptions or digital gifts:
DLive is a place where instead of competing against each other, it benefits creators to support one another. PewDiePie has always been a fierce advocate for the value that creators bring with their hard work, time and effort, and he believes in DLive’s vision.”
He hasn’t published a video yet but already has 76,000 followers (and growing) and has promised in his first DLive stream on April 14, to dish out between $10,000 and $50,000 in Lino tokens to other content creators to share the wealth and help the platform to develop.
PewDiePie ditches YouTube – 76k followers and he hasn’t even published a video yet. Source: DLive
The move will help Wei grow the fledgling platform, but will also provide further revenue opportunities for PewDiePie, who has been engaged in an epic subscriber battle with Indian corporation T-series for the past few months.
Kat Peterson, a member of Kjellberg’s management team said:
This platform is able to support creators, in terms of the revenue share, in a way that is hugely favorable to the creator. He’s donating Lino Points to other creators to get everybody on the platform excited that he’s there.”
The end of a rocky road?
PewDiePie’s relationship with YouTube has been a rocky one but even after the livestream star made a series of ill-advised videos in which he used Nazi imagery and antisemitism in a crass attempt at humor, it has refused to sever its ties with him completely, he simply helps them generate so much money.
However, the stunts did lead YouTube to cancel its original series Scare PewDiePie and to him losing a deal with Disney’s Maker Studios.
At times controversial, his work has received billions of views, but has also led to allegations of white-nationalism and anti-semitism.
Most recently his name was used by the Christchurch terrorist Brenton Tarrant who reportedly told viewers to “Subscribe to PewDiePie” before he livestreamed his massacre of 50 men, women and children at two mosques in New Zealand.
Lino Network was founded in July 2017 and last year raised $20 million in funding from venture capitalists.
DLive is the first decentralized app built on top of Lino and launched September 2018. Founders claim it has more than 3 million monthly active users plus 35,000 active streamers.
