Elon Musk has been urging MrBeast, YouTube’s most popular creator, to join X, a new video-sharing platform that promises more freedom and revenue for its users. MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has finally agreed to Musk’s request and posted his first video on X. However, there is a catch: he is not creating original content for X, but rather reusing an old YouTube video. And he plans to share how much money he makes from it with the public.
MrBeast is well-known for his extravagant videos, in which he frequently gives away large sums of money or expensive items to strangers or friends. He has over 80 million YouTube subscribers, and his videos regularly receive tens of millions of views. He previously stated that his videos cost “millions” to produce and that X would be unable to cover his expenses. On January 2, he tweeted that he might consider switching to X if the monetization was “really cranking”.
Mrbeast Reuploads $1 Vs $100,000,000 Car Video On X
On January 22, MrBeast surprised his fans by uploading a video to X titled “$1 Car vs $100,000,000 Car”. The video is a reupload of a YouTube video he uploaded on September 16, 2023, which has already received nearly six million “likes”. In the video, MrBeast compares a cheap car he bought for $1 to a luxury car he rented for $100,000,000. He tests their features, performance, and comfort before giving them away to random strangers.
MrBeast explained his reason for reuploading the video on X in the description: “I’m curious how much ad revenue a video on X would make, so I’m reuploading this to test it.” He also stated, “Will share ad revenue next week.” This means that MrBeast is not only experimenting with X, but also making its payment system available to the public. This could be more than Musk expected, as he may not want other creators to know how much X pays them.
MrBeast also asked his X followers to guess how much money he earned from the video in a week. The video has already received more than 124 million views on X. The majority of his followers—36%—believed he made $10,000, 27% thought he made $100,000, and 16.6% thought he made $1 million or more.
X’s Payment Policy Is Complicated And Unclear
MrBeast’s followers are unsure of his earnings because X’s payment policy is complex and unclear. According to its creator dashboard, X claims that users can earn up to 97% of the revenue generated by their content. However, this is after deducting in-app purchase fees, and it only applies to users who have earned less than $50,000 total across all X products. After reaching $50,000, users can earn up to 90% of the revenue.
But that’s not all. There are additional conditions and factors that influence how much users can earn from X. In its subscriptions creator terms, X states that it may pay users a portion of the revenue it earns from selling subscriptions in exchange for access to their accounts. However, this share is determined at X’s discretion and is influenced by a variety of factors, including fees, taxes, the number of subscribers, and so on. X also warns users not to expect a specific revenue percentage or amount to be applied or sustained over time.
MrBeast’s experiment with X could reveal how much the platform actually pays its creators and whether switching from YouTube is worthwhile. It may also persuade other creators to join or avoid X, depending on the outcome. MrBeast has promised to share his earnings from X on January 29, so stay tuned for an update.
Donaldson was astonished by X’s popularity. He wrote, “100 million views?” “Dang lol” after sharing the video. The video has now received more than 155 million views on X and 215 million on YouTube.
This could be a crucial test for Musk’s ambition to turn X, formerly known as Twitter, into a video-focused platform.
On January 9, X announced a new video feature similar to TikTok’s endless scrolling of full-screen videos, and claimed to have over 100 million daily users, more than half of whom are Gen Z, the fastest growing segment on X.
X also stated that it allows users to upload longer videos, claiming that “in December alone, people watched 130 years’ worth of videos 30 minutes or longer.”
However, not everyone is convinced of X’s claims. A source told Fortune, “I think it’s way too early to declare us a video-first platform.”
Others pointed out that X did not provide any data to back up its claims, and that many in the tech industry view other companies’ video pivots as a desperate move.
Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino may have to take extraordinary measures to save the platform. As advertisers left X, revenue from the business fell to $2.5 billion in 2023, down from nearly $1 billion per quarter in 2022.
