YouTube stars are no longer banking their entire careers on pre-roll ads and one-off brand deals. And confronted with volatile CPMs (which can average between $3 and $5 per thousand views), shifting algorithms and stricter brand-safety policies, top creators have begun to build diversified businesses — consumer products, subscriptions, software, licensing and even telecom services — in order to turn fickle views into more lasting revenue.
On the macro side, there are good arguments to be made that creator-led organizations should exist. Research commissioned by YouTube and conducted by Oxford Economics has found that the video platform’s creative ecosystem contributes tens of billions of dollars to U.S. GDP and provides hundreds of thousands with employment. But now, for many creators, income from platforms is a precarious line item, not a base.
Why Ad Dollars No Longer Cover The Bills
Ad revenue is by nature cyclical, and linked to larger marketing budgets and relentless policy tweaks. Creators describe RPM swings of 30% or greater within a year and age restrictions or brand-safety flags that can suddenly throttle monetization. And the rise of short-form further complicates the equation — Shorts often earn less money per view than long-form content, even as it becomes indispensable for growing an audience.
Layer in algorithm opaqueness and the proliferation of ad blockers, and it’s no wonder creators place income they own at highest priority: products with margins they control, memberships with predictable churn, IP that can be licensed across platforms and retailers.
From Merch To Consumer Brands: How Creators Scale
Merch companies have evolved into full-fledged CPG businesses. Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, engineered a portfolio that includes Feastables, a snack brand that claimed to cross into hundreds of millions in annual revenue and turn a profit while his media operation swerved deep into pouring investment toward broadening content, figures passed around in business press and investor materials show. He has also experimented with categories ranging from toys to virtual restaurants and debuted Viewstats, an analytics platform for creators.
If you want to know just how creator distribution can compete with legacy marketing machines, reach for that bottle — after all, trade publications said it would top a billion dollars in sales during its breakout year. The brand has since come under regulatory pressure for caffeine levels and uneven regional demand — particularly a steep cooling in the U.K. — demonstrating both the upside and operational challenges of creator-led CPG.
Emma Chamberlain’s eponymous coffee company, by contrast, has a steadier walk: retail expansion into large chains, a first physical café and a range of ground, whole bean and ready-to-drink products. Forbes reported the business did approximately $20 million in annual revenue, though Business Insider predicted double-digit growth will continue as supply lines stabilize and margins increase.
Subscriptions And Direct Support Drive Stability
Recurring revenue is the silent compounder. They provide a consistent revenue stream through channel memberships and Patreon-style tiers, as well as a direct feedback loop with superfans. Patreon says it has already paid billions to creators, and niche video platforms created by or for creators (such as Nebula’s subscription model) offer even more owned distribution not whipsawed by a single algorithm.
Courses and cohorts are becoming more professionalized: productivity instructors, finance channels, culinary content makers all wrap up knowledge into premium curricula that move with fatter margins and lower working-capital overheads than physical goods. The best operators run these as products, not side hustles — with refunds; measurement of outcomes; and community support.
Retail Licensing And Physical Goods For Creators
Licensing transforms audience affinity into real estate on shelves. Ryan’s World turned toy unboxings into a multimillion-dollar retail empire — reports have estimated annual retail sales in the hundreds of millions at its height — across toys, apparel and kids’ media. The approach also hedges against platform risk: the value is being captured in the channels where parents are already shopping.
There’s plenty of ripe territory in food and cookware for kitchen creators to explore. Rosanna Pansino parlayed her YouTube baking brand into best-selling cookbooks, and popularized baking tools available in stores everywhere. Andrew Rea’s Babish brand released cookware catering to an audience that watches and cooks, while Rhett & Link’s cereal play shows even comedic IP can move towards consumables.
Software, Finance, and Emerging Creator Verticals
Hashtags
In addition to products, creators are creating or funding infrastructure. Some launch analytics and workflow tools built around actual creator pain points, like content planning or rights management or sponsorship tracking, then sell B2B seats who don’t depend on the next viral video. Others formed investment vehicles to grab stakes in startups they help amplify; Jake Paul, along with a partner, helped create the Anti Fund, which has disclosed investments in high-flying tech companies to go alongside media and sports bets.
Even telecom is in play. MrBeast has mused about a mobile virtual network operator, one of the oldest forms of brand–utility partnership, which could package perks for fans while monetizing at subscription ARPU rather than ad CPMs. Sports betting, which creators including Jake Paul have gotten in on with Betr, is another regulated but potentially profitable adjacency where its brand awareness can bring down customer acquisition costs.
What The New Creator P&L Is Going To Look Like
The model that’s emerging is a media-led holding company: Content is the accelerant for attention; attention is the engine generating first-party data; and first-party data powers a portfolio of products, memberships, licenses. Ads and brand deals still matter, but they’re the accelerant — not the engine.
The creators killing it in this model share some characteristics: They treat each channel as a product with its own set of economics; they have revenue diversified across at least three streams not including media sales; they take ops (supply chain, customer support, finance) seriously the second a non-media line shows traction; and they build moats with community, proprietary IP and distribution partnerships.
The message for YouTubers is clear. Monetize the view, but own the customer. The upside is bigger than a CPM, and the downside doesn’t depend on an algorithm change.
