SA YouTube views increased in 2013 by over 90%

These included Anne Hirsch, Derick Watts and the Sunday Blues, Theodora Lee and ZA News talking about how YouTube is helping to make them famous and, in some cases, earn money too.

YouTube attracts a global generation that has grown up watching what they want, whenever they want, on whatever device is closest. Globally, almost 40% of YouTube's 6 billion hours of monthly watch-time comes from mobile devices. On average, 60% of a channel's views come from outside the creator's home country.

Generation C

"We call the YouTube generation 'Generation C', with 70% of South African YouTuber users being between the ages of 18-34. According to a recent survey, these young South Africans are constantly connected and, if they need answers to something, they are more likely to consult their smartphones than another person nearby. This same group move back and forth between different devices and 88% of them are online daily," says Jared Molko, YouTube brand partnerships lead at Google South Africa.

"Entertainment and comedy are the most consumed content category by South Africans on YouTube and this is something South African creators really understand. Research also shows that 63% of YouTube users talk about what they see on YouTube with their peers.

"There are now more than one million channels earning revenue through the YouTube Partnership Program, in more than 30 countries and it's exciting to see more partners coming on board in South Africa too. Globally, partner revenue across YouTube has increased by 60% over the past year and partner revenue from mobile ad sales has tripled."

Thierry Cassuto, executive producer and co-creator with Zapiro of South Africa's satirical puppet show ZA News said, "Whether you're a teenager at home or a global media powerhouse, your videos have to be on YouTube. Google has managed to create a social video ecosystem with such critical mass that your videos basically don't exist on the web if they're not on YouTube."

Anne Hirsch, presenter and creator of the Anne Hirsch Show, started her channel in mid-2012 with Zootee Studios and since has received over 420,000 views of her weekly show. Describing her journey on YouTube, Hirsch says, "Thanks to YouTube I now have millions if not billions of fANNE's! I cannot leave the house without approaching people and handing them my autograph; they don't even have to ask for it."

South African YouTube stars

• Web fitness celeb Peter Cilliers, creator of SixPackFactory, who earns over R50,000 a month by uploading one exercise video a week to his channel - this excludes the revenue made from sales of his own products through the channel. The channel has received more than 93.5 million views and has over 259,000 subscribers.

• Hit isiZulu animator Mdu Ntuli of MduComics, whose channel was among the top ten most watched South African channels of 2013. The channel has almost 35,000 subscribers and is fast approaching 6 million views.

• Teen sensation Caspar Lee has over 2 million subscribers, more than BBC Worldwide (803,000 subscribers) and already over half the number of Top Gear (3.6 million subscribers). At the age of 20, he is already fully financially independent - all from his diary entries on his YouTube channel, which gets over 5.7 millions views per month.

• Energy expert Martin Lorton at Solar Power and Electronic Measurement has over 56,000 subscribers, which seems to grow by about 4,500 a month, and has reached half a million views per month on the channel. Martin monetised his YouTube channel in June 2011, earning only R170 in the first month. However, his channel has grown in popularity through direct and indirect viewing, resulting in earnings of up to R100,000 a month.

• Wildlife expert and game ranger, Rob the Ranger, who has seen a massive 200% increase in subscribers over the last year, uploads wildlife footage to his channel, iDube Rob the Ranger. He is also part of the YouTube Partnership Programme and has received positive results since monetising the channel - since December 2012, his earnings have quadrupled.

For more information, go to www.youtube.com/yt/partners/.