Then in 2018, he mastered the format that would make him a star: stunt philanthropy. He posted videos of himself playing games like Call of Duty, commented on YouTube drama, uploaded funny video compilations and livestreamed himself reacting to videos on the internet.

To crack YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, he initially cycled through different genres of video making. Donaldson, who grew up in Greenville, N.C., founded a YouTube channel when he was in middle school, back in 2012. “He’s giving a lot of kids a new path to take, to teach these young kids on how to be entrepreneurial, not just to get a lot of views or become famous.” A perfect viral recipe Beast inspires all of Gen Z,” said Josh Richards, 19, a TikTok creator in Los Angeles with nearly 25 million followers. Many younger creators said they wanted to emulate Mr. Donaldson “has grown up and matured into someone that doesn’t speak like that.”

Jimmy knows there is no excuse for homophobic rhetoric.” The representative added that Mr. A representative for him declined to address the working conditions at his companies but said of the videos with offensive content: “When Jimmy was a teenager and was first starting out, he carelessly used, on more than one occasion, a gay slur. How he does and how his companies perform will be scrutinized to see whether creators can parlay their social media success into a sustainable array of businesses. And he is trying to maintain rapid growth on a notoriously fickle platform. Donaldson also faced backlash from fans who lost significant amounts of money on a cryptocurrency scheme he had promoted and invested in. Donaldson has set up a variety of corporate entities including MrBeastYouTube, MrBeastCrypto and Rubber Duck Company - have been rife with favoritism and bullying.

Several former employees said the working conditions at his companies - Mr. His early videos and posts were criticized for their use of slurs and offensive jokes. Donaldson’s rise as a creator-entrepreneur, like that of many a YouTuber of his ilk, has been far from smooth. “He’s got a fantastic content strategy, but at the same time he’s equally innovative and prolific in the experiments he’s running to monetize his audience.” Beast is one of those creators who’s an incredibly savvy entrepreneur,” said Wayne Hu, a partner at SignalFire. The creator economy is the “fastest-growing type of small business,” according to a report last year by SignalFire, a venture capital firm. Donaldson is doing may serve as a blueprint for the next generation of creators and influencers, who now number more than 50 million around the world and have become a formidable business force.

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