Before I begin I want you to do something for me – Go to Youtube.com, sign in to your account (if you’re not already signed in), and click on your subscriptions page. Then search and count how many video titles in the past 48 hours include any combination of the following words: “haul”, “unboxing”, “review”, “first impressions”, “favourites” or “sale”. Is it 5?…10?…20+?
In this piece, I will attempt to break down the effect that Youtubers and Youtube culture has on the consumption patterns of young girls and women within the last decade as well as the explosion of e-commerce and strategies you can employ to be a critical shopper this Holiday season.
Youtube was founded In 2005 after it occurred to design and computer science specialists, Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley, that there wasn’t one centralized place on the internet for video content to be shared. The three gentlemen managed to raise $11.5 million in investment capital for the internet startup. After its launch, Youtube grew at an unprecedented rate and the company was quickly acquired by Google for $1.65 billion. In 2006, roughly 65,000 videos were being uploaded on the site per day. Over the next decade, Youtube would expand its domain into more countries around the world, they would introduce HD quality, and hit record after record for number of views.
At this stage, the company clearly had proof of concept and demand for its service, but what wasn’t yet clear was how this business was actually going to make money. Soon enough pre-roll video advertisements were introduced as a way for the company to generate revenue for their so-far ‘free site’. The second crucial component of Youtube’s business model was the Partner Program. The Partner Program allowed regular uploaders to the site to monetize their content by taking a percentage of the advertising dollars made off of pre-rolls. The more views a video had, the higher-earning potential it had. It was genius, as this model incentivized creators to join the platform and compete for viewership, all the while making Youtube rich. It wasn’t until this program that the distinction between the viewer and the creator emerged. Pre-Partner Program Youtube was a melting pot of cat videos and internet kids posting random videos to the site for sheer enjoyment, with no financial incentive and no Cost-Per-Click (CPC).
With the development of Youtube’s infrastructure, more and more people signed up and subscribed every day and new genres of content emerged. There was something for everyone. I have chosen to focus on the genres of content on today’s Youtube that perpetuate the mass consumption of material goods among young women. Those genres are for the most part: beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. It’s not just that this content promotes consumer culture, it’s that it is the very foundation of the content itself. It’s a designer clothing haul, or a “come along with me shopping vlog”, it’s “the top 10 Amazon products you need to buy”, it’s a “review of the latest makeup palettes at Sephora”. It’s the “redecorate my house for Christmas” videos and this goes on and on. When some of these channels begin to do well it only encourages new creators to jump into the market and create even more of this content.
Once a certain following is amassed, these creators no longer need the Youtube Partner Program to pay the bills. They can quit their day jobs and have companies ship them free products and pay for their endorsement and exposure. It becomes a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle for these creators because what their audience now craves is the hauls, the shopping trips (that they themselves couldn’t afford), and the unboxings of products they didn’t even know they wanted. Audiences start living vicariously through the material world that their favourite Youtubers live in – as impractical as it may be. Packages are piled high in these Youtubers’ homes, their P.O. boxes are overflowing, they’re doing so much online shopping they can’t even remember what they ordered, and for every haul video they post there is a “$500 give away” video on the horizon, or better yet: “Minimalist’s guide to decluttering your house”. Ironically the only way for them to keep the views up and the money coming in is to keep spending it.
The question now I suppose is – why is this content so popular? I won’t dismiss the functionality and convenience for people to watch reviews on products that interest them or even enjoy the weekly grocery hauls and update videos from their favourite YouTubers, but I would argue that this is not what primarily drives the demand for this content. I think part of the reason is what I already touched on briefly. This content is popular for the same purpose that people watch shows like Keeping up with the Kardashians at home on their IKEA couch or watch junk food mukbang videos while they’re on a diet. You want what you can’t have. You want to imagine what living the extravagant lifestyle of the rich and famous would be like when you’re not. You want to imagine tasting the junk food that your diet doesn’t permit. People want to imagine what that Chanel bag feels like on their arm, or what that new perfume smells like.
However, what is even scarier is how the subtle hints of consumerism are sprinkled throughout even the most mundane content on these channels. The encouragement to spend is not limited to shopping or haul-type videos. Their “What I eat in a day” videos are littered with expensive pre-packaged ingredients, designer water bottles and food prep containers. Their “Workout Routine” videos feature items of exercise clothing that cost sometimes triple what their gym memberships do. And above all, one thing remains in each of these videos – they are ALWAYS BUYING. Whether it’s picking up a little thing here, ordering a little thing there, testing out this or grabbing that, the shopping never stops.
Now I know by this stage you must be getting tired of my ranting about rich Youtubers, but I promise there’s a point and I’m getting to it.
I believe whether it be through means of paid promotion or “authentic content”, on a large scale beauty, fashion, and lifestyle creators are generating a desire for material goods that the average young consumer simply cannot keep up with or sift through. By merely subscribing to the content you are enticed to buy. On any given month a direct correlation can be made between the Youtube accounts I’m subscribed to and the balance in my bank account. I find myself filling online shopping carts with products I never knew I wanted or needed. Consider a pistachio green hydro flask. Now I currently have at least 17 idle water bottles sitting in my kitchen cupboard, but do you know what I don’t have? A fricken pistachio green hydro flask, GIVE IT TO ME!
“Congratulations Courteney, you’ve cracked the code on advertising.”
What this comment fails to realize is that 21st-century technology has led to far more pervasive and effective forms of advertising. Advertising through creators on Youtube is like the Shopping Channel on steroids. It’s like nothing we’ve ever experienced before and it’s inescapable. This Youtube content spills over onto other social media platforms as well: Instagram, TikTok, you name it. As I write this article Instagram has recently added a feature that allows you to shop the items tagged in a post which will take you directly to that business’s home page where you can buy their products.
This form of advanced advertising dovetails nicely with the explosion of e-commerce in the 21st century. As per the name, e-commerce or Internet commerce; the act of buying or selling goods through the internet simply did not exist before. Telecommerce and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which is essentially a system of communication and encryption used to digitize all aspects of business that we used to conduct on paper, began in the 1970s and made it possible for us to shop the way we do today. According to Statista, the number of online shoppers is supposed to hit 2.14 billion by 2021. These numbers in North America and around the world are only predicted to rise with the COVID-19 pandemic driving more people to avoid long lines and cramped aisles and shop online instead.
Youtube and the perpetuation of consumer culture is inextricably linked to e-commerce. So many of the unboxings, reviews, and hauls are all from online stores or boutiques. After all, if you can’t see, touch, try on or even test out a product in the store for yourself, then the next best thing would be to watch someone else do those things. YouTubers and social media influencers make for ideal advertisers for businesses creating an online infrastructure or for pure e-commerce sites.
If you’re still unconvinced and still think you and your wallet have an innate ability to outsmart the most powerful advertising engines of human history, consider this – if all this content didn’t have a direct impact on consumer spending why would advertisers pay millions of dollars to Youtube each month to promote their products before, during, and after videos? Or why would they be paying the Youtubers directly for the endorsement and reviews of their products in their videos? Last year Amazon spent $7 billion on advertising, making it the biggest ad spender in the U.S in 2019.
No? Still not convinced? Fine, let’s run a little experiment then. Go back to your subscriptions page on Youtube, write down a list of the channels whose videos came up when you searched keywords: “haul”, “unboxing”, “review”, “first impressions”, “favourites” or “sale”. Have your list? Good. Now go to your channel settings and copy your Youtube channel link. Input that link into this website; Youtube Subscription History. A chronological list of all the Youtube channels you’ve subscribed to since you created your account will appear. Find all the channels on your list and write down the date you subscribed to each of them. Take that list with the dates and tack on an extra two month grace period after you subscribed to each of the channels. Then cross-reference this time period for each channel with the transaction history on your Debit card, Credit card, Paypal, or whatever!
Find anything interesting? I found a sharp increase in my spending on consumer goods in the months directly after I had subscribed to the channels in question. “How do I know that the spending is related?”, you may ask. Well let’s see, I was shopping at places like Bath & Body Works, Zara, H&M, and Gymshark just to list a few…I think it’s likely connected.
If you wanted to go further you could go to each specific Youtube channel and search for the video content they produced within the time period we created above to find direct correlations between the stores they were shopping at and the stores you shopped at shortly after their videos were posted. But I digress.
Now, I do understand that for some people this just isn’t that big of a problem, as some don’t really like to shop, some are not as inclined to browse online stores, and some may not even be that into Youtube and social media. But if you are like me and you find yourself highly susceptible to entertaining Youtube content that is essentially one long commercial for s*** you don’t need, then listen up cause I’ve got some tips that will help you and your bank account stay safe this Holiday season.
- Unsubscribe
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Go to that list you just wrote up and unsubscribe from every single one of those channels right away. Don’t worry, if you want to re-subscribe after the Holiday season you’ve got them written down.
- Browse in Incognito Mode
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If you need information about a specific product you’re considering gifting and you want to watch some Youtube reviews, then open an Incognito web browser and proceed to Youtube from there. This also applies to any online shopping you may be doing. When browsing in Incognito mode it is much harder for websites (including Youtube) to track your browsing history. They also won’t leave cookie traces on your computer. This can make you less likely to receive targeted ads and insidious Youtube video recommendations.
- Support the Unsponsored
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Try to subscribe and support Youtubers that don’t accept paid sponsorships for the companies they review. These channels generally aren’t as popular or high budget, but you know you’re getting authentic reviews and opinions.
- Back to the Basics
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If you want some more hard and fast solutions then try to keep Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate, small this year. Especially given everything with COVID, there’s no shame in suggesting to your loved ones that you set a budget on gifts or set up a Secret Santa gift exchange instead. These things can help minimize your spending.
Finally, with Black Friday coming up I implore you to think carefully about the purchases you’re making and why you’re making them. Since the pandemic began, Amazon doubled its quarterly profits and I don’t think the lockdown is entirely to blame for that. Shopping can be a coping mechanism for many, especially when life gets stressful and tensions are running high. So if this sounds like you, then next time you get the urge to shop, talk to your family or pick up the phone and call a friend, because sometimes all you need is a little support and that, after all, is priceless.