Why People Quit YouTube

00:00:00: Hi Manuel.

00:00:00: Hi Max.

00:00:01: So in the last couple of weeks I guess, there have been quite a few videos and posts on

00:00:09: YouTube about big YouTubers who quit YouTube.

00:00:13: Now some of those I think have returned but some really did quit and then there have also

00:00:19: been some reactions on that and now obviously we're not super large YouTubers but our

00:00:25: main channel Academind has almost a million subscribers and we have this channel since

00:00:30: 2017 so it's really a big channel which is there and which has its audience and we

00:00:37: actually did start this channel here with this podcast.

00:00:40: I also started my own channel so we actually are not quitting but instead growing you could

00:00:46: say and why is that?

00:00:50: Well that's a complex topic I guess with lots of assumptions that we have to make.

00:00:55: Let's start it this way.

00:00:57: I think if people who don't do YouTube, who don't create content read something like that

00:01:03: why I quit YouTube after X years, they wonder I guess because I think that being a successful

00:01:09: YouTuber is a great thing to achieve for many people.

00:01:14: It's a dream for many people I would say because you are your own boss, you create online videos,

00:01:19: you have an audience that follows you, you make good money if you're successful.

00:01:24: You can be creative.

00:01:25: And you can be creative also I think, an important thing actually.

00:01:28: So a great job and suddenly you lose the motivation and I guess we have to look at different factors

00:01:35: that cause that problem and one problem that many people know from their lives I guess

00:01:42: is that if you do the same job, the same thing again and again, day by day, week by week,

00:01:47: year by year, it gets boring.

00:01:49: So your dream, your dream job turns into a reality that doesn't fulfill you anymore.

00:01:56: It feels like something that you have to do or that you do because you did it in the last

00:02:01: five years but you don't feel it anymore.

00:02:03: It's not what you burn for, can you say it like that?

00:02:06: It's not where you want to put your whole energy into that and more importantly the

00:02:11: reward reduces.

00:02:12: So the reward for publishing a video, for being creative, for creating that video gets

00:02:19: smaller and smaller.

00:02:20: So you just start creating the next video and the next video but actually you don't

00:02:26: care in the worst case and I guess this can lead to a situation where you lose your complete

00:02:33: motivation and where you decide to stop that YouTube creation job.

00:02:37: And I think you have a very good point because of course when you're getting started in those

00:02:41: early days and weeks and months and years, you might see a lot of growth and you see

00:02:47: that everything's getting bigger and bigger and that is of course pretty motivating but

00:02:53: as you said, this kind of diminishes and then gets less of a factor as you are bigger because

00:03:00: those gains are smaller and maybe there aren't any gains at all.

00:03:03: Maybe you start shrinking or you start comparing your videos.

00:03:09: Maybe YouTube does that for you.

00:03:11: You see it right on your starting dashboard in YouTube studio.

00:03:14: You see how well your latest video does compared to your last 10 videos.

00:03:19: So that of course can be super demotivating if you feel that, wow, my latest video is

00:03:28: only the seventh best so it's not really that great and that can be a huge factor there.

00:03:37: And I think what also is or can be a problem is that of course as you keep on doing YouTube

00:03:47: or as you create content in general, you typically of course aim to improve the quality in small

00:03:54: steps.

00:03:55: So creating a video now is more work than it was seven years ago for us and probably

00:04:02: for everyone and it will be more work in seven years from now because of course you want

00:04:07: to improve in quality.

00:04:09: You spend more time on editing, on planning the video, on picking better B-roll, whatever

00:04:14: it is.

00:04:15: Obviously it depends on the kind of videos you do but that is something that means that

00:04:21: it's more work to produce videos and that of course can be draining because suddenly

00:04:27: you have this obligation to pump out a new video every week and that video is more work

00:04:33: than it used to be in the past and at the same time it has been that past where you

00:04:38: maybe established your publication schedule so you feel obliged to have a new video every

00:04:45: week.

00:04:47: You also might feel locked into a specific topic or kind of video because you know your

00:04:53: audience wants these kinds of videos and then again if you try something new, you see it

00:04:58: doesn't do that well so that can also be a huge factor that kind of drains your energy

00:05:05: and so on.

00:05:06: And this leads to a real problem because what I said at the beginning that you lack the

00:05:11: motivation because it gets boring to create videos but suddenly you have to be even more

00:05:16: powerful, you need more energy than ever before because you have to improve your quality and

00:05:21: another thing we saw in the last years, the video, the type of videos completely changed.

00:05:27: We lost those three-hour tutorial coding videos and what is very successful now is the type

00:05:35: of content that for example Fireship produces in an awesome way.

00:05:39: These are great videos but these are far off the type of content we produced in the past,

00:05:45: also far off the type of content we can produce to be honest and also far off the type of

00:05:49: content we want to produce because we like our style, we want to improve that style but

00:05:56: seeing that other types of videos perform that great of course puts you under pressure

00:06:01: and the combination of having the pressure without having the energy is a difficult one

00:06:07: and I guess this combination can lead to this, I don't want to call it burnout but you know

00:06:12: what I mean, you are not motivated anymore, you don't feel energized and that you then

00:06:17: come to a point where you say this is not why I started this, I want to quit this is

00:06:22: something that can easily happen I guess especially if you have some years of YouTube

00:06:27: done already.

00:06:29: Yeah and I guess now of course this tutorial thing is very specific to our niche and you

00:06:37: could argue these super long tutorials still work okayish but in the past we have done

00:06:42: like video series where we like built a project across 30 videos and we publish two videos

00:06:49: every week and that doesn't seem to work that well anymore but of course that's our

00:06:54: niche and for different YouTubers who do different kinds of videos this might not be a thing

00:06:59: but what definitely is a thing and that's what you said is that of course YouTube and

00:07:05: its algorithm keeps on changing and of course the audience and their requirements and expectations

00:07:13: also change because we have new players like TikTok which totally changed the way people

00:07:22: consume videos and content, the attention span simply got shorter, that's not made up

00:07:27: by us, that is something you can measure and see and that of course has an impact and means

00:07:33: that certain video formats that used to work in the past don't work anymore and of course

00:07:39: that is simply something you have to adjust to because just because you'd like it to be

00:07:44: different it will not be different but these can of course all be factors that lead to

00:07:50: burnout or to simply the fun leaving the work so that you're just left with the work and

00:07:58: you feel like you have to change your video style even though you don't want to but if

00:08:03: you don't change it you have to watch your viewer numbers decrease and that's of course

00:08:08: also not super motivating.

00:08:10: And that's maybe the right point to state that we are of course not disconnected from

00:08:15: all these issues, from all these topics, we see this development on YouTube, we see that

00:08:21: our views are worse than they were three years ago for example, we also created less videos

00:08:28: last year, way less videos but we have one important difference, our main content creation

00:08:35: area is not YouTube, it's creating online video courses, online programming video courses

00:08:41: so YouTube is for us just one part of what we do.

00:08:46: That's why we can step back a bit from YouTube if we want to and now we come back with more

00:08:53: content than ever with two podcasts, a video every week, with shorts on TikTok and Instagram

00:09:00: and YouTube and whatever.

00:09:01: So our perspective is of course not the one of a full-time YouTuber, that's important

00:09:07: to understand because if we would do it full-time we might also have this quitting topic in

00:09:15: our heads.

00:09:16: At the moment we don't have it at all because we took our break, we took our time, we analyzed

00:09:21: the market so to say and now we try out other video types which are still in line with our

00:09:27: old school attitude so with the videos or the core content we enjoy creating.

00:09:32: I think the main thing is we try to keep on doing what we like to do whilst at the same

00:09:37: time of course trying to produce content people want to see because we're of course not just

00:09:43: doing it for us, right, we want to produce content that's helpful to people, that people

00:09:48: like and that's why we're trying out different formats and we got plenty of ideas there but

00:09:53: at the same time as you also said the goal is not to just copy what works for Fireship

00:10:00: or someone else because A, we can't do that and B, that's not us, that's simply not us,

00:10:07: that's not the kind of content we want to create, we don't want to move that far into

00:10:13: the entertainment area, we want to focus on really producing content that contains knowledge,

00:10:20: that's helpful to other people, that's super important to us and obviously Fireship, just

00:10:25: to make that super clear, does that too but obviously it's way more entertainment focused

00:10:32: than our content is. I think that's fair to say but obviously he also has a way of getting

00:10:41: a lot of knowledge across in his videos so that's really great, that's not the point

00:10:45: but we of course are at a point where we also I think found a way of creating videos that

00:10:53: we like, that we see people like and that still allow us to keep our style and do and

00:11:04: create those videos as we want to create them I think. That's a complicated way of saying

00:11:09: it but yeah.

00:11:10: I get what you mean and I guess it's true and what also ties into this whole we still

00:11:15: create videos the way we enjoy creating these videos, still adapted to the current situation

00:11:21: that we have on YouTube, we are only two people so we don't have lots of employees who create

00:11:27: these videos for us for example and we don't have a high cost pressure because if we have

00:11:32: 10 employees, we have to pay these employees so we need to create YouTube videos that create

00:11:38: a certain amount of revenue to be able to pay our bills. We don't have that problem

00:11:43: because as I said we create online courses on different platforms and it's only two people

00:11:48: so we are in a, at the moment at least, in a more comfortable position maybe. We on purpose

00:11:55: decided to have the situation by the way, we talked about that in our last podcast but

00:11:59: still that's also something that other YouTubers might have that they don't enjoy creating

00:12:05: the videos anymore but they have to totally adapt to this new video types because these

00:12:09: are the only video types that really make money at the moment. So this takes away your

00:12:15: freedom I guess to say yeah I enjoy my video style more, I'll slightly adapt it but it's

00:12:22: okay the way it is because you have to change your videos because if you don't earn money

00:12:26: with these then you can't run your company anymore.

00:12:29: And if now that you're talking about earning money of course one way a lot of YouTubers

00:12:35: use to earn money is collaborations right, product placements and we don't do that either.

00:12:42: We don't rule it out forever too but we have never done it before and that's also a deliberate

00:12:50: decision we had plenty of offers but and we also talked about that in our other podcast

00:12:55: so I'm not going to go too much into depth here but of course if you have collaborations,

00:13:01: if you have contracts, you have obligations and those collaboration partners of course

00:13:07: expect certain view numbers. Now you will get your money even if a single video does

00:13:13: not meet these numbers depending on the contract of course but if you want to get more future

00:13:18: collaboration partners you need to have good views on your videos and that of course means

00:13:25: that you have to ensure that you produce videos that produce these views and that's

00:13:31: not a factor for us. We can totally create a video where we know that it won't do that

00:13:37: well because we want to do it because we want to try out something or because we know that

00:13:42: it fits very well into our video portfolio because we know hey there is a certain topic

00:13:49: like I recently created a video about signals. It's not too important but it's a pretty niche

00:13:55: video and it was clear that it won't do that well but I wanted to get this out so that

00:14:01: I can also link to that video if someone asks me in one of the courses how does this work.

00:14:06: So that's something we can do because we don't have this obligation but as you said of course

00:14:12: if YouTube is your main thing, if that's how you earn your money, if you're living off

00:14:17: those collaborations and so on then this is not necessarily a luxury you have and that's

00:14:24: something where we are privileged or where our deliberate decisions pay off because as

00:14:29: you said it's not the main thing we use or we do to earn money but it is of course an

00:14:34: important factor for many other creators.

00:14:36: And that's also, so if I summarize what you just said or what we just said is I guess

00:14:41: it's the pressure that you suddenly feel so you started as YouTube creator, great, freedom,

00:14:48: nice job, I'm creative, I do what I want and suddenly you have so much pressure on your

00:14:53: shoulders from many different directions as you said the collaboration one, I have

00:14:58: to get videos with X amounts of clicks, I have my employees, I have all these costs

00:15:05: and this can be very tricky I guess if you are in this situation so you start YouTube,

00:15:11: you do well and suddenly some years later you find yourself in a situation where you

00:15:16: don't enjoy what you do but where you have to do that job because of all these dependencies

00:15:22: I guess or all these obligations that you have and that's a tricky situation and to

00:15:26: be honest I don't have a quick fix for that.

00:15:29: I still think that quitting something is a very strict decision I guess, something you

00:15:35: probably don't decide within a day or two.

00:15:37: So for all these people who quit YouTube I guess they thought about that but still it's

00:15:42: hard to see if you have a big channel, good views still in the end because of all these

00:15:47: factors or other factors we don't know you suddenly stop this.

00:15:51: Really it's sad to be honest.

00:15:52: It is sad but of course ultimately everyone has to do what works for them so if that works

00:16:00: that's fine of course also I guess at least some of those channels or creators who quit

00:16:07: YouTube might have earned enough money that they can afford it and I would assume most

00:16:14: of them simply do something else, build a new business, whatever so there probably is

00:16:19: no reason to worry about them financially at least but yeah of course it's sad if you

00:16:26: have like a channel that's doing well but that's simply not doing well for its owner

00:16:33: anymore and I think we're glad that this is not where we are as you said.

00:16:40: Of course obviously the last two years we have created less videos because we had more

00:16:48: focus on either some personal stuff, maybe even taking some time off and so on but also

00:16:54: creating courses so there have been various reasons but it is really great that we are

00:16:59: in a position where we can now increase the amount of output and spend more time on YouTube

00:17:08: again but do it in a way that we like because we can afford a video that does not have hundreds

00:17:15: of thousands of views.

00:17:16: And also this podcast for example covers different topics than we have on our YouTube

00:17:21: channel and also different topics than the ones you have in your podcast.

00:17:25: So we'll see how this podcast develops but it's just something we felt we want to do

00:17:30: and we want to cover these topics and discuss topics like that so for us it's just a new

00:17:35: platform we try, we do our best to provide valuable content in the end and we just see

00:17:41: how it works and that's also a great situation we have at the moment.

00:17:46: I mentioned that in our last podcast that this might also change for us so we will see

00:17:50: where we are in one, two, three, four, five years.

00:17:53: At the moment we are quite happy with the situation that we have.

00:17:56: We are not totally happy for example with the way YouTube and the education market in

00:18:02: general developed.

00:18:03: As you said this whole shorter videos, faster, more entertainment style is not the style

00:18:09: that suits us perfectly.

00:18:12: Still we have to adapt up to a certain amount and we try our best to do that and still make

00:18:18: it fun for us to creating this video.

00:18:19: Yeah, absolutely.

00:18:21: And yeah, I would therefore say as always it would be interesting to hear how you think

00:18:28: about this, the change in YouTube attention span and so on or maybe you totally disagree,

00:18:34: have a different opinion.

00:18:36: So please share your feedback and hopefully we see and hear you again in future episodes.

00:18:42: Because we don't quit at the moment.

00:18:43: Yeah, no plans.

00:18:44: Bye.