Kurzgesagt Net Worth – $60 Million

 

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell is an entertaining YouTube channel dedicated to just explaining things that happen in our day-to-day lives. Its name is German. It’s foundation began when the founder Philipp dropped out of high school as a teenager. He went back after one of the teachers taught in a different way which sparked his interest in wanting to learn more. This led him to want to recreate the same experience online. He started Kurzgesagt as a passion project.

A team of around 5 guys (Stephan, Thomas, Steve, Martin and Philip), based in Munich Germany, joined Philipp in creating content for the channel and made it their full-time job. The team has since expanded to incorporate a large number of illustrators. They now have offices in Munich and Berlin with over 60 employees. The owners of the company have generated an estimated net worth of $60 million from it.

How Much Money Does Kurzgesagt Earn On YouTube?

Kurzgesagt has around 21 million subscribers as of 2023 plus has accumulated a total of 2.5 billion views of the channel since July 2013. On a daily basis the channel gets an average of 900,000 views across its various videos and it grows by around 4000 subscribers every day. This will translate to earnings of around $2,700 every day ($1 million a year) from the ads that appear on the videos.

YouTube content creators based in the US, UK, Canada and Australia generally get paid $2 – $12 per 1000 monetized views after YouTube takes its cut. Monetized views usually range from 40% – 80% of the total views. All these are influenced by several factors like the device played on, time of the year, the location of the viewer, ad inventory, how many ads there are on a video, how many people skip the ads, type of advertisement, ad engagement, type of content, etc.

The cost of an ad view is based on an auction between advertisers based on views. Advertisers have to bid a minimum of $0.01 per view. There is also a program known as Google Preferred where deep-pocketed companies can target ads on the top 5% most popular content. The ad rates here are higher than normal.

Apart from ads, YouTube content creators also generate extra income from other methods such as YouTube Premium, Superchats & Superstickers, Super Thanks, Channel Membership and Shopping.

YouTube Premium viewers pay a monthly fee to view premium content on YouTube and watch videos without ads. Here, content creators get paid based on watch time on their videos. The longer the viewers watch their videos, the more money they earn.

Super Chat and Super Sticker are used by fans to connect with creators during live streams and premiers. When one buys a Super Chat, their comment is highlighted within the live chat while the Super Stickers get an animated image that surfaces in live chat. Super Thanks lets creators earn revenue from viewers who want to show extra gratitude for their videos. Fans can buy a one-time animation and get to post a distinct, colorful, and customizable comment in the video’s comment section.

Shopping allows eligible creators to connect their stores to YouTube to feature their own products.

YouTube Shorts generate revenue in a different way as compared to traditional videos. The revenue from ads appearing between Shorts will be pooled together then a portion of the total revenue will be allocated to a Creator Pool. Each country has its own Creator Pool. Eligible creators will be paid based on their share of total views. Shorts that use music make less money due to licensing costs.

General Expenses

Content creators incur a wide variety of expenses to create their content. These can include things like production costs, employee salaries, travel expenses, rent, buying new equipment, utilities, amenities, entertainment, subscription fees and other living expenses. One of the biggest expenses for most creators is taxes. Your tax brackets generally depend on your income. In a country like the United States, the highest tax rate is 37%. A combination of all these expenses determines one’s ability to save and invest, consequently how much one’s net worth grows.

 

Other Sources Of Revenue

Early on, agency revenue was the main source of income in addition to ad revenue and sponsorships. The company primarily has 5 sources of income. These are agency, Patreon, sponsors, YouTube ads and their shop.

62% of their revenue comes directly from their viewers through watching ads, supporting on Patreon or buying merchandise from their shop. The single biggest source of income is their shop which accounted for 40% of the revenue, YouTube accounted for 13% and Patreon 9% .

Agency accounted for 9% of their revenue but this was halted in 2022. Commercial sponsors directly advertising their products accounted for 12% and 7% from German Public Broadcasting but they ended the partnership in 2022. Institutional sponsors such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Philanthropy, UN and Red Cross represented 10% of their revenue.