Elon Musk says X plans to significantly boost creator payouts to outcompete YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google, but the world’s most subscribed YouTuber is cautioning that matching Google’s monetization machine will be a steep climb.
Musk: Pay Creators Or Lose Original Content
Musk weighed in after an X user urged the platform to sharply raise creator payments. “If I were at X or Elon, I’d crank creator payouts way way way way up. maybe even more than YouTube (you can eat the cost to try to win agi),” the user wrote.
The user argued that platforms that meaningfully compensate creators will be the only ones left with credible, original content once large language models finish absorbing much of the internet’s existing material.
In response, Musk agreed to move forward with higher payouts, adding a caveat. “Let’s do it,” Musk wrote, while stressing the need for strict enforcement to prevent manipulation of the system.
He tagged Nikita Bier, the entrepreneur behind Gas and tbh and now X’s head of product, signaling that the push could become a core product priority.
MrBeast Pushes Back On YouTube Comparisons
Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, offered a reality check.
In response to Musk’s latest commitment, he said that competing with YouTube on revenue “is going to be really hard.”
MrBeast, who has about 457 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel, highlighted the gap X would need to close.
“Competing with YouTube revenue gonna be pretty hard, they’re the best platform to ever exist at this. I’ve done 9 figures in ad revenue on just one channel for example,” he wrote.
MrBeast’s X Monetization Experiment Shows Big Payouts
In 2024, MrBeast ran a monetization test by posting videos on X that had already been published on YouTube.
One of those uploads generated more than $250,000 on X, driven largely by strong advertiser interest as the video gained traction.
Data shared by MrBeast showed the post received about 156.7 million impressions and produced roughly $263,665 in revenue.
Although users asked how the same video performed financially on YouTube, MrBeast did not disclose specific figures. He has, however, said that the video earned substantially more on YouTube than on X.
MrBeast later distributed the advertising revenue from the X experiment among his followers on the platform.
Since purchasing X for $44 billion, Musk has focused on boosting engagement and expanding revenue-sharing programs for users.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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