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I'm also uncomfortable with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy but what I'm seeing is a very successful business with an enormous and very e

by zik 3y ago

I'm also uncomfortable with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy but what I'm seeing is a very successful business with an enormous and very expensive campus. MrBeast himself is very rich. So what I'm seeing is a corporation claiming to do everything for the benefit of others while actually taking a lot of the money very visibly for themselves. His channel made $54m from youtube in 2021, and probably a lot more from corporate sponsors. Make no mistake, this is big business - not charity. And some of his side businesses are downright shady. His burger chain is run out of ghost kitchens which make food for multiple virtual chains like MrBeast's. The burgers are apparently a crapshoot - it depends on which ghost kitchen made your burger as to what you get. Quality control is zero. Yet they charge top dollar for the MrBeast name.

a-user-you-like 3y ago
It can be and is both a business and philanthropic.
- citizenkeen 3y ago
  That was my takeaway as well. As a parent, I vet everything my kids watch and will for a few more years. I have no idea how you don't.
- freddie_mercury 3y ago
  Isn't every philanthropic foundation also a "business"? The Gates Foundation had $150 million of income from their investments in 2022. The CEO of the Gates Foundation was paid $1.176 million last year. Their net assets went up by $13 billion in 2022 and up $20 billion since the beginning of 2021.
  - azurelake 3y ago
    The difference is that Gates is an industrialist who does acts of philanthropy. MrBeast does acts of philanthropy to be an industrialist.
  - goodpoint 3y ago
    > Isn't every philanthropic foundation also a "business"? No, only the corrupted ones.
lagt_t 3y ago
Making philanthropy profitable is kinda genius.
- pictureofabear 3y ago
  The Susan G Komen foundation figured that out years ago.
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    Charities like Komen, and the American Cancer Society, and all those charitable Foundations and Societies that fund research on incurable diseases: they are exactly the reason why breast cancer and all the other diseases will never, ever be cured. They must never be cured. Billions of dollars in revenue depend on their incurability. Scientists and researchers have an amazing cash cow, a goose that lays golden eggs, and to identify a cure for breast cancer would strangle that goose where it sits. EDIT: I think I like the cow metaphor much better in this case. Therefore, mark my words: donate to the "X For A Cure" charities at your own peril, because the perverse incentives mean that they will move Heaven and Earth to avoid finding a cure for anything at all.
    - kaba0 3y ago
      I don’t fundamentally disagree with you, but I think people’s conception of curing cancers is just out of touch with reality. Cancer is a group of diseases, and we have come a very long way in successfully treating many members of that - there are many many millions who would have gotten a death sentence just a decade ago, being completely cured nowadays. I don’t know about these foundations, maybe it is mostly funded by governments/EU funds, whatever instead, but there is good research out there.
- BurningFrog 3y ago
  It also makes the philanthropy sustainable.
no_wizard 3y ago
Not attempting to be an apologist, however it sounds to me like there just needs to be some quality control over the licensing of the brand, perhaps? Not sure how that's shady, sounds like it might be a bit egregious but its not like he isn't honest about this being a business based around his brand of philanthropy either.
- prepend 3y ago
  It’s shady because he puts his name on crap and doesn’t care because everything is BS. Would you start a burger business without quality control? Would you let random companies put your name on crap? That’s shady.
  - no_wizard 3y ago
    Licensing deals aren’t the same as starting a burger business. Clearly the partnering institutions aren’t living up to par but he’s just licensing and marketing which is a pretty common arrangement for these sorts of things. Not sure I agree it’s shady, egregious maybe.
    - pictureofabear 3y ago
      Certainly not shady. Many brands put their label on crap merchandise.
      - pfffr 3y ago
        [flagged]
      - mihaic 3y ago
        Just because something is widespread doesn't mean it's not shady.
    - basch 3y ago
      I believe he is supplying the food. So if the ghost kitchen is a burger chain, they have their own burgers and then separately cook his as well. All of the quality control issues should be from preparation.
paulpauper 3y ago
His channel made $54m from youtube in 2021, and probably a lot more from corporate sponsors. Make no mistake, this is big business - not charity. that is is? that is a rounding error for almost any decent-sized tech company. We're talking a household name, and one of the most popular channels ever, which is on the front page of youtube by default. I would have thought it would be more. yes, he made $54 million, but surely a lot of expenses too?
- lathiat 3y ago
  $54m was just a forbes estimate and that was 2 years ago in 2021. He reached 50M subscribers sometime in 2021, 100M subscribers in July 2022, in June 2023 he has 163M. Then if you look at video views, he was doing about 500M/month all of 2021-2022 but in only 2023 he is doing 1000M baseline with spikes to 1500M-1800M for some of the big hitters. See: https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/mrbeast6000 https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/mrbeast6000 Also: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2022/11/30/could-mrbeast-be-the-first-youtuber-billionaire/?sh=6b551d9d191a https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2022/11/30/could-m... That's just his main channel, he has many other large channels (Beast Gaming, Beast Reacts) plus the other social platforms (TikTok, etc). Then in the last 2 years he launched Beast Burger and Feastables (mostly chocolate bars currently). There are some public numbers about $10m revenue on feastables in the first few months and over $100m of revenue on beast burger orders sometime last year. He spends a lot, talks about it a lot, $2-4 million per video on each main channel video. He has also talked a lot about re-investing everything back into the channel to grow and grow. Which seems evident by the growth rate if nothing else. That's just snippets of info and I'm not remotely experienced enough in any of these spaces to make any attempt at a real number but between the increased views, feastables and beast burger I don't see how it's any less than 100s of millions of revenue at this point. My main point, though, is that he has grown a lot from 2021-2023 where that $54m number came from :) But having said that.. he was still very popular and long on the front page of YouTube back in 2021 perhaps with those much more modest numbers. Something like this is worth a watch. While I'm sure there is plenty he doesn't talk about, he talks about a lot publicly including money spent, strategies, statistics, etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGrk7Mzm4uo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGrk7Mzm4uo
garrickvanburen 3y ago
My extraordinarily poor experience with the burger project was enough to validate, my up until that point just gut-level, uncomfortableness.
Brian_K_White 3y ago
There's a mr beast product display at my corner 7-11, something like usb cables or some other random plastic junk. Guy must be all over.
bnlxbnlx 3y ago
> There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy Why not? To be able to "give" you first need to accumulate way beyond what you need to attend to your material needs. Accumulating such wealth means taking more resources than you need in the first place. It's still fully within the scarcity and separation mindset of capitalism.
- j45 3y ago
  Everyone can give. You can give. Giving time, care, an ear to listen is really valuable. These things make big differences because it’s often what people pay money for too Giving is not just for after earning lots of money.
  - bnlxbnlx 3y ago
    I believe you misunderstood me. I was specially referring to philanthropists' "giving"? I'm fully aligned with what you say.
- erikerikson 3y ago
  > you first need to accumulate way beyond what you need Or... Produce way beyond... The kleptocapitalism narrative as well as the neocapitalist narrative depend on using a myopic perspective. There is a fair debate about the negotiation over what to do with the excess between all parties involved and that can be a useful conversation. If you didn't mean to agitate in that way I apologize for being too sensitive.
antoniuschan99 3y ago
Check out Virtual Dining Concepts https://joinvdc.com/brands/mrbeast-burger/ https://joinvdc.com/brands/mrbeast-burger/ And this Eddy Burback Video https://youtu.be/KkIkymh5Ayg https://youtu.be/KkIkymh5Ayg on that rabbit hole. Also, seems like his Chocolate Brand is going to be in a ton of places now after seeing him announce the locations in his latest video (the cruise ship one)
listenallyall 3y ago
Just like Holiday Inn, Marriott, or any hotel chain. So weird that you take issue, he makes it exceptionally clear his burger brand is all ghost kitchens.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rowanG077 3y ago
MrBeast claims he is not rich, that he puts all the money back into his videos. Of course that means he has a huge production. That doesn't mean it makes a lot of profit. Unless there is factual evidence to the contrary I'm inclined to believe MrBeast. He has never been caught lying, which is virtually impossible given his presence and reach.

by zik 3y ago

a-user-you-like 3y ago

It can be and is both a business and philanthropic.

citizenkeen 3y ago
That was my takeaway as well. As a parent, I vet everything my kids watch and will for a few more years. I have no idea how you don't.
freddie_mercury 3y ago
Isn't every philanthropic foundation also a "business"? The Gates Foundation had $150 million of income from their investments in 2022. The CEO of the Gates Foundation was paid $1.176 million last year. Their net assets went up by $13 billion in 2022 and up $20 billion since the beginning of 2021.
- azurelake 3y ago
  The difference is that Gates is an industrialist who does acts of philanthropy. MrBeast does acts of philanthropy to be an industrialist.
- goodpoint 3y ago
  > Isn't every philanthropic foundation also a "business"? No, only the corrupted ones.

lagt_t 3y ago

Making philanthropy profitable is kinda genius.

pictureofabear 3y ago
The Susan G Komen foundation figured that out years ago.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Charities like Komen, and the American Cancer Society, and all those charitable Foundations and Societies that fund research on incurable diseases: they are exactly the reason why breast cancer and all the other diseases will never, ever be cured. They must never be cured. Billions of dollars in revenue depend on their incurability. Scientists and researchers have an amazing cash cow, a goose that lays golden eggs, and to identify a cure for breast cancer would strangle that goose where it sits. EDIT: I think I like the cow metaphor much better in this case. Therefore, mark my words: donate to the "X For A Cure" charities at your own peril, because the perverse incentives mean that they will move Heaven and Earth to avoid finding a cure for anything at all.
  - kaba0 3y ago
    I don’t fundamentally disagree with you, but I think people’s conception of curing cancers is just out of touch with reality. Cancer is a group of diseases, and we have come a very long way in successfully treating many members of that - there are many many millions who would have gotten a death sentence just a decade ago, being completely cured nowadays. I don’t know about these foundations, maybe it is mostly funded by governments/EU funds, whatever instead, but there is good research out there.
BurningFrog 3y ago
It also makes the philanthropy sustainable.

no_wizard 3y ago

Not attempting to be an apologist, however it sounds to me like there just needs to be some quality control over the licensing of the brand, perhaps? Not sure how that's shady, sounds like it might be a bit egregious but its not like he isn't honest about this being a business based around his brand of philanthropy either.

prepend 3y ago
It’s shady because he puts his name on crap and doesn’t care because everything is BS. Would you start a burger business without quality control? Would you let random companies put your name on crap? That’s shady.
- no_wizard 3y ago
  Licensing deals aren’t the same as starting a burger business. Clearly the partnering institutions aren’t living up to par but he’s just licensing and marketing which is a pretty common arrangement for these sorts of things. Not sure I agree it’s shady, egregious maybe.
  - pictureofabear 3y ago
    Certainly not shady. Many brands put their label on crap merchandise.
    - pfffr 3y ago
      [flagged]
    - mihaic 3y ago
      Just because something is widespread doesn't mean it's not shady.
  - basch 3y ago
    I believe he is supplying the food. So if the ghost kitchen is a burger chain, they have their own burgers and then separately cook his as well. All of the quality control issues should be from preparation.

paulpauper 3y ago

His channel made $54m from youtube in 2021, and probably a lot more from corporate sponsors. Make no mistake, this is big business - not charity. that is is? that is a rounding error for almost any decent-sized tech company. We're talking a household name, and one of the most popular channels ever, which is on the front page of youtube by default. I would have thought it would be more. yes, he made $54 million, but surely a lot of expenses too?

lathiat 3y ago
$54m was just a forbes estimate and that was 2 years ago in 2021. He reached 50M subscribers sometime in 2021, 100M subscribers in July 2022, in June 2023 he has 163M. Then if you look at video views, he was doing about 500M/month all of 2021-2022 but in only 2023 he is doing 1000M baseline with spikes to 1500M-1800M for some of the big hitters. See: https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/mrbeast6000 https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/mrbeast6000 Also: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2022/11/30/could-mrbeast-be-the-first-youtuber-billionaire/?sh=6b551d9d191a https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2022/11/30/could-m... That's just his main channel, he has many other large channels (Beast Gaming, Beast Reacts) plus the other social platforms (TikTok, etc). Then in the last 2 years he launched Beast Burger and Feastables (mostly chocolate bars currently). There are some public numbers about $10m revenue on feastables in the first few months and over $100m of revenue on beast burger orders sometime last year. He spends a lot, talks about it a lot, $2-4 million per video on each main channel video. He has also talked a lot about re-investing everything back into the channel to grow and grow. Which seems evident by the growth rate if nothing else. That's just snippets of info and I'm not remotely experienced enough in any of these spaces to make any attempt at a real number but between the increased views, feastables and beast burger I don't see how it's any less than 100s of millions of revenue at this point. My main point, though, is that he has grown a lot from 2021-2023 where that $54m number came from :) But having said that.. he was still very popular and long on the front page of YouTube back in 2021 perhaps with those much more modest numbers. Something like this is worth a watch. While I'm sure there is plenty he doesn't talk about, he talks about a lot publicly including money spent, strategies, statistics, etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGrk7Mzm4uo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGrk7Mzm4uo

garrickvanburen 3y ago

My extraordinarily poor experience with the burger project was enough to validate, my up until that point just gut-level, uncomfortableness.

Brian_K_White 3y ago

There's a mr beast product display at my corner 7-11, something like usb cables or some other random plastic junk. Guy must be all over.

bnlxbnlx 3y ago

> There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy Why not? To be able to "give" you first need to accumulate way beyond what you need to attend to your material needs. Accumulating such wealth means taking more resources than you need in the first place. It's still fully within the scarcity and separation mindset of capitalism.

j45 3y ago
Everyone can give. You can give. Giving time, care, an ear to listen is really valuable. These things make big differences because it’s often what people pay money for too Giving is not just for after earning lots of money.
- bnlxbnlx 3y ago
  I believe you misunderstood me. I was specially referring to philanthropists' "giving"? I'm fully aligned with what you say.
erikerikson 3y ago
> you first need to accumulate way beyond what you need Or... Produce way beyond... The kleptocapitalism narrative as well as the neocapitalist narrative depend on using a myopic perspective. There is a fair debate about the negotiation over what to do with the excess between all parties involved and that can be a useful conversation. If you didn't mean to agitate in that way I apologize for being too sensitive.

antoniuschan99 3y ago

Check out Virtual Dining Concepts https://joinvdc.com/brands/mrbeast-burger/ https://joinvdc.com/brands/mrbeast-burger/ And this Eddy Burback Video https://youtu.be/KkIkymh5Ayg https://youtu.be/KkIkymh5Ayg on that rabbit hole. Also, seems like his Chocolate Brand is going to be in a ton of places now after seeing him announce the locations in his latest video (the cruise ship one)

listenallyall 3y ago

Just like Holiday Inn, Marriott, or any hotel chain. So weird that you take issue, he makes it exceptionally clear his burger brand is all ghost kitchens.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

rowanG077 3y ago

MrBeast claims he is not rich, that he puts all the money back into his videos. Of course that means he has a huge production. That doesn't mean it makes a lot of profit. Unless there is factual evidence to the contrary I'm inclined to believe MrBeast. He has never been caught lying, which is virtually impossible given his presence and reach.