VC & Corporate funding to Social Media

Social media became essential part of life and business. Its global market size is $1.35 trillion growing at 13%. 80% of social media content is video. Majority are shortform videos and 72% are branded video uploads.

Globally, YouTube is dominant with 91% share in embedded video content. It has 2.70 billion viewers which is 1/3rd of global population. India leads with 20% share of global viewers, US 9%, Indonesia and Brazil 5%, Japan and Mexico 3% and balance is across 185 countries. More than 100 countries have high level of viewers in premium services segment. Only China, North Korea and few east African countries excluded YouTube.

In year 2025, YouTube’s revenue is $60 billion (Rs. 5,50,000 crs) growing at 8.7%. Although not publicly disclosed, profit margins could be 35% after meeting platform, infra, content, and corporate costs.

YouTube has 65 million content uploaders. Less than 5% qualify in YouTube Partner Program (YPP) meeting the subscribership and viewership thresholds. Less than 25% YPPs earn big money. Top 5 earners from YouTube are MrBeast $150 mln, PewDiePie $40 mln, Ryans World $35 mln, Vlad & Niki $35 mln, and Markipiler $30 mln. The total payout by YouTube to YouTubers is $16 billion (Rs. 150,000 crs). YouTubers additionally earn 60% from advertisements and sponsorships having total earnings of $40 billion.

YouTubers must invest on camera, sound system, lighting, self-studio, wearables, garments, and other ancillary items. Popular YouTubers have huge equipment, jigs, fixtures, sets, atelier, big teams, crew, caravans, and other vehicles which cost millions of dollars. Despite such investment requirement, the scope to earn high income entices aspirants towards social media. Many bootstrap their investments. It is uncommon for venture capital (VC) firms or corporates to invest in YouTubers. However, two YouTube vloggers received such funding with unconventional deal structures.

Marina Mogliko with her YouTube channel name ‘Linguamarina’ presents lifestyle content. She endorses 317 brands including Four Seasons, Lenovo, Notion, Valmont, LG, Amazon, and Alibaba. In 2021, Marina received $1.7 mln venture funding from Slow Ventures with an implied valuation of $34 million. In exchange, Slow Ventures got 5% stake in her content generated earnings over 30 years. The threshold pay structure in the deal avoids revenue sharing burden in low-income periods. As audience for Post Marina increased to 20 million with 1.5 mln plus subscribers, the deal is beneficial to VC and her. Her brand endorsements, sponsorships, and advertisements also increased multi-fold.

MrBeast is another deal signed in January 2026 with official press release on 23rd February 2026. Beast is a vlogger channel on YouTube with 46 crore subscribers. Beast presents exotic programs of unimaginable technology, deadly entertainment, high value gifts and cash distribution in its gameshows. It diversified into fintech, virtual restaurants, exotic chocolates, and beast games. Beast has $400 million revenue with 100% plus compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) expected to touch $1 billion in 2026.

Beast received $200 mln from Bitmine Immersion Technologies at a pre-money valuation of $5 billion for about 4% shareholding. This is for expansion, Feastable Snacks, MrBeast Burger, and Financial Services using Web3 and DeFi products. Bitmine is a 30-years old Ethereum crypto treasury company. It was listed on New York Stock Exchange in June 2025 uplisting from over the counter platform. It has market cap of $8.5 bln but only 3 full-time employees.

Investors expect multi-fold returns in the above two deals. These valuations are no surprise when compared with Google’s $1.65 bln acquisition of YouTube in 2006 with all-stock exchange. Current value of YouTube is about $670 billion translating into a 35% IRR (internal rate of return) or 406X return in 20 years. Google and YouTube are the world’s 1st and 2nd most visited websites. These attractions and dependence of many big companies on YouTube for their brand promotions make analysts believe that more YouTubers may receive funding and VCs and corporates will be keen to invest.  

- Dr Kishore Nuthalapati The author is CFO of  BEKEM Infra Projects Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad