What a fascinating business story this is turning out to be this year for a large tech reviewer named Marques Brownlee on YouTube. He was often touted as the best tech reviewer who gives honest reviews of products and this year it seemed like he completely wrecked that reputation. The common theme seemed to be that he wanted to expand into different things and make more money. Is that the root of all evil as they say?
It started with getting into an app business with what appeared to be wallpaper for smartphones which a large part of his audience began to criticize him for because it was really expensive to many while being so basic with questionable functions. People couldn’t help but to say how he did all the things that they felt he usually criticized other companies for which would now make him less credible.
Then just a few days ago he apparently uploaded a sponsored video by the company DJI to promote its DJI Osmo Action Camera 5 Pro where in one spot he was driving incredibly fast. Allegedly, he drove 96mph in a 35mph zone and he actually edited it out afterwards once people familiar of the area noticed this. So aside from this, the fact that he took on a sponsored post like this as a hardware reviewer dropped his credibility even more. All this within a year.
Can you imagine say going from a million dollar company to just ten thousand in a year as an example? You have to prepare to not let the money get to your head when you reach that point huh?