Sweet heavens! A nine-year-old boy has made nearly $30m in a year from “unboxing” and reviewing toys and games on Youtube and to hold the title of highest-paid YouTuber for the third consecutive year.
The Texasite, made $29.5m (£22m) from his YouTube channel Ryans World as well as a further estimated $200m from Ryan’s World branded toys and clothing, and a deal with the British brand Marks & Spencer’s pyjamas also the millionaire signed an undisclosed, but likely whooping multimillion dollar, deal for his exclusive TV series on Nickelodeon.
Kaji, who is described as a “child influencer”, initially began making YouTube videos in March 2015 after watching other toy review channels and asking his mother, ‘How come I am not in Youtube when all the other kids are?’
The 9 year’s old family – changed their real surname, Guan, to his on-screen surname, Kaji – and now run nine brilliantly successful YouTube channels. Ryan’s World was the most popular with 41.7m subscribers and 12.2bn views. Kaji’s most popular Huge Eggs Surprise Toys Challenge received an incredible viewership of more than 2bn views, making it one of the 60 most-viewed videos ever on YouTube.
However, Kaji and his family are now facing the threat of a US Federal Trade Commission investigation over allegations that videos’ sponsors are not accurately disclosed. “Nearly 9% of the Ryan ToysReview videos have included at least one paid product recommendation aimed at preschoolers, a group too young to distinguish between a commercial and a review,” a complaint from the consumer watchdog, Truth In Advertising, said. “These advertisements often depict unhealthy foods.”
Ryan, as a child influencer, is being courted by companies to play with the latest gizmo so that other children can learn about it. But now, the child influencer himself has become a hugely popular brand that is then being put into Walmart, and Target, and Amazon as its own force and influence.