'Success' on YouTube still means a life of poverty

DO your children dream of YouTube stardom? Do them a favour: Crush that ambition now.

New research out of Germany billed as among the first to review the chances of making it in the new Hollywood shows a vanishingly small number will ever break through - just like in the old Hollywood.

In fact, 96.5 per cent of users trying to become YouTubers won't make enough money off advertising to crack the US poverty line, according to an analysis by Mathias Bärtl, a professor at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg.

Breaking into the top 3 per cent of most-viewed channels could bring in advertising revenue of about US$16,800 a year, Prof Bärtl said. That's a bit more than the US federal poverty line of US$12,140 for a single person. (Th…