The illusion of the ocean: a simple mindset shift to understand the economics of views that come from beyond YouTube.

YOUTUBE ECONOMICS: THE ILLUSION OF THE OCEAN If one were a fish in the ocean, we’d forget about the ocean, as it would simply appear to be everything. Knowing the sky exists would even be possible, though you’d be a real genius of a fish. It would be impossible to have a concept of outer space. It’s also something most fish will never have to think about. YouTube is like the ocean. Other platforms like X, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch are the sky below the clouds. Even beyond those are platforms Western YouTubers almost never think about — like Bilibili or Xiaohongshu — are still sky below clouds, because they’re still easily perceptible if someone tells you. Then, beyond the clouds is everything that could possibly command human attention. People’s jobs, families, life. Holidays and relationships. Hobbies and actualisation. The main point of this mini-essay is this: At highest level of YouTube, one is no longer competing with other YouTubers, but instead against every other factor that affects YouTube economics. They’re competing with every other viable source that commands attention. So, these few creators are beyond YouTube’s internal economic flows. Rather, they literally bring users to the platform itself. A direct example in mind is MrBeast’s Squid Game. The views went far beyond who typically watch YouTube. This is also a fundamental weakness that exists in outlier strategy. For the vast majority of YouTubers, outlier strategy is super useful. It is a characterisation of internal economic flows within YouTube, which — in practical terms — is perfectly enough for creators to do well on YouTube. But the extension of outlier strategy is therefore to understand that there are outliers that exist outside of YouTube. They’re not currently measured nor thought of in that way. An outlier is simply an economic signal. It doesn’t necessarily have to be found by YouTube views; that’s just what we’re used to. For the absolute biggest creators to grow, they inevitably have to grow YouTube as a platform. There’s a variation, then, of the principle “make videos people want to watch”. It’s simply: “make something people want”. The most skilled command attention from outside the platform.