MKBHD says yes to Google Glass, no to the Metaverse

If you've ever searched YouTube for a review of the latest iPhone or the latest electric car, you've probably come across Marques Brownlee. Since starting his MKBHD channel as a teenager in 2009, Brownlee has amassed 15.8 million subscribers for his in-depth yet accessible tech videos. He's even done interviews with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama, and to top it all off, he's a professional ultimate frisbee player (the former president even complimented his "incredible jumps")< /p>

But perhaps Brownlee's most impressive achievement is his ability to stay relevant for 10 years in his online video career without losing his audience's trust. And as short video content becomes a necessity for any creator, Brownlee seamlessly transitioned to TikTok, where he pulled off one of the only good April Fool's Day pranks.

We caught up with Brownlee at VidCon, where he was helping Discord promote beta testing of its server subscriptions (watch out, Patreon). In a chat with perhaps the most well-known tech critic — sorry, other TechCrunch writers — the 28-year-old internet star told us about the transition to TikTok, his views on the metaverse, and why Google Glass deserves a redemption arc.

This interview has been condensed for clarity.

Apple Polishing Cloth Review and Compatibility Test

♬ original sound – Marques Brownlee

TC: It's not easy to make TikToks or YouTube shorts when you've made it big on YouTube with 20-minute or so videos. How do you make shorter content on these new platforms?

MB: I think about it a lot. I see ways I don't like doing it, like people redirecting other content and turning it into shorthand content. I would much rather create native content for each platform. When we started making short films, it was a challenge. I was like, how can I really cut this down to 60 seconds or less? I think my first three shorts are 59.8 seconds long. We found that after specifically deciding to spend time on TikTok and then learning what worked well, it helped us improve the native elements of the platform.

With so many new creator programs on all platforms, what does the pie chart of your earnings as a creator look like?

I'd say it's about 50% of YouTube's in-app advertising model and 50% of everything else, including our merchandise store, other offerings we have, etc. But the bread and butter for so long has been videos. It's just a well-oiled machine. We don't really think about overhead, we just know that videos can and will perform well, which is…thanks, YouTube!

Even though short video has become extremely popular, no one has yet really figured out how to monetize it. Do you have any ideas on how this might work?

I don't have an answer, and anyone who claims to have an answer is probably lying. It makes so much sense that short video could explode. The numbers we see are not the same as the numbers elsewhere. You know, 20 million views on TikTok is very different from 20 million views on YouTube. When we talk about video monetization, monetization on YouTube is related to the video because you made the choice [to watch the video]. You saw the thumbnail, you spent time on it, it was on you. This transaction works. But the shorts are totally different. I don't know how to tie this together and make it a nice and neat monetization solution.

You've remained relevant as a technical assessor for over 10 years. How do you balance staying true to your point of view while remaining accessible?