YouTubers Try to Save Their Career After Destroying it..
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- čas přidán 22. 04. 2024
- CZcamsrs Desperate To Save Their Career After Destroying it..
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Okay... hear me out...kid carpets of their names... I would love a custom Jamison mat!
@atozy Dude!!! When you read that comment about you also would pay $5.99 to be a fly. I almost fell off my couch laughing!! That was so good!! I definitely would have shelled out $6 bucks to hear EVERYTHING that was said over the weekend!! Hahaha! 😂😂😂
Cletus did it first
@@nickf6447 I have a potbelly pig named Cletus. That's all
Just want to let you know, you're the way I keep in touch with what's going on via the online world. I'm an old person, I know. I dont tiktok, instagram, and choose not to engage with facebook often. I didn't like those heifers in HS so why tf would I want to know what they're up to nowadays. My teenagers will talk about different streamers or influencers and, thanks to you, I know at least enough to chime in and be a part of that conversation so thanks...lol
Damage's done. Downsize staff, cancel all of Steven Lim's money burning series where he flies around eating gourmet stuff which don't generate much buzz compared to those that involve the other 2.
They need to keep it to 5-10 people (10 is still a stretch and also they would be included in this number) and scale back on budget for the episodes and get rid of Steves portion as no one is watching for hm.
Honestly, I don´t even know how Steven got away with so much. They are struggling to pay the staff they already had and the dude brought a new host for a show where he and that host are going to be traveling around to try expensive stuff. Add all the travel expenses, equipment, and people they claim to use for their filming and Steven is probably spending more than Ryan and Shane together.
@@marielaausher are you dumb or something worth it was one if the biggest series on youtube
if you can't make money on a account with 1 million subs that's kinda just a huge skill issue
they need to quit they made enough money
Obviously, none of the 25+ employees they brought from Buzzfeed was a Public Relations person. A PR person would have told them that their "goodbye" video was so cringe and much tone-deaf. Their "apology" video was not much better.
And then announcing hiring two more people. 🤦🏻♀️
@@1PrayerWarrior4hiring 2 people AND bringing back the more expensive show while crying about not being able to afford staff is just laughably dumb
Buzzfeed PR? AHAHAHA
@@vault_tec_404_4 struggling to pay staff fairly- LET'S BRING IN TWO MORE BUZZFEED BUDDIES AND RESURRECT THE MOST EXPENSIVE SHOW WE HAVE! Cuz intelligence.
Their apology video was beat-for-beat what a fan who just happened to be a PR professional who specializes in this sort of thing advised them to do in a post on the Watcher Entertainment subreddit.
They have 25 employees and still have to hire freelancers. Either those 25 employees aren't pulling their weight, or they are doing too much.
In fairness, it's probably cheaper to hire a freelancer on location than it is to fly out an employee.
That could be, but I'm pretty sure they just wanted to hire their friends or family and are scared to fire anyone cuz they'd be seen as diks. That's part of growing and being a businessman. They wanna make Netflix like content but don't wanna do what Netflix does in order to grow. Plus some of those people probably suck at their job and can afford to go. Kinda like all those people that posted those day in the life videos a while back. Contributed nothing and still were getting paid.
I’m wondering if money is being embezzled at this point. Nuked their fans and the base that got them here. Who needs that many employees? They’re CZcamsrs, and forgot that fact.
Charlie already made a break down of how much they are earning from merch, youtube and patreon and stated that they have more than enough. On another note if they truly are struggling with money then why fucking hire 2 more people then?
You do realise how much goes into a “production” lol… right? Because 25 employees plus freelancers isn’t that much. It also doesn’t mean freelancers are doing the full time employees jobs. Freelancers are ad-hoc… if and when needed. For whatever their jobs are. Not “take my employees work that they didn’t get to or fucked up” because if that was a regular occurrence… they would hire more employees and fire the others. Bit strange you don’t know what a freelancer is when commenting about freelancers.
I feel like this broke the magic.
I feel like people are giving them too much credit for their apology, because the standard for apologies on CZcams is so low.
My thoughts exactly
It’s subjective I think the apology was pretty good, I wasn’t big into their channel before but I started watching them from all this drama
I agree. I’ve been watching them for 6 years and they definitely broke the image they’ve created of themselves which was eat the rich, f capitalism, the world is corrupt etc
They’ve totally sh!t the bed with connecting to their audience of broke teens and college kids, some adults ofc and hell they’re struggling too. It’ll come off as bs to say anything like they used to because it’ll be fake. The video showed greed and corruption
Lol getting the vid after a month is wild smfh
it did. two of their strongest points were: Charm/charisma. Relatability (or at least appearing down to earth).
II was a big fan and I can't see myself watching the new videos pretending nothing has happened, it feels fake now and a lot of other fans feel the same
TLDR: "We dont wanna fire our friends because thats mean. Please pay their wages for us"
TLDR is a little diff. Those ppl has to step up when the owner died. They didn’t know wtf they were doing
Don't forget the Temp staff as well since their friends apparently don't know how to film or edit lol.
i dont wanna cut out the fun stuff that makes no money to keep paying staff
@@NebulousNector I think your talking about TKOR. They are referring to the acronym "To Long Didn't Read."
That's basically what Sara Rubin, Shane's wife, said on Tumblr after their initial video. Something along the lines of how everyone deserves to ne paid a living wage, which is why people should subscribe to the streaming service.
Also, if this post is mentioned later in the video, please ignore I said anything.
1. Hire a financial advisor, someone who is good with money and keeping the books in check
2. Cancel the expensive food series.
3. You do not need 25 employees, and they hired more since. So, they can’t pay their employees currently, but will hire more? Yeah, something isn’t adding up.
4. So, they want a patreon subscription and for fans to subscribe to their website for content? So, they want to farm their fans twice? They have sponsors, patreon, live events, etc and they’re struggling? Someone is messing up with the financials.
Don’t forget about the expensive ass merch shop that is sold out many times for revenue and also they were hiring independent contractors at the various locations they’d film at. Zero reason that their ghost hunting show should cost close to 100k per episode when they could easily film it with a couple go-pros and fairly cheap hand-held cameras. Also like you said in point #2, having an expensive food series where you fly all over the place to eat 2k dollar gold leaf waygu beef burgers while they’re struggling financially is dumb as hell
@@tomburress4928 True, especially when nobody really liked the food shows that much anyway.
Nobody wants to watch people eat a burger that costs more than your groceries for the week if they have to pay for the privilege.
The FACT that they already had patreon subs at different levels made their decision even weirder.
Greed was their problem the whole time. There's a reason why CZcams and Hollywood will never coincide.
13 K patrons. Literally printing money.
Only around 6k were paid members
they clearly have issues with managing their money...
@@taylorboney1089 Oh, ONLY 6k paid members. Which is at least $30k a month, and probably significantly more considering the tiers. How could we be so cruel and heartless to such poor boys?
F*** 'em.
When you have 25 employees and nobody spoke up about an OBVIOUS disaster choice, tells me EVERYTHING I need to know about that workplace environment
You have 25 people all happy as long as they're getting theirs, is what it tells me.
Right?! How tf did no one *INCLUDING THE 3 MAIN MORONS* have a lightbulb flash?
I think you’re on to something, tho. I don’t believe for a second the people credited on the video weren’t having severe anxiety over this crazy move, but how much of a trio of narcissists must they be that not one person stood and said ‘hey guys we aren’t that special’.
@@JumpCutThis agreed 👍 if only I could've been a fly on the wall for that self aggrandizing board meeting. They probably refer to the other works as "the help" or "plebs"
I saw someone call out two employes at Watcher who had borderline bullied fans in the comments. Making fun of how people felt and stuff. Just the fact that Shane "Eat the rich" Madej would go along with an idea like this was enough to break the rose colored glasses I was apparantly wearing and I'm now just... feel nothing for them. I've done what I never thought I would do, unsubsribed, and I don't even feel sad bc Shane and Ryan were obviously nothing like they claimed to be.
No they didn’t cause they seen money lol
You know what they say. You can take the boys out of buzzfeed, but never the buzzfeed out of the boys.
They never were like the rest of buzzfeed. Thats what made them popular
@docwhammo wtf are you talking about?
@@devlintaylor9520 Yeah they are even more gay somehow.Good point there bud
Buzzfeed ruined the internet.
@@devlintaylor9520 have you tried reading
The whole "appealing to sponsors" "bending to sponsors" thing doesn't make sense.
They make clean entertainment that for the most part always get 1M+ views. They are a sponsor's wet dream - consistent, well viewed channel with no controversies (until now).
That's the part not sitting right with me.
Yeah....very odd.
That's because it's clearly a BS justification.
Now they're burning the bridges for those sponsors after they all ranted that lmao.
@@ganne_ only if the sponsors find out about the rant, AND care. So some will, some won't.
They clearly were just trying to make some more money. They don't care about their viewers, obviously. They were going to leave them all with commercials for the paid shit on their website.
They should have just trimmed the fat. Layoff staff, reduce production budget, and cut back on expenses where possible. That is how a normal company operates when they encounter financial struggles.
Gotta be hard letting people go who probably work real hard it’s probably like a tight family vibe .. sucks man /:
well... in their defence, companies do this all the time. increasing price or adds additional charges like DLC
Thats right, they should lay off 50% of their 25 man crew. They should also live in a cardboard box outside to save on rent and hydro. Maybe only eat 1 hard boiled egg and 2 potatoes a day or use a food bank more.😂
Maybe pay themselves less like they are all wearing watches worth more than my car
@@vincentlee7359 They tried to find a solution where they didn't have to fire anybody, and it failed miserably. At this point they basically have a choice between "fire half the team" or "let the entire channel die and everybody loses their jobs because videos are making a loss". Like it or not, a 3 million subscriber CZcams channel is not bringing in nearly enough money to cover a team of 20+ employees and the recording studio/office space required for them all and all the recording equipment etc.
I get that it sucks to fire people and downsize your office and not be able to produce the quality of content you want, but if they want to keep doing what they are doing and be able to earn a living for themselves and their employees they don't really have any other options. If they don't fire people and cut production costs they will end up living in a cardboard box outside eating eggs and potatoes.
The thing is... with Watcher and the boys in general, i dont want the million dollar production or all the high end bs. I just want a funny video with them talking and joking around and telling me interesting shit
Right? Simon Whistler does that with one guy freelance writers and editors.
yeah I honestly was subbed for like True Crime and Unsolved but I dont think I ever saw a episode of Worth It until Watcher
But they want lambos and mansions
They listened to someone dumb and then got smacked with hard reality... hope they are real about this...
Honestly from what I have read i think Steven was the tech bro lol. Apparently he has been complaining about not being able to afford a second Tesla ( don't have an X account so can't verify for myself).
@@TheCommanderTaco first... respect to your name 🫡...
And that kinda makes sense as it felt like the push was from a closer source but... wow that's dumb...
@@TheCommanderTaco I wouldn´t be surprised if he was the one that suggested the idea. The dude wants to make a show about traveling and eating expensive stuff.
@docwhammo Okay WATCHER
@@juicymullet585 you said it not me...
dude i like their shit but how much freakin production value do you need for two guys in a room talking about stuff or home cooking or getting drunk? It works because its cheap not because its fancy or polished
They don't seem to get that message even tho heaps of folk said the same.
Honestly. other than Ghost Files which is probably the biggest cost, my favorite series is Too Many Spirits which is a couple bottles of booze and some firewood, that's all I need to be happy with their content and I hope they understand that sooner rather than later, the fans don't want big production value.
Let's be real, the cost isn't Too Many Spirits. Yeah, Ghost Files probably costs a pretty penny but the MAJOR cost would be Steven "I want a 2nd Tesla" Lim wanting to bring back "Worth It", a show where he and his 2 buddies fly around the world to eat expensive foods covered in gold leaf.
I don't understand these really corporate CZcams channels. The whole point of the internet was to be an alternative to mainstream media. Why some CZcamsrs are in a rush to recreate a dying business model, I don't know..
I think that's part of why they seem so out of touch. They're starting to think like corporate suits and forgot what it's like to be an everyman.
Going corpo is usually the start of a chanel's fall
CZcams was just a video sharing site for MySpace because MySpace just limited video to 20 seconds at the time. So CZcams became the "here's my thing, I exist" platform to show your life. That's what it is for. Once Google bought youtube and turned it into a corporate shithole and then people starting using youtube like a job and not a video platform and getting a real 9-5 job in the real world, it started falling down
Don't understand why people are letting them off the hook. I can understand it IF they didn't have THOUSANDS of patreons ALREADY paying 5-25 bucks a month. AND these subs WERENT going to get access, they would have to pay the new subscription as well.
These dudes are both greedy bastards AND have no idea how to run a business if they truly aren't profitable.
"Parasocial relationship" has been thrown around a lot lately.
They did a similar thing as Unity. Announce something bad. Backtrack. But in this case, the fans love them again! Whaaaaa?
I don't feel the same about watching them now. It's gone sour
Never heard of them
@@triggerfairy4070consider yourself fortunate cuz they're now a has been
If they need 25 people to make a CZcams video they don't deserve to make money.
They really messed up big time! It's nice that they apologized but I think most of the viewer's (myself included) now see them completely different. I'm not interested in supporting that type of person who could easily dismiss the audience and viewer for extra money.
I hope nobody buys their crappy fake apology.
I don't think their apology was sincere, I think it's just backpedaling to save their booty and do damage control.
And let's be real they're not sorry. They're only sorry they have to keep it almost exactly the same ( they're still doing the stream but eventually dropping it to CZcams anyway?)
@@asarishepard8171 i have a feeling with the backlash the streaming service will fail. In this economy with inflation, I'd bet more people will be willing to wait for it to drop on CZcams than pay for yet another streaming subscription like Netflix that'll just increase cost every year in the name of providing "better content."
I'll still watch them now and then, but any chance at donating, buying merch, or subscribing to their service in the future? lmao
Now I guarantee you, CZcams is not gonna keep suggesting them in the algorithm like they used to. They’re just gonna flip the little FU2 switch.
Ooooh, ooooh I didn't even think of that 🤣🤣🤣
we've all ust become so used to this sh*t from Yt....
normalisation of censorship / shadow banning
CZcams’s not gonna be *that* petty right?
That’s actually a good point . If YT just banned them that would be devastating 😂😂
@@Allyourbase1990 people don't realize. CZcams is the Master and it's in your best interest to keep making money for the master. 🤣
Can we please stop calling the teasers and trailer and call them what they really are... Commercials. They were going to leave us with only commercials, of their paid program, on CZcams. We made them who they are and then they wanted to leave us with commercials!
They don't owe you anything though. If they wanna fall off the face of the earth with all the money they made they can, if they wanna make their content subscription only, then they can. They owe you nothing. These are LA business men running a CZcams show, what did you think was gonna happen. Everyone's caught up on these stupid little characters they thought Shane, Ryan, and Steven were. They're real people who make bad, stupid, and rash decisions. I could care less if it was commercials, id move on and stop complaining just watch smth else like I did
Would it blow your mind to learn THIS is commercial for them.
@@draydengeorge7853 I never said they OWED me anything. I SAID my opinion and clearly I am not alone. They can do whatever they want with their business and I can take mine where I want. And seeing as this is a format that solicits people's comments, I can comment all I want whether you like it or not, just like YOU did. See how that works.
@@draydengeorge7853 biting the hand that feeds you is wild of course they dont owe us anything but without out us as the Fans where would they be its sort of feels like they are Dutch Van Der Linde and we are Arthur Morgan like we gave them everything from going to their live shows to buying their merch to watching their content you think that they would at least respect us but it comes down to Money at the end of the day
@@draydengeorge7853 And nobody owes them anything, either, least of all their trust after they tried to pull this off. Or their support.
I don't understand why they wouldn't just float this idea past their audience to see the reaction before just going ahead and investing in it.
Cause they thought they were such hot ish, thry honestly thought no one would care and or reward them monetarily. Seems like they learned for the first time that many of us are working just to break even and survive.
Apparently a youtube poll is too simple for them.
cause that's too much work and as you can clearly tell they are greedy so they'd rather say "f the viewers" just to make an extra buck.
They could have easily done a livestream where they asked for imput on a possible future Watcher streaming service and sat back collecting donos nobody would have been wiser.
They didn't even do a transition, just suddenly up in your face "you'll have to pay now to watch our contents". What kind of "soft launch" is this? If this was their goal from the very beginning, they could've transitioned slowly, putting up exclusive videos there and not everything all of the sudden.
I still can’t believe that Shane “Eat The Rich” Madej was sitting there the entire time supporting the paywall idea. For years, he’s been approving of when rich people get stolen from, banks get robbed, or when a powerful person is kidnapped for ransom, so it’s incredibly hypocritical for him to be totally fine with their new content being locked behind a paywall. He should have been the first person to say that they shouldn’t do that, but he was right there supporting it in the first video so…
I’ve lost all respect for the Watcher crew. I don’t care if they’re being greedy or just really mismanaging their finances, I unsubscribed.
he did say in the good bye video to share your password with friends and they can't do nothing about it. He might be scared to oppose steven and ryan with their bullshit
You can't believe that a rich guy would pretend to just be average in order to get some kind of credit from actual average people?
@@cherub0nyx He's not scared. The company was built on his and Ryan's backs. They fully supported this move
Shane: "Eat the rich"
Shane becomes rich.
Shane: "Give me your money"
@@thefourhorsemen91 Facts! Lol.
influencers really have such high egos and expect the masses to pay them for existing.
"Why did we want to make our own website?" Greed, pure greed!
So basically their thought pattern was.....we're having financial issues so let's spend even more money starting a whole new venture. That will require even more staff.
it make sense tho, if you have a struggling business you will want to add a gimmick or content or anything to make things fresh, to make people interested. It might mean throwing more money into the business.
@@cherub0nyx drinking a glass of water makes sense....drinking a pool full doesn't. How money is spent and how much is spent makes a huge difference in the success or failure of a business. Them spending money on new content makes sense....but being that their exact complaint was not having enough money to make the content they wanted....spending more money that doesn't actually improve the content is a lose-lose. If their complaint was that they were being held back by youtube not allowing the content they have made to make any money then a new platform makes sense, to be able to offer that content. Especially when you consider that their patreon only had 12k members, that's like thinking that expanding your glacier ocean tours to Arizona would be a great idea. Just spending money to grow doesn't do any good unless the avenue chosen also makes sense.
Totally agree, probably a lie for sympathy
Honestly could’ve gone down a LOT worse. The impact of this fiasco will be felt for a while though.
I'm surprised anyone buying their fake apology.
Will it? I think people will make jokes and memes for about a year and it will fade into obscurity like most things on the internet.
@@sprig5173 In the grand scheme of things, what they did was stupid, but compared to some of the shit people usually get cancelled for, this is small potatoes. I personally don't care if their apology is genuine or not since they're gonna continue posting on CZcams and that's really all that mattered to me. But then again I didn't form the same parasocial relationship with them the way other fans did so take what I say with a grain of salt.
@@artisseriechicken I am not even sure it was stupid. It was either a massive screw-up or really good marketing. Yes, they might lose a few subscribers, but they got A LOT OF free advertisement through the youtube drama community. I mean, even Coffeezilla talked about them. And if it was always their intention to put future content behind a paywall first and then release it for free later they probably would have gotten flak for that anyways, but now their audience is happy with that solution, because "they listened to our concerns". And people who never heard of them (like me) now have heard of them because of the drama and might check them out.
@@juicymullet585literally
Literally watch YT all day for almost two decades and never heard of their channel.
Knew them from Buzzfeed Unsolved. Tried their new channel but it was never the same
Same here! We must be in an alternate reality or something.
@@Luoldarusor it wasn’t ever recommended to you cuz it wasn’t like the other content you watch.
Then you know how algorhythms work then.
@caitlinmarie49 I don't know I like watching documentary channels and never had them reccomended to me either. From what I have read though they are pretty terrible at advertising, so honestly it would be no surprise the algorithm never picked them up lol. Supposedly before they did skits for their advertisements I think people said it was Shane who did terrible readings for them.
Once again having no experience in advertising stuff would also go to show why they have such terrible PR and went through with such a terrible announcement lol.
*apparently even a good chunk of their audience who used to follow them on Buzzfeed stated they weren't aware of the channels existence initially lol.
I think they listened to the droves of CZcamsrs that made vids saying what an awful move it was more than their subscribers. I’ve never seen so maybe reaction videos in my feed than I did with this. Maybe they should not be buying $20,000 watches or spending $50,000 on a wedding venue (just the venue). It’s not the viewers responsibility to pay for their lifestyle. They are greedy. Plain & simple. They seem to think they’re not replaceable…I wonder how the advertisers that they demonized are going to feel about advertising with them now? 🤔
Agreed.
I haven't seen the post myself, but reportedly, steven made a Tumblr post talking about how expensive his show is, and it left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth (i.e. if your company is struggling, why are you doing expensive shit when you could cut back)
@@moonlightwolf exactly. If one non-critical (some may even argue superfluous) element is eating a vast majority of your budget you eliminate or revise that one element. Not change your whole model to support that one element.
If u think advertiser's have morals your a fool
@@SoManyRandomRamblingsputting Steven Lim in as ceo was such a dumb move. It probably didn’t seem like it mattered that much in the beginning but when you’re trying to grow your company and the guy making the business decisions is someone who a)has zero experience running a company, b) is known to have expensive taste (both literally and figuratively), c) is one of the creators/hosts of some shows, and d) a family member or friends with most of the employees it’s gonna lead to problems with making tough decisions in regards to budgeting and hiring/firing people.
Your advice is spot on. I think the reason they got so bloated is likely laziness and lack of business acumen. They likely have people doing many of the tasks that they themselves once did. This is not a good creative or artistic model. It's like the little pizza shop on the corner that is the best ever. Dad dies, the son takes it over, expands the operation, remodels, hires people to make the dough, sauces, sausage, etc., and business drops because the atmosphere now sucks and so does the pizza. And now he can't service the loans he took out.
Like Target switching to the Costco model of membership requirements. The 10, 20, or 40-year loyal customers would see it as paying to walk into a store when it has always been free. They would likely shop elsewhere or buy a membership to Costco rather than pay to shop at a store that they helped build.
I can only imagine the private conversations they are having about this 🤣
With how badly they got flayed, I have to imagine they do resent the fans to at least a small degree. Any hugs done during their live shows would be done now with a false smile.
@@elhazthorn918 so much for Parasocial relationships if I actually met them I would feel 10 times sore about this even more
The "ukulele" reference at about 2:30 ish in the video refers to Colleen Ballinger's attempt to "apologize" by attempting to minimize through her own "humorous" routines of the "Miranda Sings" character, her own horrific treatment of her underage fanbase. Needless to say, her former CZcams audience was justifiably NOT impressed.
These former Buzzfeed guys learned nothing from their days as Buzzfeed employees, at least as far as how to run a fiscally responsible business is concerned. Their business model's so bloated that the "blonde" guy in the middle did indeed spend (honestly!) 55 THOUSAND dollars (U.S.) on just the venue alone for his recent wedding. NOW they cry "poverty" and the 'we only did this for YOU, our beloved and loyal fans' shtick. BULL CRAP!
They obviously resented having to be on a platform as “common” as CZcams… and now that the people on YT have “made them” change their plans, when their streaming site inevitably fails (to what they are expecting/wanting) they will resent CZcams and their subscribers even more. The mask is off and, for a lot folks, it can’t go back on like this didn’t happen.
Yuppers
They couldn’t get away with it so they back tracked 😂 they don’t care about their fans. Just the money.
Let them suffer. 🤷
They were greedy and didn't appreciate what they had. I don't feel bad for them.
Note they don't mention people said they didn't want overproduction or expensive food videos.
Can I play cars on your background please?
yes you can get one here: mat.city/ 😎
@@atozy Still have mine from when I was a kid OG.
@@atozybut I want to play on YOURS 🏎️🗯️
😂thought the same as the first day I watched this guy.
@@babsbunny_ go drink a glass of water and look yourself in the mirror
4:30 Glad you mentioned this because that's exactly what I was thinking...There's no way their new subscription service would have actually saved the employees facing layoffs at the end of the day. Not long term. $5.99 a month from people willing to sign up and stay signed up long term is not going to be able to replace literally all of the revenue streams they've been using (except merchandise). I mean, they can't have expected to continue filling their videos with ads & sponsorships. They can't have expected people to have continued to donate the same amount of money. $5.99 a month (or slightly less) plus income from products sold separately is really all they can rely on.
They shouldn't have expected the number of people willing to sign up to this service to greatly exceed their current number of Patrons, right? To the huge numbers required long term? And I struggle to imagine huge audience (subscriber) growth coming from whatever teasers they planned to continue to release on CZcams for free. They seriously underestimated how many of their 3 million channel subscribers would have checked out any of their planned CZcams teasers solely because they were interested in watching the full video for free on CZcams.
I feel like their years of huge success on CZcams lulled them into a false sense of security. Obviously, they had no way of knowing why most of their 3 million subscribers hit that button, or clicked on their videos solely because they were already on CZcams. 99.99% of supportive comments they've been showered with for years have focused on loving the content, and wouldn't have mentioned how important it was that this content was free on CZcams. Even the direct financial support they received from donors didn't constantly include references to how this money was only being sent their way because the content was free.
I wonder if they simply looked at all the people willing to financially support them on Patreon & through their other donation options, all the people willing to buy their merch, willing to watch ads and even support them shilling sponsorships no one wanted...and they didn't realize how much of this support was built on the model of releasing content on CZcams for free, for millions of people to watch & participate in the comments. I think after years of this steady money, they took this support for granted.
I get that it's probably weird to put out content and experience thousands of people being so willing to subscribe to your Patreon month after month...then experience those same people being unwilling to pay the exact same amount of money each month while enjoying the exact same content.
I've supported multiple CZcamsrs on Patreon over the years, and I admit that it is weird to think about how I would be unhappy if they basically recreated their CZcams channel + Patreon page on a new website behind a subscription paywall...even if I ultimately end up giving them the same amount of money (or even less!) at the end of the day. I wasn't just donating because I love their content or wanted extra paywalled content. I donated because I appreciated them releasing this content for free on CZcams, allowing a huge audience to enjoy it for free, along with allowing me to participate in a much bigger community than just with other viewers who can afford to pay, and so on.
IDK just some of my thoughts, sorry /end ramble. 😅✌️
Exactly. It was like donating to PBS. It was a 'those who can donate do so that they can support the work to bring free content to thise who can't donate. Almost like a form of socialism.
Man.... i hate it when content creators insult me by claiming im rich....
Rich pampered people live in a bubble... they have no idea what life is like for MOST people in this world...
That's accurate for every CZcams celebs.
I think this is what happens when people find (financial) success too fast and making that their entire identity
That is a correct statement.
@@SurnaturalMnot every, but a large chunk yes
Exactly
They look Burned Out. Maybe they need to cut back on expenses and take up podcast
They look like they burned themselves and their asses are a little chapped after the fact xD
They apparently do podcasts. That is supposedly where the information about Shane spending 55K ( at least) on his wedding came from. He said he flew first class to Chicago lol.
I still can't wrap my head around the shenanigans of streaming website. There's no way they actually think that people who are already paying for subscriptions on their CZcams and Patreon will just migrate to their website. Lol, so many problems come from this. How are they going to attract new users? The convenience of CZcams notifications and the options CZcams offers help keep people from getting tired of your content. I don't think it's worth it to chase that extra 30% that CZcams collects, they can do all these paid contents in YT or patreon?
They got so big, they were too arrogant to consider failure. I have followed them for years, but will not anymore. They sounded like arrogant rich people washing themselves of the poor. You know, the ones who made them rich.
Their fans already forgot the part where they said "If you can't follow us... then this is our goodbye to you." You know, jettisoning the freeloading, non-paying CZcams audience?
Yeah, how dare you to not give them money! They are not running a charity here😂
@@cherub0nyx 😂😂😂😂😂😂
The Watcher guys really assumed that people who watch CZcams for free entertainment are somehow paying for other services. We don’t. CZcams premium is the only monthly service I pay for outside of my rent, utilities, and insurance. Glad I’d never heard of their channel before so I’m not disappointed, but finding out they’re former Buzzfeed was UNSURPRISING AS HECK lol
I don’t even know these guys but this. Sure, some die-hard fans would pay, but the majority of people won’t care. I literally only pay for Prime Video only because of Prime shipping, and for a book platform that has thousands of ebooks and audiobooks on all kinds of subjects and costs a bit more than what these guys wanted to charge (and only because I live in a non-English speaking country so getting English books at the library is impossible). If CZcams closed tomorrow it’d be a shame but I’d find something else to do. I’m in a different fandom that is very money-oriented and the amount of people who don’t seem to understand they are welcome but not necessary to most other people is staggering.
I recently heard that CZcams is the most popular streaming platform out of all of them. It's not surprising cause it's got a TON of content and shows you like aren't being canceled mid-season (usually).
in all of my fast food jobs, there has never even been 25 employees...
Maybe all together but not on one shift and this is they type of office that has one shift. Only super corporate jobs have that many ppl because they have depts like HR, sales, cobra/insurance/benefits/payroll, front desk management, team members, janitors, ect ect
The crazy thing about all this is that I actually drifted away from Watcher because it started to feel overproduced and less authentic. I know I can’t be the only one, so it felt like a huge slap in the face when they kind of said “yeah so we want to do what YOU want which is what you hate! You’re welcome!” I feel bad their goals don’t align with their audience because that’s GOT to suck, but damn.
Same! I LOVED Unsolved, but I can't even get through the latest season of Ghost Files and Mystery Files. I'd start an episode, and abandon it a few minutes in. It's just not fun to watch anymore
While Shane and Ryan were grinding, trying to give their audience quality contents, Steven spent 800$ on some pieces of fried chicken to eat on screen. Let that sink in.
And he's now the sole CEO...
I think you're being a bit too generous to Ryan and Shane (who recently spent at least 50k+ on his wedding). They both had a say in this. Steven isn't the sole owner, the other two have controlling shares.
@@Wolfinterythe 50k is his personal money tho, his and his partner’s family likely pitched in on that too. Steven’s spending unnecessarily large amounts of company money to treat himself under the guise of it being for content, despite his show not pulling in enough views to offset costs.
@@Wolfintery if not mistaken, in one of their first videos introducing The Watcher, they mentioned that Steven volunteered to not become a frontman and instead will work behind the scene to take care of the business side of things. while Ryan and Shane have a say in matters, I believe the bulk of the decisions are made by Steven
@@gwendolyn2442well a bulk of decisions and ideas come from Steven the sole ceo sooooooo
"Can we watch Try Guys?" "We have Try Guys at home"
Your comment made me think about how I tried to Google them yesterday. Didn't want to skim through their video and forgot what their website was called. Tried to Google "Watcher Streaming" and kept getting results for a TV series called Watcher for Netflix and Hulu lol. They truly chose a terrible name for their channel lol.
don't you dare compare them to those degenerates
You know what, this is the first apology I accept. Let people get humbled, but let them come back from that a little smarter.
I absolutely agree ❤
That’s fair. The problem is they don’t understand why they’re having a problem in the first place, their looney spending.
@@TRUECRIMESPTV I feel that, but at least these guys read the comments. At least one out of the 3 of them pointed out how we feel. More money short term or long term consistency? For the first time I think these CZcams dummies might learn. I want that for them and all their fans. I want this to be a precedent.
He thought he was part of the fan love. No Steven. You never were.
@TRUECRIMESPTV I think they do, they might not understand it. Comments were pointing it out left and right that their spending was the issue.
Honestly not surprised that this conduct came from former Buzzfeed people. I mean, y’all remember Ned Fulmer? None of this is new anymore.
You right tho bro 👀
At least the others try guys are doing fine and making pretty videos, so not all former buzzfeed workers aren’t doom from being this delulu unlike those fools expect Ned he just straight up trash
It breaks my heart because puppet history and the ghost stories was comfort content for me. Happy vibes. But now it’s spoiled for me. My binging, my love, my dedication means nothing. It’s not enough apparently. They want my money now on an on going basis.
To all those who accepted their apology remember the infamous words of P.T. Barnum: “A sucker is born every minute.”
Greedy, greedy, greedy... 😡
I am so torn on this. I appreciate their apology and I'm glad they listened to criticism and changed accordingly... but the fact that they even had the idea and went as far as to announce it has left be with an extremely bitter taste in my mouth.
the apology is damage control
Exactly. The most charitable reading I can give them is… extreme business naïveté? Frankly, extreme stupidity. The worst is pure greed. Even if it’s just a lack of business sense, they must be so bad at managing finances in spite of $20,000 watches on their wrists it makes me kind of not want to support them anyway. I don’t know. I feel like I’ll be digesting it a long time before I can watch comfortably again.
@@theghostinthemirror8158they already had a massive business before this and f$cked that up too this is not ignorant to their situation this is just willing to consistently f$ck ppl over.
I gave dropout a try and did the annual subscription. I watch literally 1 show on it. I'm not getting another streaming subscription. These guys missed the wave. People don't want more subscriptions. It sucks.
Its sad that in these days apologizing is praised. It should be the bare minimum when you do something wrong
Apologies should never be called "good." It's sufficient, or insufficient. Accepted, or not accepted. Because if you have to apologise for something you did willingly instead of accidentally, then that means you messed up. And if you messed up, then nothing should be called "Good."
Exactly
@@elhazthorn918 And in this case, it's insufficient AF. Insincere bollocks.
They still haven't figured it out though.
No one likes Steven lim dude.
The customer DOES NOT fund your new adventures. That's from your income. They are still making millions. They haven't cut their income. They haven't trimmed their company (which they are 100% overspending). Then they spent millions on a streaming site that is not durable enough to handle streaming (from a 17 year engineer).
They haven't managed their company properly. They haven't fixed it
Can’t be millions, a random 15 year old in Pakistan probably built that in a week. I think someone also said they’re using Vimeo as their video hosting service 😬
Just looking at the site it’s a basic web app prob made w React, they can’t possibly have more than one engineer / web master on that project.
I saw someone speculate that Stephen Lim makes all the financial decisions. I would be looking into him for potential embezzlement
@@arrowbliss2515 I could see that! Things are 100% not adding up
@@sandman.38 agreed. They also said years, are in LA, and not smart
@@arrowbliss2515putting him in as ceo was such a dumb move. Even in their early days I thought it was a bad idea. The guy has zero experience running a business or how to manage a company.
They unsubscribed me by this behaviour, I won't be back 🙂
I stopped watching them about two or three years back. On the whole, things seemed to change for the worse? Not to say everything was bad. I liked Puppet History, but they definitely lost something. So, their goodbye video reminded me to unsubscribe.
@@elhazthorn918I agree they lacked the charm they had but I thought they were still finding their ways yk but yeah not subscribing to them for a long time ig
@@elhazthorn918 I think GF wasnt as good as BFU even when they doing True Crime stuff its sort of lack luster
Imagine if they weren't CZcams millionnaire and have to work at a regular job like us, peasants. We are the ones who chose to make them, and they have the audacity to be unhappy, and crying about their dream jobs ? LoL CZcams celebs are out of touch and should be humbled.
They are delusional😢it’s sad.
their passion is so0.....overwhelming, you could have given the script to 3 random people of the street and it would have sounded better
This. People are really acting like this apology was sincere. Stevens eyes were literally going back and forth, making it obvious he was reading. Ryan and Shane too.
@@tomatosoup4618i think Ryan and Shane sounded more natural than Strphen, but that said... it was so obviously scripted. Though, in their situation, I would nervous to wing an apology too 😂
If I had a nickel for every time 3 ex buzzfeed employees sat on a couch and made an apology video, I’d have two nickels….. which I know doesn’t sound like a lot, but strange how it happened twice
Greedy people don't deserve it
They already had a paywall with the patreon, but decided to add a different wall altogether. Then they added salt on the wound by saying patreon users can get 40% off, even though they were the ones paying in the first place.
At least they fixed their problem but the next time they make a buisness move their viewers are going to have to watch out for any shady buisness. Trust doesnt come back once broken.
they even said "if you are not going to follow us, this will be our goodbye" it has that breakup in a McDonald's parking lot vibe
Their first mistake was a huge mistake giving full control to Steven. His out of touch and extremely into himself. I am sorry I have never liked him and I just enjoy watching Shane and Ryan, no big production just those two is great. 😊
Agree 💯
steven is the extra friend who always trys to tag along even though he doesn’t fit with the friend group’s chemistry at all
i mean dude’s name is steven, could it get more boring than that
Shane told us to pirate content just months ago.
He also said to password share in the announcement video. He is clearly the smartest of the 3 but he is still indifferent to the choices be made with his content which is just as bad.
Eat the rich, as long as its not me.
Hope they have a plan to address the glaring lack of common sense that this humiliating wake up call revealed.
double down and try again.
the fallout reference🤣🤣😂😂😂 honestly their apology was a full on word salad...... with no meat
There was some meat in it ( the Patreon). It was just covered in Ranch...I hope it was ranch.
@@TheCommanderTacowe dont know yet, the patreons might just get 1 month free 😂
@@TheCommanderTaco 🤣🤣😂😂
@@cherub0nyx facts
They talk like they're reading from cards
You know they are.
they arent sorry for being greedy, they are sorry because they saw people are going to vote with their wallets and be vocal about it
Literally 10 years ago, the conversation of "streaming is just as expensive as cable now" came up. $5.99 is a basic cable channel cost. They completely forgot about cable. I think that was their issue. That, and they have too many employees for the size of company they have.
They kind of back peddle?? They completely did and are treating people like their idiots, but to be honest their fan base is pretty dumb though, they are so happy with this BS apology after they only did this cause they had no other choice not because they care about their fans
They're in damage control mode right now. They're not sorry, they're sorry they got called out for their greed. Smh. They can't pay their staff but just recently hired two more BuzzFeed buddies. Smh. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
The i got no nuts leg crossing is really comming thru irl
" we didn't want to bring watcher to a close [ but are okay with living above our means and not diverting any of those funds to our company]".
How long do you'll think their streaming platform ( since that will be an additional cost) will last lol.
It's not that expensive to keep a website open bro
Is it really that difficult to realize they had a terrible plan? It's too late, sometimes apologizing won't magically fix everything, guess they're learning that now.
Ryan & Shane have gone downhill ever since they involved Steven Lim, he's the insincere one on the left.
It looks like he ate some humble pie and perhaps learned a lesson. Hope so.
@@SpringNotes Money changes everything - Cyndi Lauper
Ryan and Shane are Itchy & Scratchy, while Steven Lim is Poochy, who nobody asked for.
@@elhazthorn918to the extreme
'The insincere one' how blind are you to think any of them are sincere you are beyond gullible
Lol yeah they scared of losin that precious money..
Steven Lim worried he had to stop eating gold-leaf wagyu and just eat regular plain old boring wagyu. EWWWW! XD
Thank you for bringing up points that Charlie failed to bring up in their “apology video” despite loving to critique CZcams apologies. It wasn’t an “oops, everyone makes mistakes”, this was a career ending disaster that would put all those employees out of work (cue Palpatine saying Ironic). The “apology” sounded very scripted and fake to me, they talk and use gestures in a way out of touch politicians and journalists do. I couldn’t help but laugh at the insincerity and fluff.
These guys make good money, they just spend it all on employee salary lol; 25 employees is nuts.
Former buzzfeed employees is all they needed for me to never watch their content
The delivery of this apology makes one believe there is a gun offscreen pointed at them lol.
They won't be fine, they will never be the old crew they were.
You can say sorry but you still fucked over your fans for profit.
A lot of people like me are unsubscribed and done.
To be fair... it's a little weird for us to get all mad when they ask people to pay for the content. Right now, "someone else" is paying for it, via YT ads.
@@hoi-polloi1863 Kid. YT Premium exists, channel memberships exist, back to back unskippable ads exist
What kind of world are they living in to think this shit would work lol
All I had to hear was they used to work for BF.. and them being so detached from reality made perfect sense.
Dear, Atozy, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. If you sell your matcity mats in a 7’x3’ size then people could use them as Sim Racing mats for their racing simulators. I was about to purchase one but it didn’t fit my size requirements. Would love to see you selling these mats in that size. I can’t imagine anyone not wanting one under their racing simulator. Best of luck. Love the channel.
It kills me how they are trying to act like this is for anything other than making more money. There’s no way they expected ANYONE to be happy about this. Also, why on earth do they need 25 employees?! They think their content is worth more than it actually is.
LOL! Three guys on a couch apologizing. Good one.
They are making their subscribers contact them for a refund instead of making it easy to get their money back? Weird.
Both their goodbye and their apology is such corporate trash.
Decent apology video but.... what did they expect? lol
i watched half the apology video... it started strong. by kinda admitting guilt but, then at some point they started to turn it back around on "US" the viewers.
Also part of the worse part of the previous issue was the current Patreon Members got NOTHING, at the new platform.
Pride comes before the fall and 25+ staff for 3 youtubers is definitely pride.
Finally, someone who isn't praising the apology. Without the extra context, it seems like a decent apology.
But digging has been done, and it looks like they'd been working and preparing to launch this for over a year now, and nobody thought it was a bad idea until their audience called them out on it. This is likely why they're not just outright scrapping the idea, because they've probably spent a ton of hours and money on getting it going and kept quiet about it. You don't just get a subscription-based streaming service up and running in a couple of days.
I still don't believe the whole "We need this in order to survive," parts either, especially after they've quickly walked it back to the "Early Release" model it has now that will definitely not bring them the same revenue as they supposedly need in order to keep creating content.
Nothing about their explanation adds up, and while it's an okay compromise, it's probably still going to be their downfall.
Where's the ukulele? Mission failed💀
I don't know these guys before this happened and now I don't even want to watch them. It must be awkward to watch them preach "eat the rich" after this.
Their apology video feels like they are reading from a script
"We're not trying to go viral".. posts "Goodbye CZcams" video to go viral.
The way people like Issac Auther and other science YTers do with the Nebula platform is prob the best way. They put content on Nebula for 1 year before releasing it to YT while also making YT content on Nebula. So you get more content and special extra content for one year, ad free then it comes to YT which is a perfect way to do it.
That is a smart way to do it....cuz humans love instant gratification, so there will always be those willing to pay extra to get something a bit sooner.
Brainstorming some things they could have offered on their website: Shows earlier than on CZcams like they now do, Extended shows, Extra Shows, Behind the scenes, membership competitions, membership discount on merch.
Great ideas. Crazy how none of their 25 employees came up with any of these.
Was waiting for an ukulele. But I guess they called their friends the Try Guys for tips and now we get the apology couch.
Just because they can pay for it, doesn't mean they WANT to pay for it. Imagine ruining your career like this.
Rarely do people pay for something that is FREE