Tech boss says fans are pushing young YouTube stars to 'breaking point'

Britain's new generation of YouTube celebrities are being pushed to breaking point by the relentless appetite for content from an “always on” audience, a London tech pioneer has warned.

Jess Butcher, who co-founded early augmented reality app Blippar, said content creators — often young and working alone — were under constant pressure to meet the demands of their millions of fans.

Hundreds of hours of videos are uploaded every minute with top YouTubers and Instagrammers often writing, editing, producing and directing their films as well as handling any PR.

Elle Mills, a 20-year-old YouTube superstar whose whirlwind rise to online fame led to a public burnout, revealed she has edited footage for 24 hours without sleep.

Ms Butcher, 41, said: “Creators have to pay intense attention to frequency, consistency, salaciousness of content.

“They often feel the need to put their whole personal lives into their work to strive for authenticity.”

She spoke out as thousands of fans visited London’s first VidCon expo at ExCeL over the weekend to meet their influencer idols. Ms Butcher, who is now building a video platform called Tick, added: “To be an influencer you need to interact with your audience at all hours; taking a break is a big no-no.

“One of the most toxic things is that the point when you’re breaking down is the point the algorithm loves you the most. Divisive content is the king of online media today and YouTube boosts heavily anything that riles people up.”

Elle Mills, a Filipina-Canadian vlogger and filmmaker with 1.2 million subscribers, described how her online life worsened her anxiety and depression and caused panic attacks as she hit “breaking point”.

Last spring, she posted a video titled “Burnt out at 19”, revealing her struggles dealing with the fame she craved since childhood, but which happened “faster than expected” as videos went viral.

She told of feeling “constantly alone, unhealthily stressed” amid “overwhelming pressure”. Ms Mills told the Standard: “I gained a million subscribers in a very short amount of time and had a huge breakdown almost a year ago; with the sudden fame everything kind of bubbled up.

“I was making videos once a week and my videos are pretty intense in terms of prep, filming, editing — the longest I’ve done is a full 24 hours.

“Where I’m at right now is like, ‘Is this a sustainable career?’, but I know I want to be making videos.”